How the Salutations

Became Titles

When i decided to be in love i needed

a suitable object for my affections. I

wanted to be able to write letters to

whoever that might be. I would lay out

my whole philosophy of life, sure that

i could persuade the candidate to

respond in similar vein. Perhaps vain

would be a more appropriate spelling;

as i seemed to want to be in love with

myself with an excuse to write.

I was nineteen at that time and a

third class signalman in the United

States navy. I was serving on the USS

Erie, a gunboat equipped as an ambasa-

dorial ship and based in the Panama

Canal Zone. We visited Central and

South American ports on good will

trips and, of course, to show the flag.

The admiral, who was the navy

head of the Central and South Ameri-

can Frontier had a stateroom on this

ship. He invited dignitaries to dances

on the fantail deck. We had a navy band

as part of our crew. Among many places

we visited regularly was the Galapagos

Islands five hundred miles east of

Ecuador where the admiral fished.

I was unable to find a suitable

candidate for a lover and so i wrote my

letters to “My Intended.” Occasionally

one of these letters talked of my life in

the navy and the places we visited, and

i would change the salutation to “Dear

Folks” and send it to my parents.

When i was transferred from the

Erie and later sent to England to train

signalmen for the small boats in the

Normandy invasion, i went on leave

first. There i met a Georgia peach who

was to become “My Intended.” The

salutation became “My Dear Louise.”

These letters were not love letters yet,

but were intended, as before, as letters

of information about myself.

After we won the war against Nazi

Germany I came back to the United

States on the USS Borum on which i

had served in the English Channel

during the war. While on leave Louise

became “My Intended.”

Louise and i had a happy marriage

for 54 years. She died when she was 78

with Parkinson’s Disease.

Now i have decided to love every-

one and my missives (now usually short

poems) have titles instead of salutations.

The titles describe what is on my mind

when i write them.

Walt Abbott–3-30-2011