In August the Ken Burns documentary, “The War,” was being rebroadcast on public television across the country.
I happened to be going through the channels one evening and was lucky enough to come across the film and found myself watching for hours.
The reason I figured the “The War” was being broadcast across the country is because on Saturday, Aug. 29, we received a letter in our Star Herald mailbox.
The letter was from Ms. Frances Liotta, Clinton Corners, New York. The postal cancelation mark was from Albany, New York, and was dated Aug. 25, 2015.
The letter was addressed to Mr. Quentin Aanenson c/o newspaper Editor, Mr. Al McIntosh Luverne, Minn. The ZIP code of 56156 was obviously written on the envelope by someone else.
There was no box number or street address written on the envelope, yet it only took four days to get here. I can’t get the Star Herald delivered to Arizona in four weeks, yet this letter made it to us in four days.
In her note, Frances writes that in 1942 when she was 18 years old, she worked at the Republic Aviation plant in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. She worked on the P-47 Thunderbolt, which was the kind of plane Quentin flew in World War II.
Truth is, I have no idea how the letter found its way to Luverne so quickly, but this is what I would like to think happened.
With no box number or street address on the envelope, I imagine the letter got kicked out of the electronic sorting machine and into the hands of a real person.
That real person happened to be watching “The War” on public television and recognized the Aanenson and McIntosh names.
My guess is that the real person at the Albany Post Office was either a veteran or a patriotic citizen and took it upon him- or herself to help the letter get to Luverne by writing the correct ZIP code on the envelope.
Once the letter found its way to Luverne, the good folks at the local office put the letter in Box 837, and the next day it landed on my desk.
When “The War” is shown on public television, more times than not we get some sort of request about Luverne or the cast of local veterans that were featured in the film.
The 10th anniversary of the premiere of “The War” at the historic Palace Theatre is just two years away.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could bring producer Ken Burns and actor Tom Hanks (the voice of Al McIntosh) to Luverne for a 10th anniversary remembrance premiere?
It’s just a thought.