January 21, 1967 The Glasses, The Letter, The Keys, The Carload and The Centerpiece

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"We've had some of the cold weather, too, but today was quite mild and tomorrow is supposed to get to the 50's. I hope it does because we plan to drive to Peoria to get me some glasses. I got new lenses from the big clinic here and had them put in my old frames. I was told the frames were cracked but the optician couldn't tell, of course, how much longer they would last. Their frames are so expensive I said I'd take a chance and use them and then they lasted just thru the weekend.

I guess my letter was late because I had sent it with the pictures. I'm glad you liked them because I thought they were real good. We liked the tinting too and one of these days I'll do mine but that finish is very hard to work on.

Bob called us on his birthday and was fine. He was in the middle of exams and worried about the English. That's always hard for him. It seems strange when the math and chemistry are so easy for him. He has a job working for one of the chemistry professors. The man has a government contract to do some research and Bob will run some of the experiments. He had worked three hours this week and gets $1.00 an hour. That's the rate for student help. He won't be home between semesters because he said he's so behind with everything. I'll bet he hasn't even unpacked all his suitcase from the Christmas trip yet. He's starting skin diving lessons right away too so I guess there are too many things to do. In two weeks he will register as a sophomore. He has enough hours with last summers' work. He and one of his roommates plan to go to the Florida Keys during spring vacation (as Easter time) so he won't be home again until June. That's a long time.

I took a carload of people to a Pen Women meeting in Peoria last Sunday and it was a nice trip. The day was cold but sunny and now we have a wonderful divided highway all the way.

We were guests of our bank last night at a dinner meeting. The speaker talked about Wills and it was very interesting. They gave the table centerpieces away as door prizes and I won the first one, believe it or not. It's a beautiful arrangement of spring flowers--real ones. I could hardly believe it because I never win anything.

B and Ann are both gone so I guess I'll put on my pajamas and watch TV."

                       Lots of love,

                            Bonnie

NOTE: I'm not sure what Mom might have watched on TV that night, but perhaps it was Gunsmoke.
I do know that we had watched Bob Hope entertaining the troops in Viet Nam earlier in the week. While we knew that only a small percentage of service men and women actually saw his shows, it was somewhat reassuring to see the enthusiastic audiences.  Watch here: