Marcia Kirwan Standley Papers

do rather like the straw with the interchangeable hands, but that is off-white. I found a perfect hat. Excellent quality, in extreme good taste, lots of style, a chalk white straw. The only trouble with it is that it's a Schiaparelli & cost $20.00. For me, & to me, that's an awful lot of loot, but this was THE hate, & will last a while, also I notice that sometimes you pay that much. I hope you understand -- if not I suppose that I can return it. Aha! but that isn't all. Stay on the floor & I will tell you. For $1.00 I bought a pair of very simple pearl & rhinestone earrings that kind of go well with the hat, also a lot of other stuff. For $5.00 I bought a small white leather purse that goes with everything & is washable. Then I went to another dept & bought a pink taffeta crinolin of a type that I don't have & have noticed a need for, since I think the Fashion Board across the hall is getting tired of my borrowing. That cost $5.95. Then I bought a bra, since I can't wear those whirlpools with light cottons & t-shirts as the ends have a tendency to corrugate which really gives me an unusual shape. After consulting Caroline, I got an all-lace Maidenform for $3.00 which will probably do the job. Also, I weigh a little less than before, & what I have lost in fat I have gained in muscle, but not in the bra dept., so now I wear a B cup. About the muscle business, I do not buldge -- I am _firm_ & have yet to hear any male objections, & I know some pretty frank males.

Kevin has his acceptance to Stanford, I

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thought. I phone him every Fri afternoon from my sitting job, & I suppose we will get together when divergent schedules permit.

Last week I had a baby-sitting job that the lady negotiated throught the Sitter Service. We got to talking & I asked her what her husband does. He's a broker with Dean Witter & Co. He covers the S.F. to San Jose area. Whaddaya know about that? Well-behaved children, too. Name: James E. Ryan.

Thanks for sending that travel list. I know quite a few of the girls in it. About your "home sweet home" appendage. Don't you know that birds leave the nest, & usually at their own discretion? You never seem to understand that you can't keep your children by keeping them at home. You can lose them that way, though. At the moment I have no desire to go to Europe, & that goes for the immediate future. I have too many things to do. Eventually, I suppose I'll get there, but it will have to be under my own steam. At one time, I really did want to spend this last year going to school in Spain. The whole deal, including boat fare, is cheaper than a year at Stanford, & you spend your vacations touring Europe. I sounded you out about it, & then didn't waste my time pursuing it any further. I don't suppose you remember, as there wasn't much said. Anyway, now I'm just as glad I stayed right here.

Fitch is probably someplace around Estes Park, Colo. A lot of her contemporaries retired to there, & she loved it & used to spend her summers there. If you can, would you please get me her address.

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does not hold my true vocation in life.

MON. Continuing to grope, which I kind of enjoy, I applied at Kodak on Thursday and today I took the aptitude test, expecting to get a machine job like Jane and Jean have. My paint must have been a little scratched, because I think the personnel man saw in me more than just a mere button pusher. He swished me in for an interview with the head of the processing dept. who is looking for a new secretary, of course with the understanding that I am one of many applicants being interviewed for that particular job. I should know by the end of this week, and he wants me to take a typing test tomorrow, for the records. It was a pretty good interview and I hope I get that job. Besides figuring out the time sheets, there isn't much secretarial work involved, an occasional memo and getting him to meetings on time, relaying messages to and from the people in the dept., etc. Whatever I get, it isn't the cannery and it's about nine miles closer. Also, working until 3:00 AM and later is for the birds. I think that I'd rather work for a man than a woman anyway-- not so much fur and clawing.

Do you remember Kenny Mills, the boy with the cast on his arm who was going to come and see me the weekend that I was down there, who I introduced you to over by the South end of the grandstand at Belmont the night you came with Suzie. He went into the hospital for the fourth and last operation on his arm and as soon as they administered the anesthetic, his heart stopped. They got it started for a few seconds by massaging it, but then it stopped for good. It was an awful shock. He was only 24, wild but good, and never made an enemy in his life. We went to the funeral on Friday, but I still can't believe that he's really dead.

I hope that you aren't too disappointed that I didn't plunge right out of colleg and into a career or grad school. I got what I could and what I wanted out of Stanford and being up here. I kind of have a head start on things and I see no reason to make careful schedules and plans for the rest of my life as long as the things I'm doing are of some possible future use. From here on out, I have no particular plans or deadlines, just a mental list of things I intend to look into and things that I am curious about. I'll check them off as the opportunities present themselves or as I am able to make the opportunities. There are lots of things that I could do that would be "wise" or "good ideas" but I can't do them all and I can't like them all. A lot of my interests are not along tried and true lines anyway, so social wisdom and someone' elses experience isn't much help. Aside from the definite reasons I have for staying up here, you know as well as I do that coming home to live and finding something to do in LA would be a step backwards and that my divergent interests and habits would only cause friction. I don't feel just because you do things differently from the way that I do them that I should change. I think that you know what I mean, and it only starts with two-wheeled vehicles. I do appreciate my college education and the money and effort that you put out in giving it to me. I know its value and that its real assets to me in particular cannot be measured in grades or units. Believe it or not, I even realize that a lot of love as well as money and effort went into providing it.