Hoping to share this Special Season with you...
Posted on 12/03/2005 6:54:51 PM PST by fat city
Aki Tymes was living in Dewey Beach, Del., in 2003 when he learned his cousin had "gone back into the system" for selling drugs. At first, Tymes, 33, was angry. His relative was raised to know right from wrong, he said. But anger quickly gave way to compassion and the desire to reach out to his cousin.
"But guys don't write letters," Tymes said.
A greeting card seemed like the perfect solution, but Tymes said the selection at the stores was either "mushy" or inappropriate.
"The only cards you have to choose from are sympathy cards. But usually the cover is roses and flowers -- things that you don't want to send to another guy. You want to say: 'What's up? How's it going?'" Tymes said.
That was when Tymes hit on the idea of creating his own line of 20 greeting cards targeted to friends and family of prison inmates.
Barbara Miller, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Greeting Card Association, said she is not aware of any company that makes cards for inmates -- and this is in a country that buys 7 billion cards every year.
Many of Tymes' Pointe Five Group LLC cards are designed to be uplifting and inspirational. One card, for example, carries the image of a diploma on the cover. The greeting is: "It's never too late to finish what was started."
Others are humorous, like the card featuring a muscular male at a job interview. The greeting is: When you go on your interviews and the boss happens to ask you about your workout, and what gym got you those results, just tell them 'The Boys Club.' "
Diane Barnes, who works as a volunteer at MeJah Books in the Tri-State Mall in Claymont, Del., which carries the cards, said the response from customers has been overwhelmingly positive.
"You can't find these at the Hallmark store," Barnes said. "Our customers are glad to see someone is thinking of our brothers and sisters who are serving time."
For Newark, Del. resident Lisa Tulsian, the cards offer a perfect and tasteful way to correspond with her fiance and two stepbrothers.
"What can you send? You can't send, 'Have a Merry Christmas.' You don't stop loving them because they made mistakes," Tulsian said.
Tymes has managed to strike a perfect balance with sensitive subject matter, Barnes and Tulsian said. He did add a note of jailhouse humor when he selected jumpsuit orange for the color of his envelopes.
"You don't want to offend and you don't want to poke too much fun," said Tymes, who writes all the greetings for the cards. "I wanted to be a rapper, and I always wrote poetry. Now, I listen to hip-hop to keep my ear to the streets and so I can stay fresh."
Tymes did his homework before embarking on the venture, checking out the size of the greeting card market, as well as the potential customer base.
"Unfortunately, it's a growing market," Tymes said.
Right now, Tymes and his business manager, Michael Simpson, are trying to place the cards in more retail outlets. The cards sell for about $3.25 to $3.75.
Hoping to share this Special Season with you...
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Your name's Ben Dover,
Before you're through."
Sounds great. Her fiance and two stepbrothers? Sounds like quite the family.
"May Joy be your gift at Christmas
and may Faith, Hope and Love
be your treasures in the New Year "
You can't go wrong with SOAP-ON-A-ROPE.
While you're away...
For 20 years.
I'll think of you...
For about a year.
But don't you mope....
Or drop the soap....
Cause you're a man
and have your hand.
Yet another apologist article sniveleing about the woes of convicted criminals hardly seems to qualify as "Breaking News".
Wait awhile eternity
Old mother nature's got nothing on me
Come to me
Run to me
Come to me, now
We're rolling
My sweetheart
We're flowing
By god!
Well, my name it is Sam Hall, Sam Hall.
Yes, my name it is Sam Hall; it is Sam Hall.
My name it is Sam Hall an' I hate you, one and all.
An' I hate you, one and all:
Damn your eyes.
I killed a man, they said; so they said.
I killed a man, they said; so they said.
I killed a man, they said an' I smashed in his head.
An' I left him layin' dead,
Damn his eyes.
But a-swingin', I must go; I must go.
A-swingin', I must go; I must go.
A-swingin', I must go while you critters down below,
Yell up: "Sam, I told you so."
Well, damn your eyes!
[Instrumental break]
I saw Molly in the crowd; in the crowd.
I saw Molly in the crowd; in the crowd.
I saw Molly in the crowd an' I hollered, right out loud:
"Hey there Molly, ain't you proud?
"Damn your eyes."
Then the Sherriff, he came to; he came to.
Ah, yeah, the Sherriff, he came to; he came to.
The Sherriff, he come to an he said: "Sam, how are you?"
An I said: "Well, Sherriff, how are you,
"Damn your eyes."
My name is Samuel, Samuel.
My name is Samuel, Samuel.
My name is Samuel, an' I'll see you all in hell.
An' I'll see you all in hell,
Damn your eyes.
-johnny cash
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