- Jessica Bellamy
52 Letters Reply 5

Dear Jessica,
Your letter was waiting for me when I returned from
my last adventure...
Your letter took me back to grade school days...
Mom insisted I acquire a pen pal.
She had several...
Mom loved to write...
...it didn't take long for me to start writing...
I wrote to a boyfriend who went off to college;
I wrote copiously...
I corresponded from Puerto Rico....
By my third year of college I had a huge box
of replies...
I used to illustrate my letters with drawings...
But I don't think I used watercolors--
I wrote with an ink pen...
I preferred the green Mom used.
Your letter is a treasure!
It brought back so many memories...
simple reminiscing...
the simplicity of writing letters...
looking forward to the mail every day.
...I wrote so many letters.
I don't even remember what I wrote about--
it was the contact that was important.
You also brought back classroom memories.
I had completely forgotten about Moreau.
Now, about those illustrations:
These are what I was thinking about on my way home.
Here you see morning tree seeds...
While I was at the White Museum I bought two tiny fossils that I had been coveting for years--
an ammonite and an othoceras.
Thank you for including me in your project.


P.S. I gave most of my hats to the theater when I retired.
P.P.S. I have as many now as I did back then.
Image credit: Barbara K. Scott; http://stulder67.blogspot.com