Haddock and Dill: April 8, 1967 The Tulip, The Foreign Family, The Married Girl, Adam Clayton Powell and The Shark

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"It's a cold, cloudy day but B has been mowing the lawn and it looks so nice. Frost is predicted for tonight but I hope it misses us. The peonies are up and we have one tulip in bloom.

Ann and I have been downtown getting her some shorts for summer. If we don't get them early we have a hard time finding any to fit.

I think I told you about Ann applying to spend the summer with a foreign family (overseas). She was not accepted but I think she was glad. She had said several times lately that she didn't care one way or another and it's all right with us that she won't be going, too. She may go to summer school again but hasn't decided yet. She has been saving money from each pay check so she has a nice bit saved up.

Bob still doesn't know what he'll be doing this summer, either. Parents' Day at William & Mary is May 6 and if we can get arrangements for Ann we are going. B will take a week of his vacation and we'll drive. If Ann didn't have so many things to do we would take her along but it would just be too hard for her to go now. We think we have a married girl lined up to stay with her but the details have to be worked out. She is coming to see us tomorrow. Then we hope we can send our reservations to Wm. & Mary.

Bob called last Sunday evening so we'd know he was safely back at school. He had a wonderful time & got back late Saturday. Eleven boys went to Florida but only five went on to the Bahamas. They camped out, ate the fish they caught, plus coconuts & bought ice cream. I guess that's about all they had to eat except once in awhile. They did go to a restaurant, though, because he said they met Adam Clayton Powell in one. He had been friendly and talked to them about fishing. The boys saw a big shark in the water one day when they had been spearing fish but they climbed in the boat until it went away.

I have been trying to make myself a new dress but I'm having an awful time. It is sort of a check and every seam that is important has to be matched. It was awful to cut out and it is awful to sew. It has a coat to match and it is made double. I saw an outfit in New Orleans made from the same material and it was $70. Now I know why it was expensive even if it is all cotton.

A representative from William Woods College was at the high school this week to see Ann. She has applied there and they told her she would know in September if she is accepted. I hope she knows earlier than Bob did. That last minute stuff worries the kids.

I had a nice letter from Beulah yesterday. We're getting a little better about writing to one another.

Hope you both are feeling fine."

Lots of love,

Bonnie

NOTE: When I was given the boxes of Grandmother's letters, there was a folder in one of the boxes which included a lengthy biographical essay my parents had to write about me as part of my application to the American Field Service, the student exchange program. I had never known about it and at the time, paid no attention to it. Reading it recently for the first time, I was both amused and touched by their comments & description of me as a teenager (i.e., typically adolescent and contemporary, faithfully reads Seventeen magazine, no dates permitted on school nights except on special occasions, has matured a lot in the last year, could be a concert pianist if she wished to do so, blessed with lots of friends and the ability to make friends easily and has a deep respect and reverence for others of all faiths and a strong belief in the value of every human being). Aww shucks, Mom & Dad.