Springtime, 2004

Dear Samantha,

I arrived at Uncle Philip's home A-OK. He and Beth fixed up a cozy and comfortable room for me and fed me a lot of pancakes. My stomach is kind of flat and I can eat only flat stuff.

Hanging Around The House

He says I can come back in the summer to play in the pool. This picture was taken last summer when Bronwyn & Israel were visiting and celebrating his 60th birthday.

A Walk Through Yale University

We took a long walk through Yale University. Beth is Manager of Space Information and knows a lot about the buildings and the grounds.

Playing With The Dog

I've been having a great time playing with Robbie. Here we are sitting around the pool just before I took him for a long walk through the woods.

A Visit To The Amistad

The Amistad's home is in New Haven Harbor under the auspices of AMISTAD America, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Freedom Schooner Amistad is the re-creation of the 19th Century wooden cargo vessel La Amistad, the setting for The Amistad Incident of 1839. Fifty-three Africans, kidnapped from West Africa, staged a revolt aboard the original ship and embarked on a quest for their freedom. The ship was eventually seized off the coast of Long Island and the Africans were jailed. Their struggle culminated in America’s first human rights case, argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court by former President John Quincy Adams. The American Missionary Association, predecessor to the United Church of Christ and others fervent in the anti-slavery cause raised money to pay the captives’ legal fees and to repatriate them to Africa once their freedom was won. In 1841, the 35 surviving Africans did return to Africa. The Amistad Incident of 1839 is historically acknowledged as one of the factors leading to the Civil War as well as a landmark legal case.

Helping Uncle Philip Do His Work

I got a chance to help Uncle Philip with some office work. He let me punch holes and staple stacks of papers.

At Church

When we went to church, they let me sing. Here I am with my hymnal. I sing better than Uncle Philip. They don't let him sing because he can't carry a tune...so he just stands there or humms a little (but not too loudly).

The Snow Just Doesn't Stop

We woke up to a mountain of snow four days in a row. I help Uncle Philip & Aunt Beth shovel the front steps. During each day the driveway would completely melt because the temperature was above the freezing point. My muscles were very tired when we got done.

Uncle Philip's Time Machine

Uncle Philip has built a time machine using H.G. Wells original plans. He invited me to tag along while he traveled back to the "old days." Here are some of the people and places we visited!

The first stop was to visit your grandmother back in 1943...several months before Uncle Philip was born. Here's a picture of Grandma Connie when she won a beauty contest. During that year she traveled to Louisanna to be closer to Grandpa Phil who was being trained by the U.S. Army for deployment during World War II.

Next, we visited Uncle Philip when was a little boy around 1948 or 1949. He wanted to be a cowboy! His favorite cowboy at that time was The Lone Ranger. He liked listening to The Lone Ranger episodes on the radio in the early evening. There was no television at that time. He also like to listen to several other programs. The Dam Busters and The Shadow were two that he particularly liked. People today can buy recordings of those Ol' Time Radio programs.

I had a long visit with Aunt Susan during the 1950s when they first moved to Long Island. In the photo at the right they are sitting on the front steps Great Grampa Sal's home and general store in Ridge, New York. In the left photograph they are playing on a beach in near Rome, New York.

Finally, Uncle Philip darned me a helmet, boots and fack jacket and took me to Viet Nam. This picture was take in 1968 about 20 miles south of Da Nang, RVN.

I miss you and will be home soon!

Your friend,
Flat Stanley