Spitball Army

Card is titled: “U.S. Highway 71, The Prize Drive of the Ozarks, near Noel, Mo.  (Photo by Blake Studio, Carthage, Mo.)”

Publication information:  Ozark Postcard Publishers, Box 455, Monett, Mo.

Approximate playing time: 72 minutes.

1. Yo-Yo Ma  “JS Bach: Suite No. 6 in D for Unaccompanied Cello, S. 1012 – VI. Gigue”  (1983)
2. Diane Hildebrand  “Early Morning Blues and Greens”  (1968)
3. Les Paul & Mary Ford  “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise”  (1955)
4. Thad Cockrell  “Beauty Has a Name”  (2009)
5. Q-Tip  “Gettin Up”  (2008)
6. Paul McCartney  “I Got Stung”  (1999)
7. Elton John  “Amy”  (1972)
8. Amos Milburn  “Let Me Go Home, Whiskey”  (1953)
9. Ian Hunter  “When the World Was Round”  (2007)
10. The Long Winters  “New Girl”  (2003)
11. Dengue Fever  “Tooth and Nail”  (2008)
12. Eddie Holland  “If It’s Love (It’s Alright)”  (1962)
13. Matthew Jay  “Please Don’t Send Me Away [Bent remix]”  (2001)
14. Patty Griffin  “Florida”  (2004)
15. Sly & the Family Stone  “Everybody Is a Star”  (1970)
16. Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová  “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”  (2007)
17. The Lamp of Childhood  “No More Running Around”  (1967)
18. R.E.M.  “What If We Give It Away?”  (1986)
19. Aimee Mann  “Amateur”  (1995)
20. Joan Armatrading  “Lost the Love”  (1995)

[Written to Alice in Acton, Indiana.  Return addressed: Richard, Ward 11, U.S.N.H., St. Albans, L.I., N.Y.  Postmarked at Jamaica, N.Y., on 11 Mar 1946 at 2:30 P.M.]

Mar. 9, 1946

Hello Sweetheart,

     Do I ever hate to start this letter!  I guess I’m pretty much out of practice but we’ll see.  There isn’t any news to tell you.  When I’m up and arround things happen for me to write about but laying in bed, I don’t even do anything to write about.  Dr. Anderson took me off penecillin last night.  That made me very happy.  I didn’t have to wake up every three hours last night.  The stitches will come out some time next week.

     I received a card in the mail the other day so I’ll just send it on to you.  I won’t use it.  I’m sure I paid Dr. Lentz when we were in his office.  Is my memory slipping?  What did he do?  I thought it was just a cleaning.  Cleaning is only $3 I believe.  I’m sure we paid him on the spot so you will have to talk to him and find out what goes on.

     Have you been down to the bank to see about making that a joint account?  I think it would be a good idea.  It would be much more convenient for you while you are there in town.

     I just can’t write to-day Sweetheart.  If I can’t write a “news” letter, I would like to write a “love” letter or at least a combination of the two.  You’ll have to read between the blanks to find a letter here but I’m sorry.  I love you Sweetheart.  I love you so much I can hardly say it.  I love you so much I can’t think.

     Good-night Sweetheart
          I love you with all my heart
               Pleasant dreams
                    Goodnight Sweetheart
                         x x
                              ‘Nite

     x x — for Junior

While we chase “horny toads” through the Agua Caliente RV park, the adults cool off by neck-deep immersion in 96° mineral springs.

The furry flesh breaks under her teeth. She Yum!’s, peach juice running down her chin. The cannibalistic likeness repulses him.

[Written to Alice in Acton, Indiana.  Return addressed: Richard, Ward 11, U.S.N.H., St. Albans, L.I., N.Y.  Postmarked at Jamaica, N.Y., on 25 Feb 1946 at 1 P.M.]

This envelope contains three newspaper clippings.

The first clipping contains a photograph of the Purdue basketball team, circa 1946, with the team members’ names listed below.

Probably not intended as an insert, just included incidentally, is a complete crossword puzzle from the February 1946 newspaper.  It is ridiculously hard.  It was on the reverse side of the Purdue basketball team photo:

An article mentioning a petition requesting the appointment of Mel Taube, acting coach of the Purdue Universiry basketball team, to head coach.  The article also mentions other details from the annual Lions’ Club banquet honoring the Purdue basketball team.

A photo and brief sidebar article about Ralph Vaughn, Frankfort (Indiana) High School graduate and member of the Iowa Seahawks basketball team.

Sent via e-mail:

Fred,

Against my will (and my diet), I was coerced into taking one of your 100 Grand candy bars and eating it. I have no choice but to blame you for this unfortunate situation since you recklessly left desired candy unprotected within our office.

Um, for the record, those weren’t my candy bars.  I was storing them for a co-worker.

