When I was middle-school age, I spent my first whole week away from home at New Life Ranch. Probably realizing that I might get homesick, I asked my sister and brothers to write me while I was at camp.
Fool that I was.
Oh course, instead of the loving, hand-written epistles I'd hoped to receive, I got...a collage. The sort of twisted, sarcastic, acerbic, witty creation that belongs in Mad Magazine.
To be honest, I was a wee bit upset that my dear siblings twitted me when I was — sniff! sniff! — homesick. Thank God they did.
From then on, every time I went away from home for any extended period, including both summers I spent in Florida, I received a similar collage.
I'm pretty sure that this one is not the original. By the date (1996), it can't be. But it is the earliest, I think, of the three that I found. Hopefully, I'll unearth the missing collages someday and share them with you, too.
