Some Letters I Wrote as a Kid
I was digging through my old letters and drawings for this post about my history as an illustrator and I came across some gems.
I was probably 7 or 8 when I wrote this. The Maggie which I refer to was our family dog, of course. This is the only old letter of mine that I found that was written in cursive, clearly I was trying to be more formal with the esteemed Santa.
I can’t decide if this is just a gut-wrenchingly earnest and endearing letter, or if at the time I was doubtful about the existence of Santa Claus and this was meant to be an extremely manipulative guilt trip for my Dad. Either way, Santa didn’t get off his fat ass to give God the message for another 15 years, but eventually Dad did quit smoking.
I was 5 when I wrote this. I was down in South Carolina with my brother and sister visting our Grandparents. The only thing I remember about this trip was the jellyfish incident.
The thing I love about this letter is what an utter and complete understatement it is. Technically, I was not stung by a jellyfish, I was stung by a 16 foot long Portuguese Man o’ War. From Wikipedia:
…[Man o' War] stings have been responsible for several deaths, but usually only cause excruciating pain…
Ha! Only excruciating pain! I couldn’t swim yet, but I had a little floaty ring thing in the ocean and was bobbing around, maxxing out in the warm South Carolina water. My Grandad saw it coming for me, he screamed, and struggled to get to me before I got stung, but it was too late and the bastard’s tentacles wrapped completely around my legs. I don’t remember much after that except for people pulling me onto the beach and a painful process of them trying to get the tentacles off of me, since they continue to sting anything that touches them even after detached from the Man o’War’s body.
I was bed-ridden with a fever from the poison, my legs were just raw and torn up. I remember a doctor actually made a house call to come and see me, and I remember they sprinkled Meat Tenderizer on the open wounds, which is basically salt and that stung even more. I think I was a bit offended about them tenderizing my legs too.
I assume after all that tramau, I was really missing my Mom and wanted to write her a letter about my experience.
February 11th, 2007 at 1:56 am
Crazy! I was in south carolina at age 6-7 and remember finding a jellyfish on the beach. at first I thought another kid had left his ball on the beach, so I went to grab it and my dad was like wtf NOOOO. he said it was dead so we brought it into the hotel and took some pictures with it. I was sooo sun burnt..and I remember running across the sand while crying because it was hot as hell. I also remember going to a store and asking my mom to buy me this snorkel, only it wasn’t a snorkel, but a gigantic beer bong. no wonder she didn’t get it for me!!
February 11th, 2007 at 2:03 am
boo on jelly fish. i like how you are in touch with your childhood. in a way it makes your readers (me atleast) take that trip back in time. my trip back in time right now goes to when i used to body board and got lucky with the jelly fish (no encounters)…but not so lucky with the reef and tore up my skin/wetsuit…or another memory getting bitten by a dog (still love dogs)
February 11th, 2007 at 4:07 am
@nic - Haha!! How did you figure out it was a beer bong? That’s super funny!
@nathan - Damn! Reefs are no joke! I think I got into boogie boards later on because of this experience, I was so paranoid about little things in the water tickling my legs (which happens all the time in the ocean) it was nice to float on a board and be able to pull my limbs completely out of the water.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I cannot believe you still have that letter! I remember standing there, and Granddad grunting,and then grabbing you in your inner tube and running. Makes me cringe to remember all of us picking the tentacles out of your poor legs.
How long was it before you went back in the water?