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March 4, 1962
Dear Mother and Daddy,
All of your packages have arrived and are very much appreciated. We are still trying to decide on color on the Jay-less, but maybe if they are open on Sat, we'll go up and look the stuff over in the raw. Last weekend went by like a shot, and we are a little behind schedule on the kitchen and the bathroom. The living-room sure looks a heck of a lot betterm though, in spite of the few little details that remain unfinished.
The kids are happily ancitipating your visit, and will have a lot to tell you since they started nursury school on the 1st. It seems to be working out very well, and as soon as they get to know everyone, I think that they may prefer it to coming home.
The Popular Science book arrived today and we are giving it a thorough scrutiny. The big furnityre items on our list are the desk-complex and a coffee table, but there are a few other little time consuming details in the road.
Over the Washington's Birthday holiday we went to visit Jim's sister at Chinese Camp. We really had a good time and the kids got a little sample of farm life. Jim's 13 yr. old nephew has a Future Farmers of America project with some chickens and Pooh and Toot got to lift the warm eggs out from under the hens. He has a fairly tame one that he caught for them numerous times and let them pet it. He let them herd them into his chicken yard and taught them to do it gently. There were a few aspects of the rooster's behavior that they did not fully understand, but we will fill in those details later. We went on a hike with Pooh and the 4 older cousins and inspected an ancient cemetery with stones dating back as far as the 1880's, with inscriptions
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like "shot in cold blood" and "drowned in the Tuolome River". Pooh turned out to be a pretty good hiker, sowe have promised them some camping trips this summer. San Mateo County has a very well maintained County park back in the foothills, which would be a good place to start. I got a book on wild flower identification and one on trees, so we will all learn together. I have to get one on birds, too, but I'm in no hurry because I'm sure we will be pretty busy. We weren't going to take Toot, since she is always insisting on being carried, but she heard about it and that is that. We told Pooh that real HIKERS don't ever get carried and she took us at our word.
On that subject, could we borrow two our your sleeping bags? Jim and I have a couple, but we would rather not share them with the kids. We were going to buy a couple of small ones, but for as little use as they would get, we would rather borrow a couple from a sanitary source. If this experiment goes well, we make take them on a more rugged extended trip the next time we take a vacation.
TheCitroen is running like a bomb. I have almost mastered the gears, though every once in a while, I crunch them. Front wheel drive is really divine. You hardly notice the fumes, it's so much fun. Pooh likes it because the doors are easier for her to open herself and nobody else has one. What it really needs right now is upholstry in the front seats. They are fairly simple in two peices, so we are going to order the naugahyde from the Sears cataloge and hack them out ourselves.
We really enjoyed the samples of your winetasting excursion, and have been doing a little sampling around the stores ourselves. There are several good wineries around Santa Clara County, Almaden and Paul Masson are the biggest, but one of the small ones has a tasting room right up off of El Camino in Mt. View, so one of these days...
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A couple of weeks ago we went to the Cow Palace for a hockey game. Jim's mother got us the tickets and baby sat because she thought we needed a night out. It was really great. We probably would have never done it ourselves, but she showed up with the tickets and we went. Even if you don't understand what is going on, the principle of getting the puck in the goal is a simple one and there is seldom a dull moment in the process. They had a couple of dandy fist fights and one guy casually brained another with his stick. We heard later that this one was considered a relatively gentle game. I have heard about how the Canadians knock each other around. Really a thrilling sport, you should try it.
Last Sunday, Pooh wore that pink dress you got her to church. The weather was finally nice enough. She really looked nice in a white straw hat and a white wicker purse.
Your phone call just came unexpectedly and I have made the motel reservations. The man wanted to know if you were going to be ther on Sun nite. Since I didn't know how many days one of those pig orgies lasts, I told him I didn't know so he said that it wasn't too important anyway. "A nice room with twin beds in the back" and in your name at the Shangri-La. So your reservation is hereby confirmed.
Have to hit the sack now. Tomorrow I promised too many people that I would come to see them, in my usual well organized way. Hopefully, someone will have moved or inherited a million which cuts down the time necessary to process the application.
Got a couple of new records, my favorite vice, "country music". I finally found a recording of "The Letter Edged in Black". Pooh has a new Walt Disney of "The Lady and the Tramp" and you can hear "We are Siamese if you please" until it's printed on your brain. See you Sat.
Love, Marcia
