I used to have a penfriend

Dedicated to


Helen
Maura


I used to have a penfriend.
It was back in 1969. there was a radio station called 208, because they were broadcasting on this wave length on the medium wave band.
Actually, they were broadcasting from Luxembourg, Radio Tele Luxembourg, a station which broadcast in German during the day, Dutch in the afternoon, and English at night. One day they came up with the foundation of a pen pal club. I applied, and got several pen friends in Britain and Ireland. I'm still in contact with one of them, Ken. 
It was this young man's idea to not only exchange written letters but also so-called message tapes, small reels which held some 10 minutes of music and talk, or rather 2 x 10 minutes, after swapping the two reels, so that the tracks on the other side of the tape could also be played.
Another pen friend was Helen, she used to live in Southern England. At first we exchanged letters, and later we also exchanged small message tapes, two or three of them which I still have.
One day I decided that I had too many penfriends and I  wanted to reduce their number, a decision which I've regretted until today! 
It was like those friends had trusted me and I sent them  letters suggesting the ending of our relations as penpals. 
I blame it on the liberty and easiness of the life as the youngster who I was.