My Dear Mister Albert E.

It was the year of ninteen thirty-three

the day the Westernlander floated in.

As I was walking past the docks

I saw a man who looked quite interesting.

His hair poked from under his hat

and looked a bit unruly.

He wore a brown collared coat

with green high waisted pants

and a pen between his teeth.

He had penny loafers on

with nickles slipped into the slots,

but there were no socks on his feet.

So I followed him to an ice cream shop

and slipped behind him in line.

Then I asked him what his favorite flavor was.

He told me "Science Fiction."

I said, "Sir, that's not a flavor of ice cream."

He said, "It is if you want it to be."

We sat down with our ice cream

and two hot cups of tea

and started to have a chat.

I learned that he was from Europe

and asked why he'd choose to come here.

He told me "Europe is a nice place to visit,

but the people are much friendlier here."

Then from his back pocket

he pulled out a violin

then from inside his hair,

he drew out the bow to play it with.

He played a little serinade

just about a minute long.

It was a lovely little pretty little song.

Then he led me to a newspaper stand

and grabbed a newspaper from the pile

and on the back he wrote me a note

That went something like this:

"Dear lass, always ride your bicylce

and always check the newspapaer stand.

If you dress really nice and talk really sweet

you can marry the boy who lives down the street.

Listen to your mother

Give respect to your father and treat small children kindly

Never go outside without sun screen on.

Just one more thing, one simple smal thing.

When you are this age, you'll never need to wear socks again.

Sincerly,

Mister Albert E."

-Words by me

(I was going to add pictures to this, but I didn't have time to find some that really went with it, so you will simply have to do without.)