dear ric:

 

I hope this finds its way to you.  I'M new to the computer/e-mail thing, using my sister's computer.  I was born in 1958 and nevwe got to see Harry or the old fort. (SIGH)  My uncle used to have an OLD trailer somewhere around the salton sea for weekends after the war.  I never saw it and have actually never been to that part of the desert.  I just never had enough money to take off and go where I'd like

 

anyway, when I was cleaning out my uncles OTHER old trailer when he died in 1984, this in Glendora, Ca., I found an old copy of the DRJoke Book.  My misspent callow youth aside, that kind of historical americana has always tripped me out and i was completely taken in.  Sad to say that I never spent as much time with my uncle as I would have liked.  We didn't know how sick he was until he was almost dead.  Myasthenia Gravis???   Turns out any friends he may have had were of the fair weather type as no one came to the funeral I had at Rose Hills

 

So,ANYWAY....The upshot is that I never talked to my uncle about his exploits in the desert, though we were "always going to go" one day,  and I wasn't able to quiz any of his friends either.

 

The Joke Book always facinated me!  I knew these people existed, and I always wanted to go prowl around the area to see if there was anything or anyone I could dig up who would remermber the old days, since folks from my generation on don't care about anything but tv, but I never took or made the time to go.  Never even went to Scotty's castle!

 

I would often look in old bookstores for old issues of the scrap book or references to Harry but never found any.  In my mind I could conjure up these people  out in the toolies sending thier news to Harry and then waiting for the mail to come some months later.  Post-war pension, and an almost empty western U.S. to play in!  Some folks like Harry must have had a good life!

 

As I near the end of my life I started to see if I couldn't make the newer generation of computers work for me.  ( I have a long history of negative experiences, don't you know.)  One of the first things I did was to look up H.O. and JUST LOOK at all of the work you've done!!!

 

May I finally get to the point and thank you for a job   a labor of love   so well done!  I simply cannot imagine the hours it must have taken you to enter all of the data! 

 

May I make some suggestions or ask some favors?  Couls you tell some more about what the old fort was like and what it was like to go there? Was it a trading post?    The pics of your callow youth enlarge to enormous.  Is there a middle ground or is it a function of my computer?   Ia the woman'sbook still avail.?  Through her?   Could you interview her? 

 

Why did Harry leave?  Didn't he have anyone else who could have stayed at the fort with him?  Was he raelly ill?  Didn't he live for another ten years?   You mention that "the new guy" just up and left one day and the fort was looted.  How sad.  Do you have any more information ?   Did the man buy the place only to find he didn't like the desert?   One would think that after the townspeople rebuilt the stationwagon Harry would have stayed in the place he built and loved. 

 

Sorry to let the hopeless romantic out of his cage, but the few pics I've seen make it seem like a wonderful place,  exactly the kind of place I'd always wanted to have, of course.

 

Thanks for your time in reading this,  and truly, thank you for doing the site.  Please keep up the good work!

 

 

rick hunter