November 5, 1971 The Paperboy, The Reservations, The Sunny Days, The Bit of Work and The Real Nice Coats

Dear Mother,

"This will be early but you probably won't get it until Monday. I'm trying to watch for the paperboy to tell him to put the papers in the garage next week but he's hard to catch.

We plan to leave about noon tomorrow and drive to Columbus, Ohio where we have reservations at the Howard Johnsons motel. Then we'll be at Ann's the next two nights. I think I'm more anxious to see her than any part of the trip.

My jacket came last Sat. afternoon and it is lovely. It hasn't been cold enough for it yet but is now. We have had frost the last two nights but the days are sunny and it doesn't seem so cold. There were supposed to be a few snow flakes yesterday but I didn't see them.

I'm so glad your porch roof is all fixed (or hope it is). Do you have a lot of leaves? Maybe Dorsey would rake them for you. Ours are all gone except for a few. B carried them to a neighbor's compost heap and swept part of them into the street. No one can burn anything here anymore & the city has a big vacuum they use on the streets.

I wondered about you on Halloween. We had quilt a few come to the house but most of them were little ones and they are really fun to have. There is always a big parade and they give prizes to the kids & I think that helps keep the mischief down. There was some vandalism but I don't think any more than usual.

It sounds as if Uncle Francis' heart is pretty bad. I always hate to see someone his age put on a diet and wonder how much good it does. Dr. DeWitt is supposed to be a real good doctor, though, and he knows what he's doing, I'm sure.

This is Friday. I did catch the paperboy and then started supper. My jewelry class met last night so I never did get back to my letter. I don't think I'll take the class next semester. The same teacher is having it and I know more than he does about the jewelry & lapidary. You can do other things (pottery, etc.) in there but I want to keep on the jewelry until I can really do good work although I'd love doing the other crafts too. All of them take a lot of time so I'm going to just keep to the jewelry. Now that I have the little table in the kitchen I can find a few minutes most everyday to do a bit of work.

I'm so thankful that the Dresser place has been sold. It was an awful looking place and I don't see how they can ever fix it up. It is a beautiful lot and if they can fix the old house, it, too, could be beautiful. I always did like that place. It worried us for B's mom to be there between two old houses.

I'm sending some pages out of my Wards but I can't find the Kansas City address. This would be out of Chicago but I'm sure you could get the same thing from Kansas City. Some of the coats look real nice. You could order 2 & send one or both back. Why don't you try? Maybe Aunt Cliffie or Aunt Beatrice has a Wards book. Or you could probably just address it Kansas City & they'd get it.

I must get to work so hope you are fine."

                          Much love,

                                Bonnie



NOTE: By the way, I transcribed the letter exactly as written, and it comes as no surprise that Mom wrote "quilt" for "quite" in paragraph 5.

For a look at the 1971 highlights of the space program and an update on Skylab: