October 2, 2004 Archives

On September 13, an email arrived from Sarah Dermody in Wisconsin.

The JFK story she mentioned was an entry I wrote telling where I was when I heard John Kennedy had been shot. I was in JHS 218 at the time.

Being a good Wisconsoner, Sarah realized I'd probably appreciate this more than anyone in her church, so she sent it to me. This might be an unusual outcome where you live, but I deal with people from Wisconsin every day (our biggest weather data vendor is there) and know this to be their norm.

Today I received a big padded yellow envelope from Sarah. It had $3.13 in postage from the meter at Mallatt Pharmacy (Valu-Rite, Make up and Costume Headquarters) in Madison. The words "first class" were stamped in the Mary Tyler Moore Show type style (the font is actually called 'Carnati SSi').

Inside the envelope was a deep blue box with a red stripe, bordered in white. It ran across the middle like a ribbon on a present. Inside the box was what we referred to as an autograph book.

The book itself was empty - something bought but never used. It was definitely from Campbell Junior High, with a JHS 218 seal on the front and picture of the school inside.

Many of the pages were marked with a 1948 copyright date. An American flag on one of the pages had 50 stars. That meant it was post August 1959.

This book brought back amazing memories. Not because I had one (I don't think I did), but because I remembered it and remembered Campbell Junior.

There are only two people I still know who went there. I sent them copies of the photos. It will be interesting to hear how it struck them.