Monday, October 17, 2016

Hilarious newsy letter, year unknown (1956-1960 ish)

Here's a hilarious newsy, five-page letter that was in Christie's stuff.

A paragraph from the first page:
"The kids around Juneau are going water ski crazy around here now. Everybody's bought, buying, or goin' ta buy water skis. On the forth of July about fifteen persons turned out for to ski. We had two boats to pull us. One boat was a Crock Product driven by Paul himself. It was a 20 foot cabin cruiser with a two hundred sixty five horse Interceptor in it. Talk about speed...Man, that boat was fast. It'll do almost fifty mph. The wake was huge. Osterman and myself built a jump too. I went off it once and made a beautiful one point landing on my hind end. The crowd got a big kick out of it. Then Osterman made a try and lit on his face. He got up again and made another attempt. Crock goosed the motor just as Bob hit the beginning of the incline on the jump. It threw his skis out from under him and he bounced off the jump on one shoulder and the side of his face. It was quite spectacular. Bob said he almost blacked out in the water. He just luckily suffered a few bruises."
The letter wasn't in an envelope (so no cancellation date to go by), and didn't have a year on the letter itself, so I don't know the year. The letter is written over several weeks, between July 17 and August 3. Since almost all the letters I have were from Christie's time in college at Pacific Lutheran University from 1956 to 1960, it is probably from that time period.

The photos in this post were found in Christie's stuff, but not with the letter. They show water skiers in Gastineau Channel, not at Auke Rec, which is what the letter refers to.
The letter also is not signed, so I don't know who wrote it. It mentions a large number of people:
  • Jay
  • Jack Weisgerber
  • Lynette
  • Ann Furnace
  • Toni
  • Jim
  • John Hall (Forest Service)
  • Mary Lou and her sister Ruth Ann
  • Paul Crock
  • Bob Osterman
  • Jo Ann
  • Alyne
  • Judy Finlay
  • Mike Grummett
  • Warren
  • Engstrom
  • Mary Sue
  • Liz
  • Linda Kassner
  • Forrest
  • Able
  • Merrit

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2 comments:

  1. Judy CrondahlOctober 18, 2016 at 3:14 PM

    First clue as to year: August 3 was a Saturday and was almost 80 degrees on that day. Historical weather and calendars should be able to narrow it down. Also, he's going to college in Portland (Pacific Lutheran) so it's after graduation in 1955. I checked calendars. It's probably 1957.

    Bob Osterman's family stayed with us when they came back for their 25th reunion. They had 3 kids. Do you remember? Engstrom was probably Elton. Linda Kassner is Joan Harju and Ardyne Womack's sister. "Able" is probably Don Abel.

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  2. Judy CrondahlOctober 18, 2016 at 4:56 PM

    Toni would be Toni Warnwr, another classmate. Jay could be either your Dad or Jay Braun. As I heard it, Bobby Osterman gained fame by water skiing from Sitka to Juneau.

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