The Claire Letters

Back in olden days; back before “social-media”, “Email” or even the “Internet”, people used to communicate in a strange way. A person would simply make scratches on a piece of paper with a pointed lead object or even a sharpened quill from a bird feather. They would then dip this quill (called a pen) in a little colored ink and scratch letters and words upon a blank piece of paper. Sometimes, the more professional person, would actually use a small, but heavy, machine in which each letter of the alphabet was carved upon a separate piece of metal and then, through clever mechanical manipulation, the metal letter covered with ink, would be stamped upon a blank paper page. These individual letter stamps would combine with others to create words and then sentences. Then, with the help of a government employee called a “mail-man”, these pieces of paper would be delivered to an intended person across the town, the state or even across an entire country. It was a tediously slow process taking days and days; sometimes even weeks. But eventually the intended person would receive the original piece of artwork with the emotionally imbued scratches and thus feelings and experiences were shared over long distances. Needless to say, times have changed and that was long, long ago. Now an exchange like this can be accomplished in a few seconds. No paper, scratching implement or stain required.

The volume that follows: The Claire Letters, are a collection of such simple scratches upon sheets of blank paper exchanged between myself and a lady from all the way down in Texas.
When I was a younger man, (long, long ago) I drove taxi on the night-shift in San Francisco. One evening I drove up to the St. Francis hotel and the doorman ushered two elderly ladies into the rear-seat of my cab. They wanted to go on a tour of San Francisco. In the course of that tour something “magical” began to happen.
A few months later I received a letter from one of the ladies. Her name was Claire. And the magic continued. The following are the totally unedited letters between myself and Claire; the lady from Texas…