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Lintz reunites with Canadian pen pal after 42 years of words

Archie Lintz (left), of Huntington, meets with his Canadian pen pal Marilyn Webb on Saturday, Oct. 2 at the Lintz home on North Jefferson Street. The two have written each other since the late 1960s.
Archie Lintz (left), of Huntington, meets with his Canadian pen pal Marilyn Webb on Saturday, Oct. 2 at the Lintz home on North Jefferson Street. The two have written each other since the late 1960s. Photo by Jessica Williams.

Originally publsihed Oct. 11, 2010.

After decades of mail correspondence, Huntington resident Archie Lintz was recently reunited with a pen pal for the first time since 1968 on Sept. 29.

Lintz and his wife Lu Anne played the role of tour guide for six days for pen pal Marilyn Webb and her husband David, visiting from the Vancouver, British Columbia area.

Lintz says he has had many pen pals in his life because he enjoys writing and has a curiosity about people around the world.

One of these pen pals was a man from Vancouver, who Lintz started writing to in about 1966. The pen pal had an interest in American politics, and in 1968, Lintz hosted the man while he was in the United States to campaign for Joseph McCarthy. After the visitor returned to Canada, correspondence between the two became increasingly infrequent, Lintz explains.

In late 1968, Archie Lintz was drafted for the Vietnam War and received orders to report to Fort Lewis in Washington - just across the border from Vancouver - and the two pen pals were able to meet again. Lintz was also introduced to Marilyn Webb, a friend of the Vancouver man.

Webb says the three friends corresponded while Archie Lintz was in Vietnam, as well as after his return to America.

"Many, many years we did the pen pal exchange," says Webb, a retired teacher of 35 years.

She taught her first class the same year she and Lintz met, spending her career primarily in fourth and fifth grades, she explains.

Lintz is also a retired teacher of 30 years from Whitley County.

While both were still teaching, they were able to turn their pen pal relationship into class projects and learning experiences for classrooms on both sides of the border.

The letters included symbols and history of Indiana and British Columbia, in both print and pictures.

Webb says she used a map of the United States to teach her students the difference between Canadian provinces and American states, as opposed to countries and continents.

Both also used the relationship as an opportunity to teach the fundamentals of writing a letter and what is appropriate to include and what is not. Students were given required topics and guidelines.

The first letter was almost always used as an introduction for the students to explain about themselves, hobbies, pets and families. The students could also attach photos of themselves and sent small items, such as baseball cards and keychains, the former teachers explain.

Eventually, Lintz would videotape his students recording personalized greetings to their counterparts in Canada, and Webb recalls her classes being "absolutely thrilled to death" to view the tapes.

"I think we learned some teaching ideas from each other also, and about how schools are run in different places and how they are the same," Lintz says.

Webb says the program went on for more than 10 years between the classrooms.

The Webbs, who converted their home into a bed and breakfast, say they are big travelers, having made 10 trips to the United Kingdom, but have traveled a lot by plane. This time, the pair decided to take the train across the west and spent three days and two nights on their way to Waterloo, where the Lintzes picked them up on Sept. 29.

Webb says the purpose of their trip was "to have a great time and meet wonderful people."

The pen pals also share a common interest in history so much of the Webbs' trip was focused on educational and historical spots in Indiana, including local museums.
They also worked in a trip to Indianapolis, as well as culturally diverse experiences such as a tour of the Amish-Mennonite area in northern Indiana.

The visitors were also able to meet the Lintz family, which they had seen and heard so much of through pictures and letters.

"We feel very comfortable and that's really nice," David Webb says.

"It is like we've known each other forever, and we have, kind of" Lu Anne Lintz adds.

Marilyn Webb says the Lintzes planned interesting sites to visit.

"When we travel, we do research ourselves ... We're not people who go to a resort and just sit there and read a book in the sun and put your feet up. To me, that'd be highly boring and useless" she explains, adding they enjoy trips like the Lintzes planned.

Lu Ann and Archie Lintz haven't visited the Webbs in Canada - yet - but that may come in the future.