September 23, 1967 The Fall Wind, The Old Teacher, The Burned Farm and The Fascinating Experiences

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"It's a wonderful, fall day. The wind is bringing a lot of leaves down so we'll have to start raking. I have a geranium I want to take up from the yard before it freezes but haven't had a chance yet. That one you gave me is so straggly. I don't know what to do about it. I tried pinching it back but it just grows out long & stringy without many leaves.

I finally finished that brown dacron dress and pressed it today so it is ready to wear. It was a real problem all along so I hope it looks right. Everything seemed to go wrong and every time I'd plan to sew something would keep me from it. The telephone is ringing constantly it seems and a morning will be gone before I get anything done.

Toni came and visited one morning. She seems just fine. I went to Ross's one afternoon to meet a woman who is new in town. The General Telephone Co. here has a new president and this was his wife. Malcolm's dad is vice president of the company.

Wednesday evening I went to the church and cleaned out some cabinets where I'll be teaching. The old teacher wanted me to go thru it with her. She has taught 42 years I think she said, so there was a story behind half the things in that cabinet.

As You Like It Club had its opening luncheon on Thursday. It was real interesting because an urban missionary gave the program. She is the daughter of one of the members and works in Peoria. Her husband is a minister and they have three children (little ones). They live in an all Negro neighborhood in the business part of Peoria. They tried living in a nicer area and working with the underprivileged but couldn't get anywhere. So the church bought this big, old run-down house and repaired it. She said people from different churches helped clean it up & they hauled off 2 truck loads of junk from the yard. Little by little they are getting things improved for the people in the area. Her experiences were fascinating.

Jean (Bruce's mother) has moved into an apartment in town. They sold everything out of the old farm house and then had it burned down. Everything is gone and cleaned up except the corn crib. That was needed for storage this year but it will probably go too and then the whole thing will be plowed into the fields around the old place. Jean took me out to see it and it made me feel so bad. Her aunt owns the place and lives in California. She always said she wanted this done when they were thru living there and so she had it done. A friend farms the land and has for quite a while now. Jeans works and keeps busy. Bruce is in Drake University and Nancy teaches in Iowa.

College care-package staple, 1967

We had a short letter from Bob. His box of clothes had already arrived so he was getting settled. Some of the buildings still weren't done and they had put three (students) in lots of rooms but I don't think he had an extra one. His roommate will be the same Puerto Rican boy as last year. They get along real well.

Hope you both are fine."

                         Lots of love,

                               Bonnie

NOTE: The local fire department was responsible for starting and managing the fire of the farmhouse. We all found it to be a very sad thing, even though it had been the plan for a long time and probably a good one in the long run.

If you're curious about the top hit this month, see it at the end of the post.  Mom & Dad loved the theme song to the Sophia Loren film of '67, More Than a Miracle.  Watch and listen below and for the song, slide to 2:08 on the video.