Childhood Pen-Pal

Recently, I came across some very old letters.

When I was in Junior High, my school sponsored a pen-pal program. We put our names on a list and were assigned students from around the world (mostly in Europe, I think) with similar interests, to be our pen-pals.

I was assigned a girl named Kim Wallen, (I don't have the letters with me - I think Kim was her first name - Wallen was definitely her last name). She was from The Netherlands. We both loved popular music.

I was 13 or 14 years old and my musical tastes were still developing. I remember I wrote to her of my love for Barry Manilow's music. She had never heard of him but promised to give him a listen. In a later letter, Kim told me she had found out who Barry was. She also told me that she was a big Pink Floyd fan. This disturbed me, at the time, because the kids in school who liked Pink Floyd did NOT like me. I began to wonder if Kim was a "hood" and did drugs. But, I continued writing. She told me a big hit in her country at the time, was Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill". This confused me because it was an old song. She explained later that it was a re-release in her country.

After a few more correspondences like this, I got another letter from "Kim". It was written in completely different handwriting - the letters were written in print instead of cursive handwriting. In this letter, she condemned funk and soul music, saying she had no interest in it and hated the way it sounded. This was the last letter I got from her, as I stopped writing. I figured if she did not like soul music, then we had absolutely nothing in common. I was not interested in knowing anything more about Kim. The fun had ended for me.

Recently, I found out that the name given to the Red-Light district in Amsterdam is de Wallen. I found this coincidence to be intriguing. It also makes me wonder if my childhood pen-pal was actually who she said she was.