19530223 Lamesa v2
Greetings Nessim,
My name is Florence Peacock. [peacock illustration] I just received your name from the Friends In the Pen Foundation and I’m just about to jump for joy right here in the middle of study hall. It is such a pleasure to meet you, even if it is “in the pen” nonetheless. But don’t you worry. I won’t do that. I’m not the impulsive type. It wouldn’t be good for my career. You see I plan on working as an international correspondent for Life Magazine. Have you heard of it? They’re a top-notch outfit that won’t tolerate mistakes. And the world of diplomats and dignitaries has no place for even the slightest whim of a wrong move. Why can you imagine what might happen in an interview with the Queen of England if the reporter just flat out asked her if she ever had a crush on a boy as a young girl? Such behavior on the world stage might lead to a crisis of global proportions.
To tell you the truth, I’m especially excited to have met you because we are just beginning to study the ancient Egyptians and I now have the privilege of knowing one. Oh sure, the books in our school library are great. In fact, I’m flipping through the pages of Sir Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels [illustration from book] right this very moment. [more from Book of Marvels here] But why should I? Why I can read all day long about ancient Egypt if I preferred, but now I have you. Please tell me everything and anything you’re willing to reveal about your dazzling and mysterious country. I’m itching with excitement to hear your stories. Have you climbed the Great Pyramid of Giza? Do you and your friends hang out under the paws of the Great Sphinx while drinking sodas? Say, do they sell RC Cola in Cairo?
[You know what! I just had an idea. Maybe I’ll put you in one of my mystery novels sometime. The main character, Ellery Drew [illustration], sails around the world on her yacht, roaming among the exotic ports of call. She’s been looking for her childhood friend Edgar Keene [???] for just over a dozen years. He gives her the slip at every port, but the flip side is that she solves a new case and helps the locals in need. Yes. Yes. I see it now. You could be The Sheik of Arabee. My fourth story (Shhh. It’s still in the works, so don’t share the idea) is about a Bedouin tribal leader who helps Ellery repair her boat after it wrecks on the shores of Tripoli. The two get off on a rocky start because she won’t tolerate a man who doesn’t respect her. He eventually learns that women are not merely objects of his desire, but individuals who should be treated as equals. Now I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t she just tell me that she wanted to be an international correspondent? Well that may be so, but a girl’s got to separate her dreams from reality. I know it won’t happen overnight, which is why I’ll have the correspondent job as a safety net. And besides, I’ll spend most of my time in hotels and cafés anyway. I might as well be writing while I’m having my afternoon tea and biscuits.]
Say, I’m looking at Cairo on our map of Egypt [map illustration with Neverland theme]. It shows that there’s a great Petrified Forest near you and that there are pyramids all around you. Now I consider you very lucky to live in such a fascinating and thrilling place. Just think of the Nile, the camels, and the sands all around you!!! Ha! I’m listening to a song on the radio as I write this. It’s called "Never Smile at a Crocodile.” I’ll bet you know all about that!
Oh! You want to know about me and Texas? I guess I was thinking about all the fun I’m sure to have writing you that I forgot you might be interested in Americana. Excuse me, but I hope you’ll find the good ole U.S.A. as much of a pleasure as I find Egypt already. Most folks outside of Texas think that it’s just cowboys, cattle and oil derricks, but that’s just not true. Lamesa is small cotton growing town located in the Panhandle between Lubbock and Big Spring. This year we’ve had a drought and there are almost no crops. However it did rain today and everyone was almost half crazy we hadn’t seen it in so long. I have been “all over Texas” you might say and to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and across the river into Old Mexico. Some of my friends have been in several difference places in the United States, so I could tell you anything you’d care to know. Just ask me.
I have light brown curly hair, green eyes with flecks of yellow in them and a fair complexion with freckles. Ugh! In addition to writing, I also enjoy sports, collecting buttons and newspaper clippings, and French. I’m still learning the language, but I love reading it. I am fourteen years old and in the eighth grade at Lamesa Junior High School. Last semester I worked in our school library, but this term I have art and science instead. Also, I play a clarinet in our band.
Today at school we had to get another small pox vaccination, since it had been five years since we’d had one. Well I went down there and didn’t really get weak in the knees until one of our football players, Larry Bristo, who was in the nurses office, also began talking about how sick the serum sometimes made people and what the medicine was made up of, just as I got up to take mine!!! No, I didn’t faint or keel over, but I’m telling you! I sure didn’t feel so good when I got up there. Yes, and he just sat there and laughed his head off, telling a boy sick in bed to move over and make room for me when I passed out! Humph! Boys! Oh, no! Pardon me! I didn’t realize what I was saying. Of course I suppose you males must have some amusement, but I sure wish you’d take it out of someone else. I’ll never forget what happened in our last assembly program, but I don’t wish to bore you anymore than I already have, so we’ll leave that out.
Now what would you like to hear about? Are you the intellectual type or the kind that goes all out for sports? What are your hobbies? How do you like school? Who are some of your pals? Do you have a picture or snapshot of yourself you could send me? Has my first attempt at writing someone overseas been dull? Silly? Too informal? Do you think you’ll consider answering me? Do you think we’ll get along pretty well together or are you angry with me already? (I should hope not for I really meant no harm.)
Hurray! It’s snowing! I was so ingrossed in writing you that I hadn’t noticed until Daddy called my attention to it. Oh! I’m so glad for here in West Texas it hardly ever does and we’re mighty proud to see it. Maybe we’ll get to have an honest-to-goodness snowball fight tomorrow! What fun!!!
Sorry I don’t have a recent picture of myself to send you now, but perhaps it’s better that way because I want you to keep writing! Anyway, here’s a postcard we bought a little while back when we went to the Davis Mts. I’ve often seen this place on the card and I love it! We stayed in Ft. Davis while we were there and visited the old fort and McDonald Observatory on the Scenic Drive there. It sure was fun! This was the country where Pecos Bill lived and that made it even more exciting! I don’t know if you know him, so I’ll tell you his biography if you’ll let me.
Mc Donald Observatory is one of the three largest places for studying astronomy in the United States. We were disappointed because you could only see it in the afternoon. I would have liked to stay and see the stars through the huge telescope there. Still that wouldn’t be a bad subject to take in college. I think I’d like it. Do you?
Old Fort Davis was quite rustic. You can still find things there, especially square nails. We enjoyed it immensely! Ha! All day Mother had climbed mountains with us and never ever fallen, but at the fort she stumbled into a ditch and scrubbed half the skin off her right arm! We sure did kid her about it!
Well, as one egg said to another, “I’ve got to scramble now!”
A dozen sunny smiles,
Letha (Cindy) <— nickname
P.S. I do hope that this our international correspondence will turn into a valuable experience for the both of us. They say a friend in the pen is worth a thousand in the flesh.