July 13, 1974 The Early Letter, The Healing Jaw, The Washing and Ironing, The Nice Letter and The Very Comfortable Place

Dear Mother,

"This is a little early for me to write but we hope to leave on a vacation early tomorrow morning.  We are going to follow Rt. 90 west to Seattle and then go over to Vancouver, Canada. If there is time we may come home by crossing Canada. It is a long way so we may have to take the shortest way instead of the way we'd like to go. There is so much we'd like to see in the northwest that we may not even get that far if we dilly dally but what we want is a rest and to get away from school work for a while. B will call into the office occasionally so if you want to get in touch with us you can call his office (Area 309 438-2515) and leave a message with Mrs. Katz, his secretary. We'll write cards often so you can keep track of us.

My jaw is healing nicely. I saw the dentist Wednesday and he found a cavity so I have to go have that fixed in August. My dental bill is going to be awful but it is worth it, of course. I've never really had a lot of trouble with my teeth.

I've spent most of this week washing and ironing and getting things cleaned up so we could go away. I'll have to finish Pat's suit when I get home. Then I'll start on the material Ann picked out when she was here.

Did you do anything to hurt that back again? I thought it had been pretty good lately. Leave off the cross stitching for a while. You may be holding your arms in a position which cramps the muscles. If you have medicine for the pain, take it. Pain alone can make you sick. I found that out when my tooth kicked up.

I had a nice letter from Bessie this week. She said they'd been to see you.

I have thought and thought about you selling your house ever since your letter came yesterday. You know I wouldn't care if you really wanted to but I don't think you want to. You will remember that when Daddy died I told you I wanted you to stay right there as long as you were able to or wanted to. Ask yourself if you could be satisfied now in any other place. It is a bigger house and a bigger yard than you need but your neighbors are not on top of you and it is a very comfortable place. As you say, moving would be hard but finding another place, worse. You must not sell your house under any conditions until you have definitely settled on another place to live.

None of us has forgotten your misery when you had to move into Uncle Floyd's little house. I have no idea what your house is worth but it should be appraised before you price it. I doubt if you could make anything off the sale and it might end up by costing you more to buy another house. I keep thinking that you should just write the Howlett girl and tell her you don't want to sell as long as you are able to stay there.

You'll have to decide for yourself and the rest of us will help you with it all if you do want to sell. I think you could sell that house anytime you wanted to so you don't have to do it now just because someone asked about it. Whoever buys that house will be getting two extra building lots--one on each side of your house--and there would be houses on those lots right away, I'll bet. I don't want to throw water on your idea of selling but I want you to be happy and I don't think selling the house is going to make you happy. You are doing fine just where you are.

I wish you could see my day lilies. They are so big and pretty. They need weeding but that will have to wait.

Hope you are fine and you'll have a card in a few days."

                  Love,

                     Bonnie

NOTE: Grandmother's house, built in 1948 and pictured above in the 1960s, is still there. Although the current owners did not sell the lots on either side, they have added large additions to each side. Below, my daughter's painting (from an earlier post) of the house as she recalled seeing it in her childhood. For as long as I can remember, I thought the house was absolutely magical and the thought of it being sold seemed inconceivable at the time. I don't think anyone was in favor of selling.

For more on the house:  http://www.annbkennedy.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-6-1947-spring-weather-report-slow.html