Throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties, most issues of
Archie Comics featured a two-page spread titled Archie Club News. The
banner at the top of the page announced, "ARCHIE CLUB MEMBERS send in
your news reports and be eligible to win cash prizes in the Archie
Series Magazines." The results of this venture were generally
irrelevant notes sent in like "Dear Archie, I love your records and cartoon show - they are the most!" Often what was sent in appeared to be
part of a class project. Elementary school children were in the process
of learning how to write letters and encouraged by a teacher to send
something Riverdale way. Sometimes the letters were weird or even
profound and other times prophetic or just silly.
This letter originally appeared in Laugh #186, September 1966:
Dear Archie,
I took a trip to Disneyland last summer. I had the most fun ... in the motel. At night when we were looking out of the motel there were beautiful sights. Everything was so colorful and bright. The scenery is very nice at night. In the motel we had two bedrooms and a kitchen. I was very sorry when we came back home. But I still love the place. I hope that everybody gets to go to Disneyland.
Nanette Szabo
1601 Spring Road
Cleveland, Ohio
This letter won the fifth prize of one dollar. Sort of reminds you of that old cliché about the kid who receives an expensive toy as a gift but ends up being more interested in the empty box. A google search informs us that Ms. Szabo is now a customer service rep for a chemical company in Avon, Ohio. The small town of Avon is home to the annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival!
So odd that they did a ham radio based issue (what were Archies call letters?). That's more in tune with a Hardy Boys mystery from the 30's or 40's.... Maybe it should have been "Archie's Eight-Track Adventure."
Posted by: Dale Hazelton | August 30, 2007 at 03:49 PM