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Henning Hansen, left, of Soro, Denmark,
and Charles Moore of Sylva, pen pals for the last 50 years,
got together this summer in Denmark to mark the golden
anniversary of their letter-writing. At left the two are
pictured in the early days of their correspondence, while
Hansen served in the Danish Army and Moore in the U.S.
Army, 8th Infantry Division.
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Hansen
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Moore
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By Carey King
When high school junior Charles Moore first signed up for an over-seas
pen pal program in 1953, he was given a list of three names and
addresses to write.
The names in Chile and Finland didn't pan out. But 50 years later,
Moore and pal Henning Hansen of Denmark are still writing.
And when the golden anniversary of their letter-writing passed
this summer, the two decided to celebrate. So Hansen of Soro,
Denmark, invited Sylva resident Moore to come over for dinner.
Though the trip to Copenhagen, Denmark's capital, took a bit more
planning than the average Western North Carolina dinner invitation,
Moore and his wife, Janet, took Hansen and his wife, Karen Margret,
up on their offer. For three weeks in July and August, the Hansens
showed the Moores their native country, and the Moores took a
cruise around the Baltic Sea.
At their celebration dinner, Hansen pulled out some of the earliest
letters Moore had written.
"He'd saved all my letters," Moore said. "But we've
moved around so much that I'd lost some of his."
After graduating from high school and leaving his hometown of
Thomaston, Ga., Moore attended college in Dahlonega, Ga., and
then served in the Army for 26 years - a path that stationed him
in places as varied as Germany, Korea and Vietnam. At times, Moore
was accompanied by Janet and their children, Fredric, who now
lives in Georgia, and Reuben, now of Cullowhee. The couple moved
to North Carolina in 1988 to open the Cullowhee Bed and Breakfast.
Now retired, they have been working on their new home in Sylva.
All that time, Hansen stayed in his hometown of Soro, after brief
service in the Danish army. There, he was employed as an accountant
at a furniture factory, and he and his wife raised their two children,
Lizbeth and Steen.
Throughout all those changes, Hansen and Moore continued to write
letters. When the exchange first began, the two would write by
hand every few months on thin airmail paper.
"Overseas students got pen pals so that they could learn
English, I imagine," Moore said, "So we always wrote
in English, but it was a bit hard to read."
The pair then graduated to sending typewritten letters once a
year. Now good friends, the two men communicate by e-mail every
six weeks or so.
And this summer's visit was not the men's first. Moore first met
Hansen face-to-face in 1965, when Moore was stationed in Germany.
"I took a train to see him and meet his parents," Moore
said.
The second visit occurred in 1986, when the Hansens traveled to
the States to see their daughter graduate from a high school in
Maine, where she was enrolled as an exchange student.
"They came to see us in Atlanta afterwards for a few days,"
said Moore, "and we wanted to really give them the flavor
of the state."
The couples toured several of Georgia's historic sites and gardens,
and visited with the Moores' parents in Thomaston. They also paid
a special visit to the town of Helen, known for its German architecture
and culture, for the connection to northern Europe.
"It had been commercialized too much by then, though,"
said Janet. "I think the Hansens were impressed more by the
kudzu than anything else."
In 2001, the Moores were able to establish another connection
with the Hansens. Just before the Rev. Jack Hinson of Sylva traveled
to Denmark to preach at the international Baptist church there,
Moore put him in touch with the Hansens, who then welcomed Hinson
and his wife, Pat, to their country.
Such international connections have been a constant theme throughout
Charles and Janet Moore's lives. While owners of the Cullowhee
Bed and Breakfast, they welcomed guests from as far away as South
Africa and Switzerland. Once, they hosted an Israeli and a Palestinian
who sat across the inn's breakfast table in peace.
"In all our letters," Moore said, "Henning and
I have not disagreed. We're more alike than you'd ever believe.
We both like gardening and current events."
Over the years, those events have ranged from everything from
the Cold War to the Danish troops currently stationed in Afghanistan.
Moore said that Hansen was the first person he heard from after
the events of Sept. 11.
"Once you make a friend like that, you hate to lose them,"
Moore said. "It's a small world sometimes. You never know
when you might need a friend overseas."
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