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Post by goldilocks on May 9, 2019 16:04:13 GMT -5
I came upon some letters and audio from Forrest to Bill Briggs which I found interesting and wanted to share. I apologize if this is old news but it is new to me. He talks about his time in Vietnam, hunting for artifacts in Texas and old Indian camps, a special place he used to visit with Peggy, "illusion lakes" and so much more. Love to hear what everyone thinks and what we can take away from them. Interesting to note, a few of the files say last updated March 2019 and even more interesting to note is the varied handwriting of the letters. vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/agents/people/1249 |
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Post by zaphod73491 on May 9, 2019 16:48:06 GMT -5
Hi Goldilocks -- yep, I've been listening to those tapes over the last few months when I have spare moments. They can be a little hard to hear at times, but they are a fascinating "slice of life" from that Vietnam era. You get a real sense for how articulate Forrest is -- that lack of formal "edumication" hasn't hurt him none.
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Post by goldilocks on May 31, 2020 16:44:08 GMT -5
Hi Goldilocks -- yep, I've been listening to those tapes over the last few months when I have spare moments. They can be a little hard to hear at times, but they are a fascinating "slice of life" from that Vietnam era. You get a real sense for how articulate Forrest is -- that lack of formal "edumication" hasn't hurt him none. Hi Zap, I've been looking over these letters today and noticed something interesting. In the letter to James and Bill dated Nov. 2, 1968 which is 3 pages long I feel like the handwriting on page 1 is a little more wild than pages 2 and 3. Handwriting can change slightly if the letter was written over 2 different days for example, but the handwriting difference varies from one page to the next, mid sentence at the top of page 2. I don't doubt all the pages are written by Forrest but I'm wondering if pgs. 2 and 3 were added more recently. Page 2 has many poem words - halt, heavy, high, canyon, "wooded" area, "drawing short", and words maybe relating to blaze (burn, incendiary - he spelled it incindiary). Could page 1 have been the original and pages 2 and 3 added after the fact and therefore may include hints to our hunt? Also, the paper on 2 of these letters was written on what appear to be wide ruled, lined, 1" margin legal notepad paper. Did that even exist in 1968? |
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Post by goldilocks on May 31, 2020 17:47:13 GMT -5
uh oh...I can't seem to open any of these ttu links anymore - good thing I printed the letters.
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Post by zaphod73491 on May 31, 2020 19:39:08 GMT -5
Goldilocks: haven't looked at the Briggs correspondence in months but do recall that Forrest's handwriting is somewhat variable. It was those letters (and particularly the misspelling of license in one of them) that confirmed for me that the note pad "with get gas" next to the phone in SB 107 was written by Forrest, not Peggy. I think I saved copies of those letters on my computer if the links really are down.
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Post by chesttroll on May 31, 2020 20:09:06 GMT -5
I listened to those tapes a while back and read the letters as well. I thought I heard ff say he would change his hand writing style just to be different. I cannot recall where I heard that so please take it with a grain of salt. You can really see his passion for Indian artifact from those letters.
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Post by zaphod73491 on May 31, 2020 21:28:48 GMT -5
I listened to those tapes a while back and read the letters as well. I thought I heard ff say he would change his hand writing style just to be different. I cannot recall where I heard that so please take it with a grain of salt. You can really see his passion for Indian artifact from those letters. Hi Chestroll: it would be great if someone can dig up a source for Forrest's deliberate changing of handwriting. We ~do~ have one known example: Forrest has said he forged his father's signature on a report card if I'm not mistaken. (Away from my computer, so can't look up the reference for that.) Still, it would be a little odd to change handwriting midstream with a close friend while exchanging letters from Vietnam. |
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Post by chesttroll on May 31, 2020 22:40:55 GMT -5
I listened to those tapes a while back and read the letters as well. I thought I heard ff say he would change his hand writing style just to be different. I cannot recall where I heard that so please take it with a grain of salt. You can really see his passion for Indian artifact from those letters. Hi Chestroll: it would be great if someone can dig up a source for Forrest's deliberate changing of handwriting. We ~do~ have one known example: Forrest has said he forged his father's signature on a report card if I'm not mistaken. (Away from my computer, so can't look up the reference for that.) Still, it would be a little odd to change handwriting midstream with a close friend while exchanging letters from Vietnam. I agree Zaphod, it would be odd. I will try and find where I heard that tomorrow. I had a prior thought when I did read those letters; I wondered if ff's rank allowed for a secretary of sorts? One who could write the letter for him or put a recording to words for a letter to be mailed? |
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Post by goldilocks on Jun 1, 2020 7:47:20 GMT -5
I'd like to post the letters so people can see what I'm talking about but I'm not able to without a URL. I believe there used to be a link that said add attachment...does anyone know how to add a photo without a URL address? Also, does anyone know why the letters/audio tapes are no longer found on the TTU site? The audio recordings can be found on YouTube which other searchers posted and I have the letters but strange we can no longer access on TTU website...
