Killing the Imagination
February 16, 2016
ALAN writes:
In a 1989 column, Chicago newspaper columnist Bob Greene wrote about two letters to grandmothers, written 38 years apart. In the first letter, a nine-year-old girl wrote to her grandmother who lived on a farm. The girl wrote the letter in 1950 in response to a Christmas gift of $1. Bob Greene wrote:
“This is what the letter said:
‘Dear Grandma,
‘How are you? We are all good out here. How’s Dick and the rest of you? Thank you very much for the dollar you gave me for Christmas. It is 7:30 now and we are going to listen to [ the radio program ] Baby Snooks. Is Dick still on the Honor Roll? I hope so. Jimmy is going to be 10 years old on Grandpa’s birthday. Would you say Happy Birthday to Grandpa for me, please? Margaret and Virginia were out Monday. I made you a Christmas present but I won’t send it till mother sends hers. We hope that won’t be long. I hope you will come down one of these days. Ann is in second grade and Jerry is in sixth and I am in fourth. I got a new coat for Christmas.’
“That was the letter from the 9-year-old, thanking her own grandma for the $1 gift.”
In 1988, the mother of that nine-year-old girl received a thank you letter from her granddaughter in response—three months late—to a $100 graduation gift. Bob Greene continues: Read More »