Former RSVP Member Still Spreading Cheer

From the Star Tribune:

Who needs blogs when you have 'Morning Memo'?
Article by: GAIL ROSENBLUM, Star Tribune
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Alice Thompson wants you to wake up to something "that's not depressing." So today's column is about ...

Alice Thompson.

Every Monday and Thursday since 2002, first on a PC called the I-Opener, and now on a seven-year-old Dell, Thompson has pounded out her lively missives to delighted readers from coast to coast.

"I didn't know I was talented, if you call it that," said Thompson, author of the "Morning Memo," which she calls MM. "I just knew there were things I wanted to say and I said them."

Thompson, who turned 92 on Sept. 6, will be saying them in her inimitable style on Sept. 15, when she pushes "send" on her 1,000th Morning Memo. This is what Thompson plans to write to mark the milestone:

"This is my 1,000th Morning Memo."

Thompson laughs. "I used to say that 1,000 would be the end of it. But I'm going to keep on."

Why not? Her fan base is growing. From 25 family members and friends, she now e-mails MM to more than 1,000 readers -- male, female, young, not-so-young. Take that, bloggers.

Add another 700 or so who read her in the Waubay, S.D., Clipper, under the heading, "Morning Memos by Alice Thompson." They're getting the edited version, though. "They sometimes take out my dirty jokes," said Thompson, sitting in the living room of her downtown Minneapolis condo, its walls featuring watercolors and framed embroidery.

MM began after Thompson had a hip replacement and the former world traveler (Denmark, Mexico, Paris) asked herself, "What the heck am I going to do now? I decided to do something that didn't require walking."

Something, too, "that would bring a little cheer to others," Thompson said.

MM started out "pretty corny," with tidbits about her daily doings: doctors' appointments, cleaning, shopping. Now it's filled with world news, politics, jokes, book and movie recommendations (see "Midnight in Paris"), weather reports, recipes and gentle mandates: "Go ye out to the farmer's market or grocery store, buy an ear of the wonderful Minnesota sweet corn."

She talks about her wheelchair, Jazzy, as though it were a treasured pet, and of her grandson's first steps. She quotes Gandhi and the Onion, shares contact information for a man who repairs RVs, and updates readers on the East Coast floods (via a daughter in Connecticut). She encourages readers to contribute, which they do.

"I play to my public quite a bit," Thompson said. That public loves her poetry, including this one:

Let that tree stand, proud/ Nurturing to struggling earth.

Let it not age and wither and die before its time.

Let it grow lovelier/With passing seasons,

Dropping tiny leaf messages to passersby:

"See this beautiful universe."

"Order is heaven's first law."

"There is a time for everything."

Let that tree stand, brave/ Ignoring lightning, wind and blight,

With each turbulence growing stronger,

Wisely using its power

Fitting sky to earth and earth to sky.

Let that tree stand,

A symbol generations can build their thoughts on,

Mute proof of Nature's total power over all.

Thompson was born in Waubay, the youngest of six children and the only girl. She attended the University of Minnesota, then moved to New York where she "dated almost every guy on Long Island. A sad batch," Thompson said. "Not a one with any get up and go."

She later moved to California and worked as a secretary and sang on military bases. Twice divorced, she has three grown children and that busy 1-year-old grandson.

Norma Gaffron, 79, of New Brighton, eagerly awaits Thompson's twice-weekly e-mails. She's never met Thompson, but feels she knows her. "She lets us into her life, as far as the ups and downs," Gaffron said. "She'll talk about politics, but she'll never rile you up. She is honest about her physical problems, but she never whines.

"I don't need Facebook," Gaffron said. "I have Alice."

You can, too. To join her mailing list, e-mail her at alicet@earthlink.net