I am looking for tax stuff for 1995. Long story. But instead of tuition receipts, I found letters. Remember those? Cards and torn workbook pages. Flimsy airmail paper. Pens and coffee stains. I miss letters. Here are some funny excerpts from friends in what seems to have been the "summer of lust" - or maybe just the summer of being 22:
Sept. 1994, Jerusalem. White spiral-bound notebook paper with frayed edges where it was torn out. Ballpoint pen.
"M. and I have been going to the Arizona. She danced on the table to Come On Eileen. I went up to this HOT guy dancing and told him he was sexy...As we were leaving M. said that if I kissed him she'd pay for the cab home (sound like Purim?)"
June 1995. From M. in Jerusalem: Garfield greeting card. blue ink pen. handwriting changes every line.
"I'm tired of contemplation. I need action. I think that I just started to date somebody. She is, in both looks and personality, a combination of both Wonder Woman and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have fancied her for over three months...I think the difference between life-embracing and life-destroying acts is motivation...The difference between letting things happen and making things happen."
August 1995, Vancouver: Postcard of the Kama Sutra. Black ink pen "...Use your imagination! I did go swimming naked in the ocean and I'm drinking up a storm with Y and all the beautiful boys she knows here!"
Postcard of Geraldtown, Ontario. June 1995 I have no idea who sent this to me or who they are speaking about. Any idea who this was about (do NOT post guess in comments)? Badly waterstained blue ink pen: "So he doesn't wear any underwear, eh? These two weeks have been extending, then?"
Postcard from Toronto, sent from bus station. August 1995. At first I was not sure who wrote it, but I suddenly remember. Let's just say the above underwear comment did not apply to him: "I think a key think - not "doing" anything was probably the best thing you could have done for me and the award for best supportive advice goes to you. Not much of a Curt Cobain fan, but in the tradition of quoting song lyrics: "Oh well, whatever, nevermind." zoiks! Er...glad I could help?
Queen's University, Kingston. Unlined, thin and crinkly paper, excellent handwriting. Ballpoint pen. September 1995:
"I miss riding my bike so much (as well as everything in England!). Do you remember that wonderful day in the fall when we were cycling back from being in town, through the field by the green river and the wind was blowing and it was so wonderful. I just remember how we both exclaimed how alive we felt. I miss those kind of days!"
