Once upon a time there was a place called Vietnam, where over 500,000 US servicemen served.  I was one of them.  This was ancient history.  Before emails, Skype, texting, and Zoom.
My lovely wife wrote me ( a letter in cursive). Every day for the year I was there.  She had the tough job.  She was mom and dad to two kids one and two years old.  I just worked on coming home. 

Close to  Christmas, 1969, Marjorie asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I said a bedspread would be nice. ( i wrote almost every day).  She sent me a page from the Sears and Roebuck catalog ( remember that). I looked at the various  nice bedspreads on the page.  Then I turned the page over. On the reverse there were several spreads, probably aimed at young folks aka kids.
I saw the one I wanted.  It was a “Snoopy” spread with Snoopy flying his dig house with neato scarf and shouting, “Curse you, Red Baron”.  Perfect for Nam and my sick sense of humor.  Marjorie reluctantly sent it to me ( not without criticism from her elder family).   It was the hit of our  Christmas season.  I had a continuous stream of Air Force brothers who visited my room to “let’s go see Scooler’s bedspread”. It gave them a good laugh.   You take your humor where you get it in a war zone.

It was the only Christmas I missed in a 30-year career.  Not bad.  I returned home safely in summer, 1970. Thank the Good Lord!!