Long-Winded

One of the great things about being with extended family is that you hear stories -- sometimes multiple times, but that's part of the fun -- about your relatives' pasts. Last night at a dinner gathering at my aunts' house, we not only heard, but experienced, the story of my uncle Ted's correspondence with his mother during an extended road trip through California that he took in the early 50's as a young lad in his early 20's.

My uncle Ted's words in themselves are marvelous ("Golly gee, Mother, but these gals are cool!"), but it's how many words he wrote and his mode of communication that's so amazing! Ted (bless his soul) wrote to his mother on long -- very long -- rolls of shelf-lining paper! This is just one of many "letters," held on one end by our dear family friend, Cornelia, and by the other end by my cousin, Claudia, with my niece Sophia helping mid-span. My brother Michael is reading another one of the letters (which is probably another 20 feet long -- both sides!), and many more were laying in a box nearby.

In this age of IM and e-mail communication, this is truly unique! (There's a book here somewhere, don't you think?)