Christmas in Vietnam

The Slice had asked readers if they have old home movies taken on long-ago Christmas mornings.

Fritz Howard of Lacrosse, Wash., responded with an email.

“Not exactly a home movie,” he wrote. “But when I was in Vietnam the Christmas of 1970, my dad did the most amazing thing. He took a cassette recorder to all my back-home-in-Spokane neighbors and friends and had them wish me a Merry Christmas and provide a short update on their happenings. Then he took their pictures and sequenced them in a book so that as I listened to them on tape, I saw their picture. Oh, my!

“Almost everyone in that photo album is gone now, including my dad. I still have the pictures, but oh how I wish I still had that tape.”