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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

I'm a Better Man Today, Because When I was Young, I Had a Neighbor

I still miss him, especially on days like yesterday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Story about him: I could take or leave his show, as a kid, but my younger sister was a huge fan. For some school assignment to write a letter to a public figure, she choose him. He sent back a nice form letter and a 5X7 glossy picture. She wanted to show to the teacher the response she got to the letter, so she took the picture to school. On the bus, some nasty bullies who occasionally targeted, deciding she was 'too old' to be a fan, mocked and taunted her for carrying the picture. She wrote another letter to him, telling him about the bullying incident. He wrote back a clearly personalized letter, attempting to cheer her up and give advise on how to cope with such incidents I remember the wording well enough to know it wasn't a generic 'sorry you've been bullied letter; it was clear from context it was largely composed in clear response to her letter. Whether he wrote it or set the policy that directed some intern or employee to write, I don't know, but it deeply impressed me. (And was a pretty big deal to my sister at the time too).