10/1/09: Throughout the 1980s, first on my typewriter, then by 1985, on the computer, I compiled and sent a monthly family newsletter to our eight children–three birth and five step.  We called it the "Simpson/Gore Bore," to honor both birth and step kids names. With no in-house means of duplication, I did a cut and paste job and took it to the local photocopy place (we did not call it that then–I believe it was the "Print Shop") and had copies made that I snail-mailed to each family member.  In the newsletter were bits of news relayed to us either by letters or phone calls from the various children, and accounts of our activities on the mini ranch where we lived at the time.

Friends of mine are now traveling by car in Alaska and send daily e-mailed reports on their adventures that are both informative and amusing.  As I read these accounts I try to remember the dates my husband Charles and I took a trip through the Inland Passage via Holland-America cruise ship.  To the rescue are those old family newsletters which remind me of our trip and lots more information I treasure about that particular time in our lives.  A family newletter–even if issued only quarterly–not only saves information but can be of use for other writing purposes

Coincidentally, that trip figures in a humorous essay of mine that has been accepted by an anthology publisher in Tampa Florida and planned for release (and payment) this year.–Willma