1. A letter I wrote and never sent (THANK GOD) to Aaron Cometbus. He and I used to hang out a little when he spent time in Olympia. I had a crush on him, as I did with any boy I ever met who could write well. Just like the rest of them, it never amounted to anything and he forgot all about me, presumably.
2. A stack of letters I purchased from Urban Ore, a junkyard in Berkeley, in 1994. I don’t know how much I paid, maybe $2, doesn’t matter. The point is that I have a month’s worth of love letters written from George to Jane in May of 1945 whilst he spent his ninth month in the Pacific Theatre of WWII. They are quite charming and I am glad I still have them.
Heheheh. Aaron Cometbus is very quiet. I met him once and it surprised me.
And I’ve got a handful of letters from Robert Eggplant, whom was an old pen-pal of mine more than ten years back. I’ve actually got the recordings of The Eat that he was looking for in earnest now, I ought try and find him. Surprising little world, eh?
Aaron was a lurker, always watching everyone. It’s what writers do.
Robert was wonderful, a good friend of mine. He let me stay with him for a while when I moved to the Bay Area and he was an all around amazing and gentle soul. He and I did a lot of dumpster diving together, most memorably at the Oakland Main Library.
Yes, he seemed very observant. Didn’t talk to him a whole lot, but he seemed like a pretty nice guy.
That’s crazy that you and Robert were such good friends!! I wrote to him while I was still in high school. He always put little doodles on his letters and they were always on these crazy little scraps of paper. You’re right, he was a very nice guy.. I do wish that I didn’t quit writing him, but that’s all the reason more to drop a card to him! I bet he still has the same PO box.
And what’s your best dumpster find? I think mine was the case of top-notch tuna with some crap that ruined the labels and the case of wonderful blueberry preserves, with two jars broken and the rest covered in the mess. I think I pulled a huge bag of health-food combos (Peanut butter and pretzel) out of that same dumpster that day.