How a three-year-old's Christmas wish became a writer's first taste of being heard
People often ask me when I started writing.
Well, here's a secret most of you don't know: my first published words went out over the airwaves in December 1958. I was three years old.
I dictated a letter to Santa Claus, which my mother dutifully transcribed and sent to a local radio station. And then—this is the part that still gives me chills—I heard a broadcaster read MY words on the air.
What did this future historian request? A large fire truck and doll buggies for my twin sisters. (Santa had already hidden them in our car, but I didn't know that yet.)
I don't remember the broadcaster's voice or which station it was. But my mother captured the moment in a letter to her parents, and now, decades later, I'm holding that evidence in my hands.
That radio broadcast was my first taste of what it feels like to put words out into the world and have strangers receive them. The medium has changed—from radio waves to printed pages to your screens right now—but that fundamental thrill? Still the same.
The three-year-old asking Santa for fire trucks had no idea he'd grow up to write 5 (so far) Delaware history books. But maybe, just maybe, that moment planted a seed.
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Recently, I've been going through old mementos and scanning some. Every year, I'd give my 16 year younger twin brothers something for Christmas or birthday. Apparently our mother made them write me thank you letters. I have been collecting and noting how their writing and penmanship changed. I don't remember the letters or what I gave them, so it was a nice jog to my memory. And I'm sending each one their letters once I've gathered them all for a laugh at 66.
You also jogged my memory of the time my twin brother Roger and I, at seven, after about two months of piano lessons from the 16-year-old girl from upstairs renting, we were invited to play one afternoon at the local radio station.
We seemed to have lost our ability to play and were greatly embarrassed along with the announcer. Stage fright kept me from performing for a long time.
Ron