Eureka, California
October 25, 2000

Dear Readers,

Today’s letter is from Kevin Walters in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to Cheryl Wagner, the author of the very convincinggodmother letter we ran a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know much about Kevin, but I do know he shops at Wal-Mart, and I like the way he tells stories.

Open Letters yesterday entered a new phase of portability: to be specific, this letter was written in the back seat of a 1986 Volkswagen Jetta, heading north in the dark on California State Highway 101. Ethan Watters (author of the poker letter) and I are accompanying a western swing band called the Hot Club of Cowtown on their tour of the Pacific Northwest. We stopped in yesterday afternoon for an impromptu on-air concert at KHUM, in Ferndale, which is what I listen to (on real audio, via the web) most Saturdays while I’m laying out the weekly. It’s a nice station, especially if you like hippie music, and they treated us right when we visited.

Tonight the band will be playing at Sam Bond’s Garage in Eugene, Oregon. If you live in Eugene, come on out, and I’ll sell you a CD at intermission.

I know it’s a testament to something, the fact that Open Letters can be published from the back seat of a Jetta, but I don’t quite know to what. Perhaps to the fact that Motel 6 just added dataports to the phones in all their rooms. But perhaps to something else, something more (or, possibly, less) inspiring.

A reminder: next week is re-run week, a.k.a. forgotten gems week. Please send nominations for open letters that need to be revived, that stuck in your head, that you’d like others to see, toeditor@openletters.net. And thanks to the readers who sent in their picks yesterday; they’re all being carefully considered, here in the back seat.

Yours truly,

Paul Tough