12/17/2006

Northern People

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Dick and Hedy Rewalt received a Christmas card from their friends Roy and Betty Stern of New Orleans in 1953. Dick signed the card and sent it back the following Christmas, sparking a back-and-forth tradition that continues today.

Repeating greetings: A twist on recycling

Friends have sent same Christmas card for 54 years

By Tom Carr

tcarr@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Dick and Hedy Rewalt first received the card from their friends in 1953.

TRAVERSE CITY — Dick Rewalt received a Christmas card this year that is about as well traveled as Santa's sleigh.

He and an old Navy buddy, Roy Stern, have been sending the often-signed, well-worn card back and forth since 1953. Most of the time it's gone between Dick and Hedy Rewalt in Grosse Pointe Woods and Roy and Betty Stern in Gonzales, La. The Rewalts moved to Traverse City in 2001.

"We figure it's traveled about 75,000 miles,” Rewalt said.

The card has a picture of four snowmen on the cover, with tape holding it together at the creases. Inside, the original printed verse — "Happy hearts and happy homes are filled with old-time cheer/And it's time for two grand wishes: Merry Christmas! Glad New Year” — is surrounded by signatures and dates that show the history of the two families.

"You can see when the kids came along and then when they were growing up and leaving home,” Rewalt said, adding that there are also short notes announcing the births of grandchildren.

The two men served in the U.S. Navy from 1952-56 and bunked together in New Orleans early on until Roy married Betty, a Louisiana native.

The Sterns first sent the card to Rewalt in 1953, when both still lived in New Orleans.

Rewalt held on to the card for a year. The next year, he decided to send the Sterns the card they'd sent him the previous year as a joke.

"I figured he would say, 'You cheapskate. Can't you afford a card?'” Rewalt said.

Stern doesn't remember his exact reaction.

"I probably just said, 'Look what Dick did. I'll fix him. I'll send back the same card again,'” Stern said.

When Rewalt didn't hear back from Stern, he forgot about it.

Until the next year, that is, when he received the same card back and a tradition was born.

Meanwhile, Stern started sending another one a couple years later. Those two crisscrossed in the mail for several years until the Sterns lost it in Hurricane Betsy in 1965. They started a new one that year; it's been going ever since.

Neither of the two couples expected the tradition to last this long.

"If we would've known that years ago,” said Betty Stern, "we would've bought a nicer card.”