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Dear Friends of the Good Old Days,

Each month Janice and I get hundreds of letters and e-mails from readers all across North America. I love hearing from so many of you sharing your lives and your stories from the Good Old Days. In this time of Thanksgiving, Janice and I are thankful to God for each of you.

I recently received a letter from one of our youngest readers, 11-year-old Mariah Zickefoose. Mariah became a reader when she was "little" and visited her grandmother, Betty Jean Burke, who would read to her from the pages of Good Old Days.

Last autumn, Mariah was visiting Betty Jean when they decided to make taffy from a recipe they had found in the magazine.

"About two weeks later," Mariah wrote, "we got together and I had my very first taffy pull. It was so much fun!

"After mixing the ingredients, we put it on the stove to cook. Then we poured it out and let it cool. It was as clear as water, but very sticky.

"We pulled and stretched it until it was white. After that, we twisted it into ropes and cut it with a pair of sharp scissors. It seemed that every time we cut a 'rope' other pieces went flying everywhere. Grandma said she was still prying taffy off the kitchen floor a month later.

Mariah Zickefoose (right) mixes taffy with her sister Kristen and her grandmother Betty Jean Burke.

"After we were all tired, we were ready to try our finished product. I don't know how soft it was when Grandma was little, but our taffy was so sticky and hard we had to let it melt in our mouths! Our teeth stuck together; Grandma even had to take her dentures out to get the sticky stuff off.

"But it was delicious! It tasted better than any Willy Wonka taffy I have ever tasted. It was an experience I will never forget! I'm only 11 years old, but life really was good back in the Good Old Days."

I have said for years that Good Old Days is a vehicle for connecting the generations. I hear from grandparents all the time who buy subscriptions to the magazine for grandchildren hundreds of miles away. It is their way of saying, "This is what life was like when I was your age."

Like Mariah, many of these young readers become "hooked" on these stories of simplicity and character. Many of them would echo the last words of Mariah's letter:

"I love your stories dearly," she wrote. "Who knows? Maybe in 50 or 60 years I can tell my own kids about life back in the Good Old Days!"

'Til next time,

Good Old Days cover

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