Patty McClure and Doris Riley lived rather quiet lives when they were both 12 years old, residing in small, rural towns.
One lived just outside of Pittsburgh, the other in a mining town near Sherwood Forest in England. Both girls had few luxuries in the years following World War II.
But a single letter changed both of their lives when Riley picked out McClure’s name off a list for a pen-pal program her school offered. The letters would soon fuel their imaginations as they learned how their unseen friend lived, forging a friendship that has lasted for 67 years.
As adults, the women took their relationship beyond pen and paper into regular visits like the one they have enjoyed in Tucson this week. Sitting in McClure’s den in northwest Tucson, Riley lists the trips she has made here over the years. The Grand Canyon. Tombstone. Nogales.
The list goes on and on.
The pen-pal program was designed to teach students how to write letters and practice their penmanship.
McClure still has the first letter Riley wrote her.
Most of the early ones focused on family and school life.
“We used to swap little bits of information,” Riley says. McClure’s favorite tidbit: Riley lived next to the fabled forest home to Robin Hood.
Riley, meanwhile, was fascinated about the United States, especially its sheer size.
Her hometown near Nottinghamshire was tiny by comparison, with about 800 people. Outside of a single movie house, there wasn’t much to do.
“We got by. Father went down the mine and mother stayed home when we went to school,” Riley remembers.
When McClure planned a move to New York City in 1964 to live with a friend, she decided to first visit Riley in England.
The two spent two weeks together, walking everywhere. With no refrigerator, they would walk into town every day for groceries.
“I wore out a pair of shoes,” McClure remembers.
She even ventured down into one of the coal mines, something Riley refused to do.
That trip was the first of many.
This one, now that both women are 79, wasn’t as easy as some — Riley’s travels included a long layover in Texas that caused her to miss her flight.
“This will be my last one,” she said. “I had a disaster at Dallas airport.”
But even if air travel keeps them apart, they’ll always have their letters. And those haven’t changed — yet.
Riley has avoided getting a computer for decades, but after seeing how her daughter had sent McClure vacation photos from a beach on Cypress by e-mail, the 79-year-old is changing her tune.
Or maybe it was the video chat she had on Patty’s computer with her grandson in New Zealand.
“I am buying one when I get home,” Riley says proudly.
No more waiting an entire week to get a letter from an old friend.
