May 18, 1969 The Better Selection, The Settlement, The Nice Afternoon, The Tea Kettle and The Warm Weather

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"We just got home from Chicago. B had to have a cool summer suit & he has a much better selection at a store there where he usually buys his suits. He can also get 2 pairs of pants for less than he can buy one pair here.

We took the Mustang to put more miles on it & break it in right so the trip took a little long than usual. It was real cold & drizzly in Chicago so we didn't do any window shopping.

Last Sunday afternoon we took an interesting ride to Arthur, Illinois (down near Decatur) where there is an Amish settlement. There is a sort of park there that has an Amish home to show & a barn, gardens & a gift shop. I bought some cookbooks that are fun to read but have some good sounding things in it too--like shoofly pie. The house was furnished much like Grandma Jones' house used to be. There were pretty quilts on the beds for spreads that were pieced out of little pieces of plain color like the old flower garden expect the pieces were arranged like baskets of flowers or just clusters of flowers put together with white.

Then there were two star quilts that I thought were real pretty but B thought they were too loud to be pretty. We saw lots of the black buggies along the road for it was a pretty day & I guess people were out riding. At the edge of town was a buggy shop & we saw an ad along the road for a harness shop & a blacksmith. It's been a long time since I've seen so many horses in the pastures, too.

We came home through Urbana and ate supper there. It was a nice afternoon. We haven't done anything like that in several years.

We have to go to a tea tomorrow afternoon & that will spoil the day for much of anything.

I'm glad you liked the tea kettle. When I saw how many kinds they had I didn't know which one you had talked about. I hope it is the right one.

I'm sure glad Daddy feels better. I think warm weather will give me more pep. These cold cloudy days make me want to crawl in bed & sleep.

Ann will be home a week from tomorrow for a few days. She can hardly wait to start her job. She has been meeting with the high school & jr. high kids & really likes them. The choirs will go on thru the summer & I don't know what else there will be after camp is over.

Hope you both are fine."

                 Love,

                     Bonnie

NOTE:  The quilt pictured above was made by Mom is the early 1980s. Although she never made a quilt in the Amish style per se, she did experiment with the solid, dark colors as in this quilt and also made several quilts in varying star patterns.