Mining the attic - Penpals

In 1964 I was 14 and pen pals were popular. I found letters from two -- one from Japan -- a boy -- and a girl from Illinois. Apparently neither piqued my interest because there weren't too many letters. Once the Beatles came, things changed a bit. I somehow got a pen pal from the UK -- Newark to be precise -- and I have stacks of letters from her. In a letter from '64 she enclosed cancelled UK stamps, a baby picture, and an adult picture. Ann Boyd is tall and thin and had a strange expression on her face--goofy, frightening. I remember being alarmed on seeing her photo because I couldn't really see her face. I'm not sure if I wrote after that -- or for a long time after. Somehow I feel like a Seinfeld character, wanting my pen pal to be stunningly beautiful. In her last letter, she said p.p.s. "I luv you." She made a "J" with tiny x's at the bottom of the page like cross-stitch. Now I would say she had a great body -- nice and lean and probably looked great in clothes. And I would ask her to send a smiling head shot.

We were both passionate about the Beatles. I was fascinated by the Beatles' home, and she was interested in America. Reviewing her letters, I can imagine her as an academic or perhaps a schoolteacher, now retired. 

She sent me a pin from Scotland -- one of those pins that you use to hold your tartan skirt together but in miniature. I still have that pin -- obviously it was a treasure.  I think I sent her perfume, but always feared it did not arrive safely in spite of her assurances. I have a box from Newark. I had assumed this was New Jersey, but now realize it's Newark, England.

I can tell from her letters that she was very motivated, a good student. I wonder where she is now?

In my stash were also a few letters from my sister and one from my brother. He lived in Long Beach - working for Lockheed -- and she was visiting for the summer. I also had a few letters from Jenny's boyfriend -- actually he was just a "friend" to her, although he wanted to marry her. One of them is a proposal of marriage to me. Of course it was a joke, but it had me going for a moment -- did I date him? Carl? No - I did not and I was 15. I do remember, back in those days. I still shared a room with my mother (why?) and I remember going to bed with a vague sex fantasy about Carl. I wasn't so sure what to fantasize about, but I made the best of it. In looking back at the letters, it appears my mother was quite taken with Carl, as apparently I was, but my sister did not care for him in that way.

The letter from my brother is short, a rarity, perhaps the only letter he ever sent to me although I did get Christmas cards -- which I did not save.