March 26, 1967 The Winter Mess, The Five Loaves, The Educators and The Shoes

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"This has been the most beautiful day! It was real warm and sunny so we worked in the yard and everything looks different now that it's cleaned up. I have some blisters on my hands & some stiff muscles tonight but it's a good feeling to know some of the winter mess is gone. Rain was predicted but we haven't had any today.

We got home about 4:30 Thursday afternoon and had a real nice time. It was comfortably warm in New Orleans and the old part of the city is certainly interesting. Our hotel was in the old part so we could walk everywhere. Jim & Evelyn Wheeler were at the meeting so we enjoyed seeing them again. Evelyn and I walked and window shopped while the men were in their meetings.  Ann took a friend with her so they could see what they wanted to.

Flowers were blooming and trees were leafing out. On the way home we bought fruit along the road. Bananas were 3 dozen for a dollar and that was a lot of bananas. We ate as many as we could and today I made 5 loaves of banana bread and a fruit salad with the rest.

Ann & I neither one have anything new for Easter but that doesn't matter. She has had a lot of extra church work. There was an extra long service last Sunday for they baptized several people and then there was a special communion service Thursday night. She said it was beautiful & very different. Everyone sat around a big cross & there was only candlelight. I had sort of planned to go with her but just didn't seem to get things done in time. She plays for the sunrise service in the morning & I suppose she'll come back home before church.

I have finally finished the cloth for the communion table at our church. It is all ready to use tomorrow but I didn't do anything else but work on it all day yesterday.

Here it is Sunday and after dinner, at that. I tried writing my letter and watching Gunsmoke at the same time & that won't work for me. I never like that show anymore but it was pretty good last night.

I guess you read about the educators dying in a plane crash in Vietnam. The leader of the group had his family at the meeting in Michigan last summer. B knew him real well but I only knew him to speak to him & never really got acquainted with his wife because she had small children to look after.

I bought me two pairs of shoes just before we took our trip. It is so hard to me to find shoes that look fairly dressed up but have low heels for walking. When I found these that fit I just bought both of them. One pair is navy & the other beige which I'll have for summer. I went to look for black ones but didn't find them to fit.

Today is cloudy & rainy but we had a church full. There didn't seem to be much finery, though. I wore a black straw hat I've had for three years and I think lots of others wore old clothes, too. Some people had on winter coats but it is warmer than that.

Happy Easter to you both."

                           Lots of love,

                              Bonnie

NOTES: The trip to New Orleans was lots of fun, especially with a good friend along.

Mom had a street artist do my portrait in chalk saying it was high time since we hadn't had one done since 1953. It didn't take too long and I didn't fall off the stool like I did in '53, but I look pretty serious in both portraits.

The fruit salad didn't need a recipe and was really a dessert rather than a salad: Sour cream, toasted coconut, crushed pineapple, mandarin oranges, bananas and whipped cream.