Historical October 1981 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Nanette Thomas of 6100 McPherson had been thinking about finding a pen pal for such a long time. Finally she decided to do something about it. Australia sounded like an interesting place and there wouldn’t be a language problem, so she settled on that. But, how does one go about finding a pen pal? Bill Thomas, Nanette’s dad, suggested that she write to a newspaper in one of the cities.
She then wrote to a paper in Brisbane, which is the capital, principal seaport, and largest city of Queensland.
It is situated in the southeast near the Pacific Ocean and has a population of about 700,000.
The editors of the “Sunday Sun” were kind enough to print Nanette’s request, to which she received 79 replies.
There were 25 letters in the first group the mailman delivered. Nanette was astounded and the entire Thomas family was caught up in reading the mail.
The mailman suggested she would have to get a job to pay for all the postage.
One 84-year-old Australian grandmother wrote to request that Nanette write to her granddaughter.
She did and kept five other pen pals besides.
Not one to disappoint her friends “down under,” Nanette paired them off with pen pals from the neighborhood and St. Roch’s school, where she is in the eighth grade.
Original photograph caption
Nanette Thomas. The Paper, October 1981, page 4. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Paper, October 1981.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1981_10.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
