The Mail Box - September, 1989

Issue: September, 1989

Dear Mountain Laurel
I am a subscriber to your great paper. However, I have not received a paper for quite some time. Have I missed sending in a subscription? I have not heard anything concerning it.

Please let me know about my subscription. I want to keep getting the paper.

Thank you,
Joyce Denton
Statesville, North Carolina

Dear Ms. Denton & other Readers:
We lost our lease in March and were forced to relocate. This upset our printing schedule and was a major financial setback for the Foundation. Naively we thought the printing schedule could be reestablished without this much delay, however, it has taken much more time then even we anticipated. Our limited funds prevented us from notifying subscribers of the reasons for the delay (to send each subscriber a post card would have cost over $1,000.00).

During this time period we have personally had other setbacks which have thrown our time schedule off course even more. We apologize for all the delays and sincerely hope we can get a good production schedule going now. We have appreciated your kindness, patience and understanding more than words can ever say.

Many subscribers have called our toll free telephone number or written during the last few months to inquire about the delay in getting their "Mountain Laurel." The comments about how much it was being missed and the good wishes for a "speedy recovery" were overwhelming as well as touching and gratifying. They each served to inspire our efforts even more. We love and appreciate each of you for being so concerned about this little mountain paper.

We have always felt the entire Blue Ridge is home to The Mountain Laurel and, while we are not located on a mountain top or beside a bubbling creek, we are still close enough to see the ridges of mountains that encircle Wytheville. Much of Jefferson National Forest is in Wythe County and I-77 has some of the best views of mountain ranges in Southwest Virginia. And, if we ever get homesick for curvy roads, there is an abundance of winding back roads, our favorites, close by.

The location may have changed, but the stories in The Mountain Laurel will remain the same as always. Charlotte Heafner is still in charge of subscriptions and circulation, getting the copies mailed out, I am still writing, editing, and doing the composition and Bob Heafner writes and handles the computer work and helps us both when he can. We are proud to announce that Larry C. Newberry is a new addition to our staff in the position of advertising sales director.

Bob, Charlotte and I, like The Mountain Laurel, are six years older, though I'm not sure wiser. But you'll still find us traveling mountain back roads looking for the beauty of streams and wild flowers; you'll still see us at mountain music gatherings and country general stores like Cockram's in Floyd on Friday night; and you'll still find us talking to old timers everywhere, because they are the ones with stories to tell - true stories that are more fascinating than fiction could ever be. Their way of life is the essence of what The Mountain Laurel has always been about.

Below is our new phone number and address. We have always thought of you as our "family of readers" and many people have told us The Mountain Laurel is like getting a letter from home. We enjoy hearing from you and hope, from our new location, to have more time to devote to producing the best reading yet!

Susan Thigpen, Editor

The Mountain Laurel, 220 South 1st Street, Post Office Box 562, Wytheville, Virginia 24382. Telephone: 703-228-7282 (Local) or (800) 365- 6968 (National Toll Free)

PS. The issues we've missed since February will not count against subscriptions and each subscriber will still receive the full number of issues they purchased.

Dear Mountain Laurel,
Please renew my subscription to The Mountain Laurel. I enjoy the stories of the mountain people.

I fish the trout streams with my husband and have caught some beautiful rainbow [trout].

I am 92 years old and read without glasses.

Best Wishes,
Bessie Kent
Vinton, Virginia

Mountain Laurel:
Enclosed check for another year of the greatest little newspaper in the whole wide world. We read it from cover to cover and a few days later we go back and read it again. Just couldn't make do with out it. It takes us back on a trip down memory lane every month.

Bless you folks for bringing so much joy to so many.

Keep up the good work.
B & D Mays
Bluefield, Virginia

Susan Thigpen, Editor:
I would like to know if any of our Mountain Laurel friends and readers would know the words to the old song or poem "Rueben and Rachel?"

I think it started like so: Rueben, Rueben, I've been thinking, what a grand world this would be, it the men were all transported far beyond the Northern Sea? Then the answer from Rueben to Rachel and so on.

I've wanted the words for so long.

Love the Laurel, keep it going.

Mrs. Elsie Goad Samuel
211 Cox Dr.
Mt. Airy, North Carolina 27030

Gentlemen:
Enclosed is check for two more issues of "The Special Mountain Memories", Collection No. 2. I have enjoyed reading mine so much that I want to purchase two more for gifts.

Your publication has given my husband and me so much pleasure. We love the mountains and reading about the people who have lived there is wonderful.

You and all the staff are doing such a great job.

Please keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
D.C. Staton
Charlotte, North Carolina