[PW] ?what to send to soldiers

[Kathleen Stipek]

It provides entertainment value for those who give, too.  We sent stuff
to a unit overseas, and I volunteered to buy special-request magazines.
One young man was into horror movies, and one was into hunting and
fishing.  The expression on the big-box clerk's face when this little
old lady turned up at the counter bearing Fangoria and Outdoor Life was
enough to improve my mood for days.  

Kathleen Stipek
Alachua County Library District
401 East University Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32601
352-334-3931 fax 352-334-3938
 
--Non, merci
Cyrano de Bergerac
-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-fm-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-fm-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
Robin Carroll-Mann
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:00 AM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: Re: [PW] ?what to send to soldiers

My mom and I have been involved with a couple of troop support groups.
I'm sure there are soldiers like the ones described in that book.  But
there are also soldiers who ask for  all kinds of items like shampoo and
baby wipes and drink mix.  Porn is not allowed, but some of them ask for
men's magazines like "Maxim" and "Stuff".  Some of them ask for
westerns, or W.E.B. Griffin, or Stephen King, or Harry Potter.  Some of
them ask for religious books (everything from the Bible to the Koran to
the Bhaghavad Gita to guides on Wicca).  Some of them ask for comic
books.  Some of them want to educate themselves, and ask for
"Huckleberry Finn" or Thuycides or college textbooks.  Some of them want
protein bars and some of them want Little Debbie.

Most of them are very grateful to know that strangers care enough to
reach out to them.

Robin Carroll-Mann
Reference
Summit Free Public Library
Summit, NJ

S M Colowick <januarye at gmail.com> wrote: I'm reading a memoir of a
soldier's life in Afghanistan, Blood Makes
The Grass Grow Green by Johnny Rico. He has a chapter called "The
folly of well-meaning people from places with names like Ohio", in
which the soldiers make fun of the clueless people who send them
shampoo, toothpaste, Western novels, and "Dear Soldier" letters
written by children. All they really want, the book implies, is
cigarettes and porn (magazines like Penthouse and Hustler will do). At
the end of the day they end up throwing away just about everything
else. Still, when they don't get any packages in the next mail, they
take it "extremely personally and as indicative of a low type of
national character . . ." Of course, this is just one opinion, and
these were all men. Surely women would appreciate shampoo, even if, as
was the case in the book, they have no showers.

That said, there's this: http://www.anysoldier.com/

Susie


       
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