{"id":35805,"date":"2019-03-01T09:03:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T17:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=35805"},"modified":"2019-03-02T13:32:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T21:32:11","slug":"friday-fun-letters-we-get-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/01\/friday-fun-letters-we-get-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Fun: \u201cLetters \u2013 We Get Letters \u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Those of us of a certain age (ancient) probably remember the <strong><em>Perry Como Show<\/em><\/strong> segment addressing the letters they received each week with their signature song:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>&ldquo;Letters &ndash; We Get Letters, We Get Stacks &amp; Stacks of Letters &hellip;&rdquo;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IC7o7FbUipg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Well, I came across a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2019\/2\/28\/1838476\/-Texas-WWII-vet-asks-the-world-for-100-cards-for-his-100th-birthday-and-the-world-did-not-disappoint\"><em><strong>Diary at Daily Kos<\/strong><\/em><\/a> just a day ago about the impact of receiving letters, and it restored my faith in humanity.&nbsp; So I decided to share it with you today<\/p>\n<p>There&rsquo;s a WWII Vet, a <strong>Mr. Joe Cuba<\/strong> (better known as <strong>&ldquo;GI Joe&rdquo;<\/strong>) who resides at Brookdale Assisted Living facility in Wichita Falls, TX who will turn 100 y\/o on March 2<sup>nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The germ of an idea on how to mark that day started when his oldest daughter, <strong>Beverly<\/strong>, wanted to do something special for her Dad&rsquo;s Centennial Celebration.&nbsp; Joe (who is the son of Czechoslovakian immigrant parents), Beverly and the Brookdale staff talked it over, and he shared with them that he thought it&rsquo;d be nice if he were to receive a Birthday card for every year he&#39;s lived.<\/p>\n<p>The staff jumped into action and posted a very simple request on Brookdale&rsquo;s manager <strong>(Stephanie Veitenheimer)<\/strong> Facebook page:<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script async=\"1\" defer=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v3.2\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrookdaleWidwestern\/photos\/a.1028078823915520\/2214917165231674\/?type=3\" data-width=\"695\">\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrookdaleWidwestern\/posts\/2214917165231674:0\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\">\n<p>We here at Brookdale Midwestern would like to help our resident Joe reach his goal for his 100th Birthday will you&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrookdaleWidwestern\/\">Brookdale Midwestern<\/a> on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrookdaleWidwestern\/posts\/2214917165231674:0\">Thursday, February 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Then a local news outlet, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texomashomepage.com\/news\/local-news\/wwii-veteran-makes-wish-for-100-cards-for-centennial-birthday\/1797643821\"><strong><em>Texoma&rsquo;s<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, picked up the story &ndash; and the ball started rolling.<\/p>\n<p>From there, it was picked up by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesrecordnews.com\/story\/news\/local\/2019\/02\/22\/world-war-ii-wwii-veteran-100th-birthday-celebrate-cards\/2939851002\/\"><strong><em>USA Today Network<\/em><\/strong><\/a> &hellip; and the dynamite went <strong>&ldquo;BOOM!&rdquo;<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Veitenheimer said: &quot;We&#39;ve had people all over the U.S. call us to ask if it&#39;s a legit post.&nbsp; It&#39;s been just humbling to know that people want to help us celebrate his 100th.&quot;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Medical equipment companies have reached out to her to see if they could give Joe any medical equipment he might need for his birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&quot;Teachers have said their students are learning about the Greatest Generation and want to send cards to him. It&#39;s just awesome,&quot; she said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Joe was the second born of 12 children &ndash; 6 boys and 6 girls &ndash; who grew up on a farm in Archer County, Texas raising livestock, cotton and wheat.&nbsp; The entire family only spoke Czech, and Joe didn&rsquo;t learn English until he started school.<\/p>\n<p>While there was plenty of work for all of them to do on the farm, the Depression they lived through wasn&rsquo;t as hard on them as on people in the city &ndash; they always had food on the table.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Reminds me of what my Mom always said, who was born in 1916 and grew up on a farm in Illinois with 3 brothers.&nbsp; They never went hungry, and the Depression was much easier on farm folks than city folks.&nbsp; And similar to Joe&rsquo;s family, they only spoke German at home.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Before heading off to war with the U.S. Army Air Corps, Joe made sure to marry the love of his life, <strong>Nida<\/strong>, on Aug. 3, 1943.&nbsp; He later served in Guam and vividly recalls the 33 days it took for them to sail across the Pacific on the &ldquo;iron ship&rdquo; from Seattle.&nbsp; He swears he&rsquo;ll never eat another sardine or powdered eggs again.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>USA Today Network<\/em> story got so much positive feedback, they did a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesrecordnews.com\/story\/news\/local\/2019\/02\/27\/wwii-100-year-old-veteran-g-i-joe-wichita-falls-tx-community-support\/3009058002\/\">follow-up story featuring the response<\/a> not only from locals &#8211; but from people across the country.&nbsp; And of course the cards started to trickle in.<\/p>\n<p>And about &ldquo;Gi Joe&rsquo;s&rdquo; wish for those 100 cards &ndash; one for each year?&nbsp; Well, that trickle turned into a deluge!&nbsp; He has gotten over <strong><em><u>SIXTEEN-THOUSAND CARDS AND LETTERS<\/u><\/em><\/strong> from well-wishers far and wide &hellip; and still counting!&nbsp; <em>(We all probably pity the poor postman.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_07-Small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35809\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_07-Small.jpg\" width=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_07-Small.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_07-Small-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_07-Small-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s been a response so exceeding their expectations that Brookdale had to dedicate an entire room just to store all the greetings and gifts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_04-Small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35810\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_04-Small.jpg\" width=\"825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_04-Small.jpg 825w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_04-Small-150x87.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_04-Small-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_04-Small-768x447.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>GI Joe takes care to share the good wishes he&rsquo;s received with the other residents at Brookdale, and especially enjoys it when other Veterans come to visit.<\/p>\n<p>Without a doubt, it&rsquo;s a Centennial Celebration that will be long-remembered and cherished &#8230; and one that helped restore my faith in humanity!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_05-Small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35812\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_05-Small.jpg\" width=\"766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_05-Small.jpg 766w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_05-Small-150x94.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Birthday-Cards_Vet_100_05-Small-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 766px) 100vw, 766px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those of us of a certain age (ancient) probably remember the Perry Como Show segment addressing the letters they received each week with their signature song: &ldquo;Letters &ndash; We Get Letters, We Get Stacks &amp; Stacks of Letters &hellip;&rdquo; Well, I came across a Diary at Daily Kos just a day ago about the impact <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/01\/friday-fun-letters-we-get-letters\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}