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Post by van on Jun 1, 2020 18:12:26 GMT -5
I'd like to post the letters so people can see what I'm talking about but I'm not able to without a URL. I believe there used to be a link that said add attachment...does anyone know how to add a photo without a URL address? Also, does anyone know why the letters/audio tapes are no longer found on the TTU site? The audio recordings can be found on YouTube which other searchers posted and I have the letters but strange we can no longer access on TTU website... I have been using google photos to create a URL, in-order-to add pic. Its free. |
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Post by chesttroll on Jun 1, 2020 18:21:44 GMT -5
Hi Chestroll: it would be great if someone can dig up a source for Forrest's deliberate changing of handwriting. We ~do~ have one known example: Forrest has said he forged his father's signature on a report card if I'm not mistaken. (Away from my computer, so can't look up the reference for that.) Still, it would be a little odd to change handwriting midstream with a close friend while exchanging letters from Vietnam. I agree Zaphod, it would be odd. I will try and find where I heard that tomorrow. I had a prior thought when I did read those letters; I wondered if ff's rank allowed for a secretary of sorts? One who could write the letter for him or put a recording to words for a letter to be mailed? I could not find where I read or heard about changing writing styles so for safety sake, I would omit that comment. However, did you notice all the ff signatures at the end of the letters? They all look the same. |
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Post by brianu on Jun 1, 2020 20:03:41 GMT -5
I learned about how people sign letters when they're writing to and from... Interestingly I forget this very often with my entire mailbox. Either way, I've noticed that Fenn signs his letters. Look a squirrel 😀
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Post by woollybugger on Jun 2, 2020 3:46:30 GMT -5
I'd like to post the letters so people can see what I'm talking about but I'm not able to without a URL. I believe there used to be a link that said add attachment...does anyone know how to add a photo without a URL address? Also, does anyone know why the letters/audio tapes are no longer found on the TTU site? The audio recordings can be found on YouTube which other searchers posted and I have the letters but strange we can no longer access on TTU website... Hi Goldilocks - you could upload to Google Drive and link. Appreciate your willingness to share! |
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Post by goldilocks on Jun 2, 2020 10:07:50 GMT -5
Here are the Forrest/Bill Griggs letters that were originally posted on the TTU website but can no longer be accessed. The one I had the question about originally is the last one here dated Nov. 2, 1968. IMO the handwriting changes from the first page of his letter to the last two pages (which happen to be the pages that contain many poem words). The writing in red are my notes - no idea what they mean anymore! Also, I am not at all familiar with the confidentiality protocol regarding war time correspondence but it seems to me a lot of detail was shared regarding bombings etc. in these letters. Jan. 30 1968
Feb. 15 1968
June 5, 1968July/Aug. 1968
Aug. 26, 1968
Sept. 1, 1968
Nov. 2, 1968 |
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Post by woollybugger on Jun 2, 2020 11:06:13 GMT -5
Wow these are great goldilocks thanks so much for sharing! I think I see what you mean about the handwriting, but to me it strikes me as someone who looked at the first page they wrote and tried to improve their penmanship on the latter. The really peculiar thing to me is that it looks like he went back through and lowercased all the g's after he had written them as G. Really curious. |
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