AUNT HILDA'S LETTER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 3 February 1934, Page 26 (Supplement)

AUNT HILDA'S LETTER.

FIRST AND FURTHEST COO-EES. An Answering Echo Down the Years. J)EAR STARLETS,— Jolly are we! Coo-ee, coo-ee! Jolly are we! For the answers to the “Coo-ee ” in our last Saturday’s page came from far and near. And when early on Monday morning I saw the pile of replies and knew that each little writer fiad sent a very quick and earnest answer straight to my call, well, frankly, I hated having to say which was first. But there it was, in the first letter opened, written by Max Cooper. Quickly others followed from big houses, little houses, rich homes, frugal homes, but always with a lilt and a jolly tone of friendliness in each one. We’re all going to love our work this year, even better than we did last, and the stamps bought for Starland work are going to finish off the depression properly ! Ha ! Ha ! There’s nothing like optimism ! And how the busy trains hustled, and the postman ran, and the ®ffice boys simply FLEW with the echoes of the glad “Coo-ee.” Oh! It was fun! But there was a better and deeper coo-ee than all these. For in the social notes I read of a Starlet and her jolly 21st birthday, and Starland sent her a 44 coo-ee ” too. Older readers will remember Starlet Gladys Davie and here is an extract from her reply:—“ln closing, Aunt Hilda, let me once again thank you and tell you that I have learnt much from your weekly letters, and I hope I shall never be too old to read them and take your friendly counsel.” So whether it echoes across the miles, across the hills, across the differences in wealth and position or only back across the years a bit, it carries the same old message that once you’ve been a Starlet, we are all linked in interest and friendship right through our lives together. I want you all many years after to meet and greet thus: “Were YOU a Starlet? Then if you were, we’re friends.” Like the children you go to school with. Later in life chords echo in your memory that no other episode can awaken, and all else dwindles in your happy re-union. Sharing your little treats together, and teasing each other about the “bull’s eyes” on your pants! You’ll remember when you get there—when the years have added richness of experience and wisdom and poverty in some of the things that only childhood is rich in. So again, for the sleepy ones, the lazy ones, we call louder and longer this week 44 Hey! Coo-ee. Come here! Come along in! Coo-ee.” I will reprint the list of marks to-night, which you must clip out and keep in a notebook. When you have 25 marks, post in your book, which will be returned to you, plus the certificate. You may start any time. I hope to have another jolly surprise in a short time for the younger ones, a week or two, something nice for the page. And how do you like our brand new heading to-night? Now, Coo-ee! Coo-ee! Ah! I see you've heard it! Hurrah!