Faunce House mailbox dreams are not always rosy as they were for Brian Lies ’85  (“Mailbox Dreams,” Finally, July/August). The summer before Brown, my parents took our family to Shelter Island, N.Y., for a vacation. We stayed at Menantic Grove House, a boarding house near the water. There I met a fifteen-year-old girl from Brooklyn (we were from Stamford, Connecticut).  I was only seventeen myself. What was it about the light hair on her suntanned arms or her eagerness to take a rowboat ride? I had a feeling of euphoria. It was puppy love! We agreed to correspond when we returned to school.

At Brown, I looked forward to the blue-enveloped letters I saw in my box. Not too long afterward, it happened…the letter said “Dear John” or its equivalent. I was brokenhearted. My grades weren’t doing well either. Fortunately, my grades improved and by my senior year I even had a girlfriend at Brown. But I will never forget those blue envelopes in my PO box.

Pete Swenson ’60
Raleigh, N.C.

The article “Mailbox Dreams” by Brian Lies ’85 reminded me of a similar article by Maggie Rosen ’85 in the February 1994 issue of the Brown Alumni Monthly. In response to the earlier article, a number of alumni shared that they had a similar dream.  For me, the dreams have stopped, but I did buy my Box 3619 to retain the fond memories of picking up mail at the Faunce House post office.

Irv Lustig ’83, ’83 ScM
Short Hills, N.J.