USO Canteen FReeper Style....Monday Mail Call....May 13,2002

FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

Our troops need our support and encouragement. They are away from home, some for the first time, and usually lonely or discouraged. It is important for us to reach out and help them in the same way we would want someone to reach out to our loved ones if and when they are in the same position.

They answered their call and we are answering theirs offering them the USO Canteen FReeper Style each day and thanking them for serving.

This is IN Coming Mail from some of those serving now.

We at the USO Canteen FReeper Style, a running thread at Free Republic, are proud to support our Military. The mail comes in from contacting some of our Military Bases, Marine Corps Leagues , and friends and family of those serving now. Also from responses at the wonderful P.O.Box that 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub has made so easily available to each of us here at Free Republic.

They are writing to those that frequent the FReeper USO Canteen to thank you for your support.

I work with damage-control and small-boats on a guided missile destroyer,I just want to thank you at the Canteen for your support. Thank you for being there for all of us. Sometimes you feel like you are all alone out here, then I get online and get to read the Canteen.
My girl broke up with me right before I left. I guess that could be the story for a lot of us .
My mom is all I have back home and she can’t afford a computer . She writes to me when she can and it is good to hear from her.
A buddy back at the base told me about an email he got from a creature with a heart, named Snow Bunny. It had the web address for Free Republic and told how the founder had been a Navy man and how everyone respected him. That he was a heck of a guy and had this place at Free Republic called the Canteen.
One lonely day I checked it out and sat here with , darn it anyway, tears rolling down my face.
I never saw anything like it in my life. OH I have surfed the web in school before I enlisted, but this is a whole new ballgame. The Canteen is my home now away from home.
All of you make a difference and your support means more then you may know. One of the things that makes it more real to me then just a place on the web are several things I’d like to share with you.
You know you all can be serious and then on a dime laugh and have fun and I like that. I like the way the day gears down just like life at home does. When you have done your business in the day and sit around with friends in the evening and cut up.
None of us here could be intense all day and the way the Canteen moves into night is why it feels so much like home too.
Thanks for being there .

Mark A.

Command Master Chief , right before 9-11 my wife and I had just gotten settled in our new home. I have 3 kids and a beautiful wife. Then I was transferred to Norfolk and then shipped out.
I missed Christmas but I know being here has helped preserve our freedom for the future. Only have a minute this time to write Snow Bunny. I know that other stuff I asked you not to pass on helped me to be able to share when I needed it most.
This time I do want you to pass something on to someone.
Whoever has a fan here and please tell whoever that for me. I wasn’t sure if whoever was a man or woman at first, but then I watched the reactions and the tenderness and could tell. So thanks for what you bring in your basket when you visit the Canteen.
I read every thread all the way through and it is powerful stuff. Thanks Snow Bunny for caring so much about us and making a place I can see others that care too.

Stephen A.

Air Force Sgt

Hey Snow Bunny, I am Charlie, just Charlie OK !!!!
Thanks for the Canteen from my heart .
I guess you can call me a lurker but that sure sounds weird. I can’t enter in but I can tell you I have read every day of the Canteen since March.I can’t get to it every day, so I go back and see what I missed when I do have the time.
Some of the ones I like are the one you call HiJinx, 4TheFlag,and you call this one Tonkin. Tell that Tonkin guy the Air Force knows how to spell. LOL , Victoria Delsoul and a mystomachisturning. You have to change that name beautiful girl, with your bubbly personality , AFVetGal one of our own, and this one gets me every time, Deadhead. That one reminds me of a rock group, but I have a crush on Deadhead and SassyMom.
Snow Bunny thanks for making it so I could write to you. Someday maybe I can tell you more about me. But you have been supper about it with a friend of mine and he said Bunny is AOK.

Hang in there and we will too.
Our friend,
Charlie

Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class

It is because of you all and your support and caring about us, that I am strengthened and makes me proud to serve our country. Please tell SAMWolf , my brother could use his talents. I saw where he was the head scrounger at the Canteen. I think my kid brother is headed in that direction when he gets in the Army. Bad boy turned “Bad Boy” in many ways and a heart as big as a ship.
Whoever whoever is, could you tell this whoever being that I have saved and sent a lot of things from whoever to my nephew and his wife. They have the time to pass it on to the rest of the family. Tell whoever thanks for the fun stories and jokes.
Snow Bunny, thanks for doing this for me. I never met anyone like you, not sure how I could thank you enough and Billie. So please know that you are making a difference out here and if your ears are burning it is because we are talking about you in awesome ways. God just gave some people bigger hearts and you Snow Bunny and Billie are two girls that got them.
God bless you all at the Canteen and thank you Free Republic for being all to so many of us.
James K.L.

Air Force 1st Lt

Mr. Jim Robinson and ladies and gentlemen of the Canteen. Thank you for your magnificent support and dedication, day in day out for all of us. You make a difference in my life. I printed out a copy of the logo for Free Republic with the Eagle and all and have it inside on my plane. Just so you know it is right next to a very sexy blonde. I didn’t think you would mind. Apple pie and moms and sexy blondes are all American.
I just wanted you to know your efforts are noticed and not just by me.
Your support means we have Americans that care about us and that goes a long way believe me.

