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For the troops

Print | Comments () Posted by Sheryl Julian June 8, 2009 04:11 PM

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Local candy company Necco, founded in 1847 and made in Revere, is sending their Sweethearts to the troops abroad through USO care packages. The sayings include "Glory," "Home Safe," "Miss You." You can buy 1-ounce boxes for $1.

I'm thinking of buying a case and sending them to my nephew, Billy. I had a long chat with my niece, Bess, the other day. Billy is on his third tour of duty (Marines) in Iraq. They have three children under 5; they're living on a military base in southern California. My sainted sister-in-law quit her job as a school nurse to live with Bess and help her out. They talk with Billy as often as they can on some sort of video cam that he set up.

I was raised in the US Army and every time I talk to Bess, she says, "I don't know how your mother did this. They couldn't talk, they couldn't e-mail, they couldn't send pictures; they could only write letters."

My mother once sent my father a Barton's fruitcake, his favorite -- awful things! -- to an Army PO box in New York, where it was forwarded it to my father in Burma. Fruit cakes, of course, stay forever (a good thing, in this case). When it arrived months later, my father was thrilled. He offered it around, but no one in his unit wanted any. And believe me, they were desperate for anything from home.

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