Tuesday, July 14, 2015

November 30, 1969 The Cookies, The College Friends, The Powerful New Drug, The School Tools and The Wonderful Gift


Dear Mother & Daddy,

"The girls haven't had breakfast yet but B has gone to the office so I'll try to write so we can at least mail it this afternoon. I can't get much done when Ann is home. I have tried to finish a velveteen skirt for her and it is almost done so I still have it to finish before she leaves this afternoon. It is fun to have the kids around but the phone rings all of the time & no one goes to bed at reasonable hours. Malcolm had supper with us last night and then stayed all evening. The girls made cookies for themselves & Malcolm and we all had a good time.



We missed Bob & Pat so much but had a nice letter on Friday. They had T-giving with some college friends in Williamsburg and I think were a little lonesome for some of their own family. We didn't have company. Audrey & her family were all together at her older son's home. I think she was happy about it. We were there for supper Tuesday night and she had just found out that they were going to be together.


We had a letter from Wheelers this week and the doctors are giving Jimmy a powerful new drug in hopes of stopping the cancer. It works in less than ⅓ of the cases. They hope it works for him, of course, but feel that they are borrowing time until something else better is discovered. I have never told them about Ann's friend who died so suddenly after some new treatment for much the same type of cancer because I live in fear that this is going to happen to Jimmy, too.

Ann was happy to see you and I'm glad too that you got to go to Buddy's. She loves to go to Richland but said Lessie almost talked her ears off. I'd love to come home before Christmas but there isn't any weekend when we can. Ann wanted us to come and hear one of her Christmas concerts but they are next weekend and the 21st and we simply can't.

I sent Uncle Floyd a card but didn't have a room number so I suppose he will get it. I wish I'd known about his birthday. Are they giving him cobalt?

Be sure and check the length of your pattern you borrowed from Bessie. Some of them are awfully short. That 16 will be too big for you, I think, especially if it is the new size. Check it with a pattern that fits you before you cut.

Thanks for the catalog, Daddy. It does have some things in it that I could use. I'm using school tools when I'm in class but after Christmas I may get some tools of my own so I can do a little work between classes.

We went to Chicago on Friday along with a million other people. Thank goodness the Christmas parade wasn't that day so it wasn't as bad as we expected. We didn't buy much but did a lot of looking. The girls didn't even buy much. Ann wants to go to Europe next summer with a class of French students from school. We told her we'd pay part of it so she's trying to save her money for that. She gets school credit for it.

Don't worry about our Christmas. You know, Daddy was supposed to make us the walnut shelves for our Christmas but we don't care how long he takes to make them because it will probably be a long time before we get to Richland to get them. That will be a wonderful gift and we mean that.

And I want you to remember what I said about the birthdays. You can start with Bob in January--just send a card. He will be happy to have that and never expect anything else. He talked about you doing too much last spring.

The girls are up so I'd better get busy or I won't have things done by the time they need to start back to school.

Hope you both are fine."

                 Love,

                      Bonnie

3 comments:

  1. Ann, I guess I use your blog entries as a sort of index as to where I was and what I was doing. November of '69 was the month the Air Force decided I should attend Survival School for three weeks at Fairchild AFB near Spokane. Learned a lot, got a lot of confidence from that. Beautiful, rugged country up there. Don't remember anything remarkable about Thanksgiving that year, probably in the chow hall in San Angelo. I have to say Air Force cooks pull out the stops for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners!

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  2. Mike, I love hearing why readers read the letters, or what memories they bring. I am very glad to know that service personnel are fed well for holiday dinners and it reminds me that those who are serving are doing so whether or not it's a holiday! I hope I never take that service for granted. You've seen a lot of geography and landed in a lot of interesting cities!

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  3. Ann, it was a privilege to serve this country and, yes, I got to see and do a lot more than some folks. I remember any number of guys I knew in high school whose whole ambition was to get a degree in business and get a job with the phone company. Fine for them, but my skin crawls at the idea.

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