When I was a child, my parents always received a Christmas card on the day after Thanksgiving. It was a very nice card and was signed by 'Eugene Zundel'. It wasn't a card sent out by a business. That card marked the beginning of our holiday season and was happily received.
The only problem is that no one in the family had the faintest idea who Eugene Zundel was. The closest we could come that he might have been someone my father knew in the Army but the name was odd enough that he would have remembered it.
Recently, Mr. Thipu and I have started getting something similar. Again, it's a nice card. The address is correct and the return address is some states away. We have neither met nor heard of this family.
Another little mystery is that the sender is almost certainly a Civil War Re-enactor, because the card is always signed by 'General X and family' and inside, the cheery Christmas message is addressed to 'Colonel Y'. The card is always in a late 19th century style.
We looked around and found that the names are the names of real Civil War officers.
We have a few friends who are also Civil War Re-enactors and we've talked to them about this. They're as mystified as we are. None of them have ever met this guy and don't know how he got our address.
Still, it's a cozy thing to get the Christmas card from the General.
Any other, pleasant Holiday mysteries out there?
