The CCZCC now stands at 4.
"Dear Mother and Mike,"
"Both of you must have broken arms - we didn't get a letter from you last week! About Wednesday Dave started asking each afternoon, "Did we get a letter from your mother?" We only got three letters all last week and we were beginning to think everybody had forgotten us."
[There's that funny bit about the broken arm again from Mom. We'll see if she has to backtrack in the next letter like she did the last time.]
[That's neat that Dad was looking forward to the letters from my grandmother. As I've mentioned before, she was a very good writer.]
[So Mom got three letters in a week and still thought everyone had forgotten about us? I wonder how many she typically received each week to have such high expectations.]
"I got a letter from Myrna today and she said they were going to move out of state in a year. She also said Aunt Edna was upset about it and claims she's going back to Kansas. Bless their hearts! I was glad all over again that we are going to have more than the one little chick. In fact, Dave is already talking about having the next one (one after April, that is.) I think I have over-played my part on how easy it is for me to be pregnant. Last week he even stayed up past 10 o'clock to see "Cheaper by the Dozen!"
[Hold on, stop the presses. Dad was already talking about Child #3 before the arrival of Child #2? Wow, that's interesting. Also, we learn here that Mom is due in April. No spoilers on how that prediction turned out.]
["Cheaper by the Dozen" was a movie released in 1950 based on the book by the same name published in 1948. (Most of us are more familiar with the 2003 movie with the same name.) The book was about the family of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who not only had 12 children (one died at the age of five) but were also time and motion study and efficiency experts. I guess you pretty much have to be efficient with that many kids.]
[Fun Fact: The title of the book came from one of Frank Gilbreth's favorite jokes: When he and his family were out driving and stopped at a red light, quite often a pedestrian would ask, "Hey, Mister! How come you got so many kids?" Frank would pretend to ponder the question carefully and then, just as the light turned green, he would say, "Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know," and drive off. Ha ha. Dad humor. <snort>]
"We are all three enjoying our new Polaroid. The film is costing a small fortune, (we are taking about four rolls per week) but we enjoy going places even more when we can take good pictures. I love to see Dave enjoy something so much and David Wayne is such a ham that he's a pleasure to photograph."
"We are revisiting all the places that we have been just so we can take the pictures. Saturday we went back to Knott's again. We love it there and we always see and do different things. This time we took the coal mine ride - David Wayne made sure his daddy sat on the side where he got drenched going under the waterfall!"
[Yet another trip to Knott's Berry Farm. This is trip number 5 for those of you keeping track, and it gives us an opportunity to present some more ephemera and photos from there. First we have the front and back of some child tickets (5-1/2" x 2-1/2") to the Calico Mine Ride, which have the story of Pete "Sluice Box" McGee who allegedly started digging into Calico Mountain in 1882 and found all sorts of gigantic caverns, stalactites, underground lakes, and gold. Pete was tragically killed in 1890 by a cave-in. Enjoy the ride, kids!]
[When the Calico Mine Ride opened in 1960 it was recognized as one of the world's most immersive "dark rides," meaning it is primarily an indoor ride that simulates some journey or experience, in this case a trip through a coal mine. It's still a popular attraction today, having been refurbished in 2014. Mom and I had apparently ridden this ride before without Dad, and I must have remembered which side of the car got wet so I sneakily made sure Dad sat on that side. I'm sure I was absolutely giddy with excitement waiting for that part of the ride. Here's a picture of me and Dad in front of the Calico Mine Ride.]
[This appears to have been taken before Dad got drenched on the ride. In the background you can see what may be the guilty waterfall, and on Dad's left wrist you can see his watch that probably wasn't water resistant. Dad was not holding a cigarette in this picture, but if you zoom in you can see my belly sticking out from under my shirt.]
[Apparently Mom and Dad were spending so much money on Polaroid film that they couldn't afford to buy me some clothes that fit.]
[I'd be the Wagonmasters played both kinds of music, country _and_ western.]
[Here are the front and back of the tickets to The Haunted Shack (3-1/2" x 7".]
[If you remember Casa Magnetica at Six Flags over Texas, then you know what The Haunted Shack was at Knott's Berry Farm. It's not a "ride" per se, but rather a small building you walk though while a guide demonstrates and discusses the various gravity-defying things that happen within the walls of Slanty Sam's Shack. I was probably fooled as a five-year-old but I know I had Casa Magnetica figured out soon after we started going to Six Flags.]
[The holdup on the Stagecoach ride must have been a bit more realistic than the one on the train Mom and I experienced during a previous trip to Knott's. So much for being a clever kid with a good memory.]
[Here is a picture of me on the donkey, leading the pack, followed by a closeup of me in that same photo where I'm looking a little chubby.]
"Saturday night we went to Olvera Street and ate Mexican food again - I dare not tell Dave that the greasy food doesn't agree with me and that's why I can't eat all of it. Dave found a good buy on some Mexican shoes - they have a name but I can't pronounce it much less spell it!"
[I'll go ahead and break into the middle this paragraph and inform the reader that those shoes were huaraches. The English pronunciation is "wuh-rah-chee." Traditional huaraches are handmade sandals with woven uppers. I remember Dad wearing them sometimes when I was growing up, and that's probably what I'm wearing in the picture of me standing outside our apartment building that I posted on August 25. There's a good chance you've heard them mentioned in the first stanza of a certain Beach Boys song that was released in 1963:
You'd see 'em wearing their baggies
Huarache sandals, too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin' USA
[Ok, back to you, Mom.]
"Anyway the shoes are real soft and most comfortable. We thought (if you would do a little spy work for us) that this might be an idea for Christmas for Linda and Wayne. I know Linda loves sandals and I thought Wayne might enjoy wearing them around the house. See if you can get their sizes, on the sly of course. A funny thing happened with the shoe buying - they were too small so we had to go back Sunday and get a larger size. Dave was a little perturbed when he found out the man had sold him women's size 9 instead of men's! He said about three times, "It wasn't that dark!"
[This is a good point to conclude Part 1 of this letter. In Part 2 (tomorrow) we'll see what happened on Sunday.]
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