The CCZCC extends its record-breaking streak to 5.
"Dear Mother and Mike,"
"I was really surprised to get another letter from you today! The one you wrote on Wednesday came here Tuesday (yesterday) and the one you wrote Sunday came here today (Wednesday). From reading your letter yesterday I gathered that I wouldn't be hearing from you for awhile. I surely was happy to get one today!"
[Yep, Mom's making excuses for her "broken arm" comment in the previous letter, blaming it on the US Postal Service.]
"We were surprised about the 47 degree weather. Dave, especially, just couldn't believe it was so cold there."
[That year Denton set a record low temperature for September 28 of 44 degrees, which is about 20 degrees lower than the normal low temperature for the month of September. (Source: http://www.iweathernet.com/texas-dfw-weather-records)]
"The weather is nice and warm here in the daytime and just cool enough for a sweater at night. David Wayne and I have gone back to walking again since it is not so hot. This morning we walked to the grocery store to get ingredients for a chocolate cake, so I don't think the walk will help me much weight-wise."
"Linda Kay wrote and thanked me for the things from Farmer's Market. Sure took a long time to get to Texas. It looks like I will be mailing Christmas packages from here so I better start now. I will try to get a catalog from some stores at Farmer's Market. Last weekend Dave and I mailed a gift to Patsy W. (our neighbor). We got it at Knott's - four jars of jelly and a really cute jam jar - and it cost about $6. They have some cheaper items there also. One unusual item might be a sack of their corn meal - it's really good."
"It is almost certain that we will be here Christmas, but maybe it won't be so bad. We are going to have a Mexican Christmas with a piñata to break, and decorations on the tree from Olvera Street. If you have any other ideas that we could use, let me know - it is going to take a lot of imagination to make both Davids happy at Christmas this year."
[It sounds like Mom and Dad are going to try to make of the best of things despite being in Los Angeles for Christmas. All I need is toys. Lots of toys. And candy.]
"We are going to have a lot of pictures to show all of you when we get home, but I don't know about sending many. We took one of David Wayne at the observatory with a plan of sending it to you, but it turned out so cute that Dave wanted to keep it. Every time he looks at our album he just beams when he gets to that one. I wish you could see how proud he is of this new camera. And David Wayne is such a ham that we can get him to do anything in order to have his picture taken. We'll send you some next week after visiting Disneyland again."
[I wonder if the previously posted picture of me pointing to the center of the earth is the one Dad really liked.]
"By the way, thank you for the picture and article of Mike. David Wayne recognized Mike right away from the newspaper. There is a new name for Mike - Knucklehead - from a television show. It was first given to his daddy, but we told him it wasn't nice to call an adult a name. So you just inform Mike that he isn't an adult yet - at least not to his nephew!"
[I wonder if I was already watching The Three Stooges at that age. That's definitely one of the first TV shows I remember watching repeatedly.]
"David Wayne is sitting on the floor right now making a book with the animal pictures. I didn't tell him how to do it - just gave him paper. He has put all the birds on one page, fish on another, etc. If he isn't a genius, like you have always claimed he was, he soon will be - we are going through the "questions" stage. Good Lord! Dave and I need three encyclopedias to answer him."
[My four-year-old grandson has begun the questions stage. So far I can usually answer his questions or give a semi-bogus answer that's so long he gets bored and moves on to something else.]
"We watched "The Devil at 4 O'Clock" on TV the other night, and since, we have been besieged with questions of volcanoes, lava, earthquakes, etc. I never realized I was so dumb."
["The Devil at 4 O'Clock" was a 1961 movie starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra, in which a crusty, eccentric priest recruits three reluctant convicts to help him rescue a children's leper colony from a Pacific island menaced by a smoldering volcano. (Hence my sudden fascination with volcanoes, lava and earthquakes.) Much of the movie was filmed in Hawaii in 1960, and Frank Sinatra would spend his mornings flying around the islands drumming up votes for John F. Kennedy in the upcoming presidential election. Kennedy narrowly won Hawaii by 115 votes.]
"Between David Wayne watching cartoons and getting ideas for questions and Dave drooling over Elizabeth Taylor ("Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), I wish our television set would break down."
[Elizabeth Taylor would have been 24 or 25 years old when "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was being filmed. She wore mostly lingerie and low-cut dresses in the movie.]
"Another big mistake I made was buying a globe for David Wayne. I had to go out and buy myself a geography book so I could answer all his questions. He's made up a game with it - he picks out a place on the globe to visit, then asks me (ME! of all people) what will he see there and what will the weather be like, then he goes outside for a few minutes and comes back in with glowing accounts of what he saw and did."
[That's hilarious (and nice) that Mom bought a book to answer my geography questions. Little did she know that I was training her for when she taught social studies many years later.]
"The status of my health is great - never felt better. Don't tell Linda Kay that because I imagine she feels pretty bad now with only four weeks to go. Be sure to let me know how Wayne stands up in the labor room. I am debating on whether or not to lock Dave out of that particular phase. You would be amazed to see how big my tummy is already - I may just have another "baby elephant."
[I weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, and I was rather chunky in my baby photos. Here are a couple to prove my point. The first one was taken in July of 1963, when I was one year old. I'm sitting on my grandmother's front porch in Denton.]
[You can't read it in that photo, but I zoomed in on another photo in the album to see that the front of my overalls say "Be My Valentine."]
[The next photo was taken (well, developed, anyway) five months later. I'm standing on the front porch of my great-grandparents' house in Alabama.]
[I was too sexy for my shirt even at a very young age.]
"I am reading "To Sir, With Love" and I really like it. Well, I will close for now. Write as often as you can and I can understand if work keeps you busy. Wish I could help you."
"Love, Linda"
"P. S. - Pat Neal informs me that Joan G. is living in Florida. Pat and Rob went to Jamaica this past summer and "free-loaded" on Joan while they were in Florida waiting on plane connections."
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