The Slice: ‘Thanks’ giving arrives early

It’s troubling when I get shamefully behind on responding to snail-mail submissions from readers.

So if you will indulge me here, I want to send out a few acknowledgments.

Thanks to Maxine Carroll for sharing the story of buying her mother a bird as a gift back in 1940.

Thanks to Ann Johnson for telling about still living in a house her parents bought on the South Hill in 1962.

Thanks to the gentleman in Wallace who doesn’t want me to use his name for the Lana Turner stories.

Thanks to James Burns for his memories of selling Liberty magazine as a boy in Butte.

Thanks to Gary Klingbeil for his observations about the early spring and to Bill Witthuhn for telling me about his U.S. history study guide.

Thanks to Arloine Brown for her recollection of oversleeping on a morning she was supposed to sing on the radio.

Thanks to Anna Huffman for her informed perspective on boat ownership.

Thanks to Sherri Hyams for the story about a mildly obscene phone call from a neighbor boy.

Thanks to Jo Ann Groves for the note about living in a house her parents built in 1938.

Thanks to Dorothy Carter for her story of a loud man on the bus.

Thanks to Jeanette Ping, Brigitta Landreth, Donna Scripture and others for telling about first flights.

Thanks to John Kenney for the story about the marmot that took up residence in a traffic-signal pole.

Thanks to Tara Leininger for the bookmark sporting “Advice from a Marmot.”

Thanks to Lila Kimm for sharing her eggnog recipe.

Thanks to the prison inmate who offered his views on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

And thanks to all the Slice readers who mailed me cards after my mother died. I will not forget your kindness.

Here are a couple more work-inspired nicknames: “People refer to me as ‘The Bra Whisperer,’” wrote Victoria Ferro, who owns Audrey’s Boutique. “I do a lot of bra fittings and I’ll admit it, I’m good at it.”

Deer Park school janitor Gus Kruger is sometimes referred to as “the Gustodian.”

Today’s Slice question: How many people know what you call your spouse/significant other in private?