Peace Corps Malaysia

From the Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin to Mike Drooker, May 1969

Dear Herr und Frau Drooker, 

Congratulations! Your letter arrived miraculously late yesterday, and left me flabberstruck and thundergasted! A Drooker alliance has been formed, and we all know where such alliances lead: to more Drookers! And Matson grinches are arising in the Mid East! It is plain I have tarried too long in foreign lands – I must be off, to my homeland at the gates of San Francisco, there to prepare for an onslaught of grinches and gleeks and globbins.

But I fear I may be too late, for I am indisposed momentarily, having been struck down in India with a particularly virulent hepatitis; the doctors here at the Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin

 give me a month or so before they run out of drugs (and my insurance policy expires) at which time I fly to Spain with my parents, to soak up sunshine and bullfights, and gather strength for the coming events. These are: (1) a polar flight straight to San Fran; (2) a car ride to 835 Pine Hill Rd; (3) a short walk to my bedroom; (4) a neat little hop into my bed. I should be fit as a fiddle by Christmas.

My sorrow is that all points east of 835 Pine Hill Rd. must be bypassed, as the north pole has not shifted much lately, so any visitations are out (on my part, at least) for the near future. Isn’t it about time you visited the West Coast? I’ll be there by July – and that remains my address, so don’t write me here: all letters are disinfected by hurling them into incinerators. Give my best to your wife, your mom, and Jane, and Bernie, and keep in touch! It’s nice to have such a good friend. Sam.

From the Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin to Mr. & Mrs. Drooker, June 4, 1969

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Drucker (and Bernie?),

Thank you very much for the get well card. It is the only one I have received since I entered this hospital, and it really cheered me up. Mike must’ve passed on the news to Jane as well, because I got a nice note from her last week. What a good family to know!

My health is very much better now, and I should be discharged in just four more days. I fly to Switzerland with my parents on the ninth, but not, unfortunately, to Lausanne, so I won’t be able to see Jane this time. Then we go to Portugal and England for awhile, and home (nonstop over the Pole). The next time I am on the East Coast, you can bet I’ll drop by Little Nahant, but I can’t see when that will be – perhaps as early as this summer, if my health improves. In any case, thank you for your invitation, and for your concern. 

Yours, Sam.