Every night at 5 in 1961 I would watch the CBC TV show Razzle Dazzle hosted by Suzanne Somers’ husband, Alan Hamel. I had entered a writing contest and was eagerly waiting to hear if I won a pen with my “meatless meat pie” essay. A few weeks later I found out that I had indeed won a Razzle Dazzle pen for my story. It’s just what we did in those days. We had pen pals, and we wrote letters everywhere to try and win prizes. At least I did.
In December of 1959 young Patsy William of R. R. 2 Carleton Place wrote a letter to Uncle Ray’s Mail Bag in the Ottawa Citizen. Uncle Ray’s Mail Bag was a syndicated Canadian column that was extremely popular.
Dear Uncle Ray,
I have been reading your column for several years and I find it very interesting. I especially like the puzzles, but the letters are interesting too. I am 13 years old and my birthday is March 13th. My hobbies are stamp collecting, reading, and sports (skating and swimming). I have two sisters and two brothers. Wendy is 9 years old has her birthday on February 18th and would like to join the club too. Susan is 8 and her birthday is August 8 would like to join also . Can you send us three pins?
We live on a farm near Carleton Place. The Mississippi River is just two hundred yards from our door step, so we go swimming every day in the river. When it turns cold we skate on the river too. My brother is also interested in magic tricks, so I am wondering if you could send me a leaflet on different tricks and how to perform them
Patsy Williams, River Bend Farm RR2 Carleton Place.
Of course Uncle Ray wrote back and told Patsy it must be nice to live by a river, and to make sure the ice was thick enough to carry them if they went on it in the winter. He sent them each a pin and said they were now proud members of Uncle Ray’s Mail Bag Club as well as a leaflet for magic trick instructions for her brother. He hoped one day they would become efficient magicians.
Clipped from
UPDATE-
Llew Lloyd SAID: Patsy Williams,(she prefers Patricia ), wrote a column for The Daily Commercial News for years . She was still writing , but for a different construction oriented publication when I last met her at an Ontario Road Builders Association approximately 8 years ago.
A parody of Uncle Ray– if you offend easy, don’t watch it
lindaseccaspina 