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Letters from Dad: Matthew

It being summer and all (unless you just found this site and its December and you live in Maine and you just survived the ice storm and you’re real real jealous of all of us here back in the Summer of 0’13 where its been kissing 100 for weeks), I’m remembering summer camp. Not mine. I only went once. It was church camp and my girlfriend was hanging out with another guy and… well, you know, a bad movie.

But my son Matt did several rounds of summer camp: COMPUTER camp. So cool. (I suppose my equivalent would have been, what, battery and knife switch camp?) So being a doting father, I wrote him two letters for one of his summer experiences, when he was between 7th and 8th grade.

OK, these maybe aren’t as melodious as Jonathan Coulton’s “Chiron Beta Prime” but hang in there…

Here they are concatenated and re-keystroked for your viewing pleasure (since my original handwriting broke the scanner):
Continue reading “Letters from Dad: Matthew”

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Letters from Dad: Melissa

In the summer of 1992, my daughter Melissa had just graduated from high school and began working and playing at the Aspen Music festival, before her bassoon studies at Manhattan School of Music would begin in the fall. Dad (that’s me) is compelled to send her a few letters. You know, a little fatherly advice. Not that she really needed any. Here’s the first one (only very slightly edited from the original 20-year-old keystrokes)…

Dear Melissa,

Last Saturday we visited a new warehouse-size bookstore in Stamford and spent nearly $200. We also bought some books.

I saw there a number of mini-books offering advice to people. We sent you one even. But frankly, I don’t think there’s anyone in a better position to give you advice than me. Sitting down is always a great position from which to give advice.

So here’s the start of a long list of things I think you need to keep in mind as you move forward in LIFE. Continue reading “Letters from Dad: Melissa”