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 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, have you ever heard of gerbils?"
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 Archie's Pals n' Gals #56, February 1970:
Dear Archie,
I would like to see you in the army, as a Staff Sergeant and Reggie a Private, and just see if you can get Betty and Veronica in the Wacs ... I am in the Army and I am representing my unit. A bunch of the guys were messing around and we figured it out. Archie should have Reggie on K.P. because he always seems too good to get dirty. I feel Jughead should be the Company Commander, and Big Moose should beat the heck out of all the officers and N.C.O.'s for making eyes at Midge, and then go to Viet Nam and end the war ...
SP-4 George A. Strickland
RA 18911249 Co. A 3rd Bm.
64th Armor
N.Y., N.Y. 09702
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