>
> Sharon,
>
> During the Vietnam years my father decided it would be the coolest thing if
> he and mom exchanged taped (as in reel-to-reel) taped letters to each other.
> He had a small battery powered reel-to-reel Sony tape recorder and mom and a
> big one. They taped letters back and forth. Dad gave me that small
> reel-to-reel recorder back in the 1980's. What he didn't realize was there
> was still a small 4 inch reel stuck in one of the pockets of the carrying
> case. When I queued it up I heard my Dad, who was about 35 at the time,
> talking about how Mom should go ahead and by me a proper bed since I'd been
> sleeping on a cot since I'd been out of my crib. I was 6 years old, maybe
> 7, when he recorded this. It was a strange and heartwarming thing to hear
> my father's voice talking about her buying me a bed, knowing as I listened
> he was away at a war (conflict) no one supported, but what was he worried
> about? Mom buying me a proper bed. She got me a canopy bed I also
> remember helping her bake peanut butter cookies and oatmeal cookies to ship
> to him. Yes, he treasured every package even though they took months to get
> there. I gather things are delivered faster these days.
>
> Jill

Hope so! I wish I had a recording, but having the letters is great
too. The ones that touched me most were the ones written in the month
of my birth, reminding my Mom to cable him as soon as I was born and the
reply to the cable where he said "I was so happy I would have cried if
there weren't so many "boys" around". He also sent letters with advice
on how to teach me to walk, how to keep me from climbing out of my crib
(I fell out of my crib and sprained my arm). There are 182 letters and
I'm not through them yet. ......Sharon