Card is titled: “Rainbow Avenue, the Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Ga.  8A-H2008.”

Publication information:  Genuine Curteich-Chicago “C.T. Art-Colortone” Post Card (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.)

Postcard is addressed to Mrs. Helen Boxall, c/o Alerman, Dial & Alerman, Orlando Fla.  A one-cent stamp is affixed and is postmarked in Columbus, GA on 7 September 1941 at 9:30 P.M.

Text of written message on back of postcard:

Sunday

Hi Helen

     Hope you enjoyed your vacation and are not working too hard.  See you all about the 17th of Oct.

               Dial.

Today, as I write this, is Monday, the 8th of November, and I am plowing my way toward a 50,000 word count in the NaNoWriMo challenge.  I traditionally find that I write best when I can lose myself in it, which means no music.  I love music, but it is completely distracting to me, even if it is something I am familiar with.  Especially if it is something I am familiar with.  So for most of the past week, I’ve been scribing in silence, but it started to get to me – the silence began diverting my attention.  I decided to reverse-psychologize the situation and play some music. I led off with some Beethoven piano sonatas, but couldn’t stop following the music in my head and soon I was humming along. Then I went the route that least resembled the one before it: I put on Boston‘s first album.  Suddenly, I was back on my high school campus, running for class vice-president and failing as badly at this writing project as I did as a candidate.  So I stepped back into silence, which made my garage office the writer’s garret that it’s supposed to be, but I quickly got fidgety.

The character I am working with at the moment is a red-headed Scottish newlywed who shares a small apartment with her mother and very young brother, waiting out the end of World War II and the return of her American G.I. husband who is stationed on the European mainland.  In an effort to maintain geographic consistency, I put on the English folk-rock group Fairport Convention and the disc played all the way through without incident.  Then I tried some June Tabor, then a Tom Rush album.  I realized that what was working for me in this phase of the project was British Isles-based folk music.  So I kept it going, one modern troubadour after another, and the inspiration started coming back, though slowly.

That’s the story, really.  How a handful of musical artists in one niche genre helped me get through a hump in my quixotic writing project.  Best part: I was able to squeeze a playlist out of it.

Approximate playing time: 76 minutes.

1. June Tabor  “Apples and Potatoes”  (1994)
2. Peter Yarrow  “Take Off Your Mask”  (1972)
3. Eddi Reader  “Please Don’t Ask Me to Dance”  (1999)
4. Fairport Convention  “Fotheringay”  (1969)
5. Sandy Denny  “It Suits Me Well”  (1972)
6. The Roches  “Hammond Song”  (1979)
7. Lucinda Williams  “Lately”  (2002)
8. Leonard Cohen  “Love Calls You By Your Name”  (1971)
9. Greg Brown  “Brand New ’64 Dodge”  (1994)
10. The Swell Season  “In These Arms”  (2009)
11. Robinella & the CC Stringband  “Man Over”  (2003)
12. Gillian Welch  “Caleb Meyer”  (1998)
13. Buffy Sainte-Marie  “Guess Who I Saw in Paris”  (1970)
14. Tom Rush  “No Regrets”  (1968)
15. Archie Roach  “Beautiful Child”  (1990)
16. Joan Baez  “When Time Is Stolen”  (1971)
17. John Gorka  “Blue Chalk”  (1996)
18. Judy Collins  “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”  (1968)
19. June Tabor  “The Irish Girl”  (1994)

Some notes on the songs:

• Freshman year in college, I took a class called Folklore & Mythology, taught by Professor Albert Lord, a very respected scholar of balladry and a kind gentleman, to boot.  Two of our sessions were guest lecture “demonstrations,” concerts of folk music performed by Jean Redpath and Tom Rush.  I don’t remember what Tom played, but “No Regrets” is one of my favorite songs of his.
• The Lucinda Williams recording of “Lately” is a cover of a Greg Brown-penned song.  Sandy Denny wrote “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” which is sung here by Judy Collins.  Both Brown and Denny have recordings in this playlist, too.  The folk community is artistically incestuous, so these things are bound to happen.
• Archie Roach is an indigenous Australian singer-songwriter.  He is a member of the “Stolen Generations,” referring to the aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their homes by the Australian government up through the late 1960s. A great percentage of his songs deal with this tragic period of Australian social history, and “Beautiful Child” – though it deceptively begins as an ode to familial love – is no exception.
• Oddly, there are no songs on this playlist dating from anywhere in the decade of the 1980s.  What do you think of when you think of ’80s music? I bet it’s not a folk tune.

This is very inspiring work you have created for us. Some people need to know that these things can ensue to anyone. You have shown me a better view now. Watch Megamind online.

Things happen so fast these days. That movie just opened last week at my neighborhood theatre.