July 1, 1956 B Paints the House, Bonnie Starts the Patio, Bob Has His Swimming and The Kids Got Their Shots

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"We worked in the yard so late last night that I didn't get my letter written.  The boys poured the drive on Mon. and hung the small doors.  They are waiting for the overhead door to come and then the garage will be done when that is hung.  B has given almost all the garage a first coat of green paint and has ordered paint for the rest of the house.  We gave up trying to match the paint with what is on the house now and picked out a light green.  B and Watty will paint the whole thing and that will be done for the next four or five years, we hope.  The paint on the house is faded and thin in places and would have to be done next year if we didn't do it now.

After the drive was poured we had the mess to clean up and dirt to be filled in on the sides.  We have worked so hard and late every night that we're about to play out.

This morning we put in the forms for the patio but I won't do much on it till next week.  By the time we get everything done I'm going to be a lot tougher than I was when we started.

Piano classes are over till fall and I'm glad.  Bob has his swimming on Saturdays but that is the only extra thing we have to do now.

You remember that some of our neighbors in Japan visited us last summer.  They are on their way back to Japan now and stopped to see us Thurs.  They wrote they were coming so I had dinner for them.  They were here only about 2-1/2 hours but we enjoyed having them and seeing them again.

Part of the Watterson farm was sold this week and they were about to sell the third section (Watty's part, I think).  It brought around $300. an acre but I don't know how big the sections were.  Granny W. sold one 12 acre section which was hers and the section they were about to sell had the buildings and they were going to ask $375. although they had been told to ask 400-450.  That really sounds like a lot of money for land, doesn't it?  The house plans are about settled but Toni is still working on the kitchen.  It will be real nice and they are putting two bedrooms in the basement.  A spare bedroom downstairs would be fine but I would rather have the arrangement upstairs.  The kids will be sleeping in the basement.  Their lot is lovely and they will have a nice view always for their lot is high and will look over the rest of the development and over to the University farm.

There isn't much other news so I'd better round up the kids for their baths for it's time they were in bed.  They got their last polio shot this week but it didn't even make their arms sore."

                   Lots of love,

                          Bonnie

NOTE:  The stamp used on this letter, as seen above, was a commemorative for the International Philatelic Exhibition in 1956.  It was rare for our mom to use anything other than a pre-stamped envelope, which she purchased in large quantity.  Pictured on this stamp is the New York Coliseum and the Columbus Memorial.  While posting the letters of the 1940's, several envelopes were missing.  We recently found the missing envelopes and realized that Grandmother had set them aside and kept them for their stamps.  Bob collected stamps as a kid and so the envelopes were eventually given to him.  Readers may recall the public controversy over commemoratives.  Here is the link to the related post:
http://www.annbkennedy.blogspot.com/search?q=commemorative+stamps