Tim B.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks. :-) One more...

A tourist was admiring the necklace worn by a local Indian.

"What is it made of?" she asked.

"Alligator's teeth," the Indian replied.

"I suppose," she said patronizingly, "that they mean as much to you as pearls do to us."

"Oh no," he objected. "Anybody can open an oyster."

Victoria

[SAMWolf]

Hey, I never said I wouldn't dance with you. I said I that no one would rent me a Limo to pick you up.

[SpookBrat]

Hi conserve-it. :)

[Jen]

Those aren't 'my' squirrel pix. Sam (who else) found them. I haven't tried squirrel fishing yet. But I am definitely going to get that Yankee Flipper feeder. You must see the video. It's a scream. Turn your speakers on too for the music and squirrel 'commentary.'

[Jen]

DD, are you going through initiation into the Bad Boyz club or something? Just let us know and we'll be sure to tell you and everybody else how 'bad' you are...

[SAMWolf]

How about 6 x 12?

[Snow Bunny]

..."Pardon the intrusion".....

Dave are you OK.....The Canteen is here for you always Dave. We care about you very much.

And I was touched by the post earlier, it was wonderful.
You know what Dave, I lost my Father and I adored him, then I lost my mom, sister , brother. My Aunts and Uncles have all passed away as I was adopted when they were all much older.My sister leaving 3 grown children.
I would give anything to see my Daddy one more time. ONe day for a whole day just to sit near him and see his smile and shining eyes and wonderful laugh.

That post was so precious and you deserve it.

The reason I am saying all this long stuff is just to say that when we are alive is when we should let others know how we love them. I was always telling me family and now they are gone. But I can know in my heart they knew I loved them and I know they loved me.

I thank you for your family, they are precious and we are honored to meet them little by little. Logan and now shelshubby.

Let them hug you in a post and know you do deserve it.

And honest you are a Canteener and it is never an intrusion.And to tell another we love them , to give a hug to those we care about in word or deed is what we have plus memories if we ever loose them.

God bless you and your family.

[MistyCA]

LOL! That squirrel flipper is funny, Jen! lolol!

[SpookBrat]

Oh wow, you got a good version of that song too. That is soooooo funny. Man, I gotta tell you...I can dream the strangest things. I am going to write a book some day about all my dreams. Here is another one...

I dreamt this when I was a kid. The scene is like a western movie and there is my mom, me and several other people sitting around a table playing poker. We are all dressed like cowboys. I was trying to cheat my mom and she shot me underneath the table, just like Gunsmoke. ROFL!! Ugh!!!!! Good Lord, what a nightmare! LOL I'll always remember that dream. I think I cried then, but I laugh about it now. LOL

[Jen]

Yeah, but not for long. Soon those squirrels will be riding their own version of a turbopowered merry-go-round. Fling! Splat! Buh-bye Rocky.

[SAMWolf]

You practising your stand-up routine for when you move to Oregon?

[Snow Bunny]

HI GG, I wish I could post all the letters , but so many of them I can't, they ask me to just keep it confidential about what they do or where they are. I honor their requests always.

Great to see you!!! Hope you are having a wonderful evening.

[Jen]

I don't want to kill them. I just want them to eat somewhere else and leave my bird food alone.

[Mr_Magoo]

One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant. Before long it exploded into flames and an alarm went out to fire Departments from miles around. After fighting the fire for over an hour, the chemical company president approached the fire chief and said, “All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved! I will give $50,000 to the engine company that brings them out safely!”

As soon as the chief heard this, he ordered the firemen to strengthen their attack on the blaze. After two more hours of attacking the fire, president of the company offered $100,000 to the engine company that could bring out the company’s secret files.

From the distance a long siren was heard and another fire truck came into sight. It was a local volunteer fire company composed entirely of men over 65. To everyone’s amazement the little fire engine raced through the chemical plant gates and drove straight into the middle of the inferno. In the distance the other firemen watched as the old timers hopped off of their rig and began to fight the fire with an effort that they had never seen before.

After an hour of intense fighting the volunteer company had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas. Joyous the chemical company president announced that he would double the reward to $200,000 and walked over to personally thank each of the volunteers.

After thanking each of the old men individually the president asked the group what they intended to do with the money. The fire truck driver looked him right in the eye and said - “The first thing we’re going to do is fix the blasted brakes on that truck!”

[Snow Bunny]

LOL.

I also told the duck one to FallGuy and he loves it. hahahahahahaa

[SAMWolf]

I was trying to cheat my mom and she shot me underneath the table, just like Gunsmoke.

That's how we handle card sharks in South Dakota!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Well said, Bunny. Thanks for your thoughtful post.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Yeah! How do you know? LOL!

[GatorGirl]

Hi Dave, my FRiend! Long time no see!!

Don't anyone believe these self-depreciating comments. Anyone who is a special FRiend of Gator Girl (that includes everyone who visits or lurks at the Canteen) is pretty special, period!

(((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))) Gator Girl

[MistyCA]

LOL...the moose is funny!