Letter and Envelope from 1967

[Mike Buckley]

My wife and I end our evening meal lately with a reading of at least one letter written by her father Frank to his wife and, at the time, their two children. My wife is the oldest of the children and her parents are deceased. The letters we're currently going through were written during the Viet Nam War when he was in Saigon working as a civilian engineer for Page Communications.

My wife read the letter shown below to me almost exactly 50 years to both the day and date after it was written, which was Tuesday, January 31, 1967. The envelope is postmarked February 2 and its notation in pencil indicates that it was received February 4.

An excerpt from the letter: "While I was waiting yesterday to have my foot X rayed, Gen. Westmoreland (four stars) went limping in. He had his foot X rayed also. When he came out he asked me how I was doing & I told him 'not so hot'. He said he wasn't doing so hot either."

This story surely put an extra spring in his wife's step for at least a week and she would have told the story to everyone she knew. That's because she was fascinated with celebrities, followed their lives closely on television and in magazines, got signatures whenever possible from them, etc.

During this period of writing letters from Saigon, he always ended them with a drawing of stick figures of him blowing kisses to his wife. Notice in this letter the added notation indicating his injured right ankle. So cute!

In the envelope, notice the grey "air mail" designation near the date written in pencil. That designation is printed backward on the inside of the envelope so when it shows through the paper it is displayed in the proper orientation.

Please click at least the photo of the envelope to display at a larger size the detail in the scene.

Photo 1 Setup
The letter is attached by a clamp to a vertical piece of wood. Two small continuous-light lamps close to the subject on the right and left sides are at a 45-degree angle to the subject. That setup lights the subject relatively evenly (not exactly evenly by design in this case) and without creating any glare.

Photo 2 Setup
The envelope is held against a vertical piece of wood to simulate that the envelope is laid on the top of a desk or table. A small continuous-light lamp close to the subject on the left side rakes light across the subject to display the texture and to create the shadows created by the stamp and envelope. The lamp is flagged to create the shadow in the lower left corner of the scene.

[madcrow]

Great letter, great story, great images. Mike, well done on all three.

[Wavelength]

I wonder how humorous your Father-in-law was; i really feel the lightness of his heart

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Maurice and Nandakumar!

I wonder how humorous your Father-in-law was

I get the very definite impression from his letters that he had a dry sense of humor and my wife remembers that as well.

[Suzan J]

You and your wife are so fortunate to have something like this to always remember your loved ones by. Letters like this are absolutely priceless and must be preserved at all costs. My husband's father and uncle were "Bernardo Boys" arriving in Canada in 1914 when they were 14 and 12 years of age. Due to the circumstances there were no possessions such as photos or letters and to this day we have no idea what my husband's uncle looked like. He never married and died during WW2, ironically in England where his Canadian regiment was sent. Your story is quite touching. Thanks for sharing it.

[Mike Buckley]

Yours is the touching story, Suzan.

My wife and I agree that we're fortunate to have these letters. One reason I made the photos is to share them with her two siblings. We plan to pass the letters along to both of them if they're interested, but only if they promise to take good care of them. In the mean time, we're going to read every single letter before offering them to others.

[mugge]

Mike, the stick figures moved me for some reason and it just made my day.
Cheers Ole

[bnnrcn]

Nice memories and images Mike, thanks for sharing