July 1, 2022

The postman arrived with his weekly delivery, the censor allowed it thru, and we received you letter. It bore the Forty Two dollar embossing on the tissue paper page and we appreciated the sacrifice you made to send it. The youngsters all marveled over it. We don’t get many letters; yours is the first this year. I had to handle it carefully; it was as thin as an angel’s wing or how we have the deli slice baloney these days. When we can afford it. I know I’m getting old when I remember back to fried baloney sandwiches where the baloney was an inch thick. Anyway, my mind wanders; back to the letter.

Oh how I miss my friends; the family finds it hard to believe that we used to take car trips just for fun to visit each other. That is understandable for they have only known rationed gas which varies always cycling higher from the 2200 $/gallon “government approved” price. When you can get it. Price controls always cause shortages. Most people just went along with the changes. But back to answering your letter.

We all gathered in the living room — me, my wife, the boy, his wife, their four children, the girl, her husband, their three children, and our “assigned guest”. In case you don’t have that stuff up there, our governor created a program where one homeless person was assigned to each house. Our guest is a nice man from Detroit, who used to build cars. We had no choice. If you didn’t take the assignment, they trippled your taxes. At that point, most people would lose their house and become homeless themselves and assigned. So they’d take your house, you’d be able to take only one bag, trucked to an assignment center, “assigned” a minimum of two counties away, and probably never see your family again. There was a lot of uproar about that. Most people just went along with the changes. But, back to answering your letter.

We were just interrupted. The Homeland Police & Drug Enforcement just conducted a house to house search. We all had to go stand outside with the rest of the neighborhood for an hour while they checked our identity cards and went through the house with the drug sniffing and people sniffing dogs. The penalties for non-compliance are severe. You lose your house and can even go to jail. Do you have that up there? Most people just went along with the changes. But, back to answering your letter.

We were sad to hear of your troubles. It’s a shame when youngsters die in far away wars. Your boy was a brave fellow. But then some of the choices we make are not really choices. When they brought back the draft, we knew there would be some breakage. Most people just went along with the changes. But, back to answering your letter.

Well, I am out of space on this page. Heaven knows we can afford to let go to a second page. It’s really a shame that there’s no work, little food, and no Lemons, Ice, Bacon, Englishmuffins, Rasberries, Tuna, Yoohoo, or other stuff. We’ll just have to go along with the changes and sing a little “barbara streisand”.

Regards to all,
You long time friend

# # # # #