Many years ago I became friendly with a lady at Mission Drums whose name was Mildred. She was at the show with her two sisters, Phoebe and Henrietta and her brother, Phineas. I found Mildred to be an astute drum corps fan who fell in love with the Princemen and their legendary drum major, Scotty Chappell in 1946 at the VFW Nationals.

As she was much older than me, I started calling her Aunt Mildred which she got a kick out of and her sisters also became aunts and her brother an uncle. The only problem came when someone referred to me as her nephew. She became very agitated and stated that “Richard, (she never called me Rick), is not my nephew.” It was the only time I ever heard her raise her voice.

When I started publishing MMA in the ‘90s I was looking for writers and the late Sandra Clarke, a dear friend and one of my editors suggested a “Letters to Aunt Mildred” column. I approached Mildred and she immediately agreed.

Much to my chagrin, she has become a mainstay of MMA and her and her family have been with me for over twenty-five years and she’s as feisty as ever.

Her column carries on here with our new MMA website. All of her old columns will eventually be added for your viewing pleasure.