February 19, 1966 The Cookies & Corn Curls, The Lecturer, The Agonies and The Awful Coat

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"It seems so strange that you should have so much snow when we don't get much. It is snowing today but doesn't seem to cover very fast.

There has been so much going on that I'm about run down. I spent Monday cleaning and getting ready for the Pen Women who came for all day on Wednesday. Each one brought a sack lunch and I made coffee. I also made a plate of sandwiches and had cookies and corn curls because I was afraid someone would forget.

Two came without lunches because they were going to leave but we coaxed them to eat first because they came from Decatur. We ate on trays and had a real nice time. There were 15 and everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

Monday night we went to Larsen's to meet a visiting lecturer and went early to help Faith. Larsens took the man and his wife to dinner and were afraid they wouldn't be back when people started coming. Some did come early so it was a good thing we were there.

Tuesday morning I went to hear the lecture and then to a luncheon for the man. It was all very nice. That night we went to see Ted.  He's the one who has worked with B so long and has cancer in the lymph glands. He's through with the x-ray treatments now but is literally suffering agonies with the burn. Some days he can work and some days he can't. The lump is gone now and things look better if he can get rid of this pain. It is like a severe sunburn.

I went to a luncheon Thursday and was supposed to go to Quill Club that night but just said I couldn't go. B was gone and I don't like to be out at night when he isn't home. He went to a meeting in Chicago Wednesday and will be back this afternoon. He had so much unfinished work in the office I was afraid he wouldn't go at the last minute. He needed to get out of the office for awhile and this is one way of doing it. At least, he wouldn't have a stack of work to do every night after supper up there.

I haven't written to Beulah since Christmas so didn't know Jerry was even thinking of changing schools. The big universities can make a kid miserable with adjusting to the big classes and all the rest of the bigness. I feel sorry for the kids who go to the big campuses for the first time.

I haven't been to the new Sears store yet. There hasn't been any time when I could go and people say there have been such crowds you could hardly get around.

Sorry the coat was so awful from Wards. I'm sending a page from my Penney's catalog. I have really had a lot of good out of my white coat I ordered from them and wear it the year around. I checked the parcel post rate & put it on the blank for I couldn't remember whether you ever got their catalog or not.

I must stop & dry my hair. We're going to a dinner tonight and I always have to comb my hair several times before it will stay in place after I wash it."

                    Lots of love,

                         Bonnie

NOTE:  I have to laugh when I think of the Pen Women eating "corn curls" (i.e. Cheetos-like things) and getting orange fingers as they read their latest works aloud to the group.  Mom thought they made an ugly snack but knew that everyone liked them.  The designated "corn curl" bowl was a cut glass punch bowl etched with ivy leaves, and actually it did look pretty strange full of the bright orange things now that I think about it.