Calendar | 1987

The clerk shrugged. “Printed in Chicago. Some old guy, I think.”

By November 1986, the first batch of 50,000 calendars was ready. Leo secretly kept one copy—the proof with the stars. He hung it on his kitchen wall, next to the rotary phone that never rang. 1987 calendar

Leo had worked at the same print shop in downtown Chicago for thirty-two years when he was asked to proof the 1987 calendar proofs. It was September 1986, and the air still smelled of summer, but the presses were already warming up for autumn. The client, a local hardware cooperative, wanted a simple design: a photo of a different Midland farmstead for each month, with bold red numbers for Sundays and holidays. The clerk shrugged

The letter reached Leo on Christmas Eve 1987. He read it three times, standing in his kitchen under the proof calendar with the hand-drawn stars. Then he did something he hadn’t done in years: he called his son. Leo secretly kept one copy—the proof with the stars