Letter postmarked November 21, 1967:
The CCZCC now stands at 4.
Dear Mother and Mike,
Here it is another Monday morning. We are getting ready for our big San Francisco trip so we didn't do much this weekend. We had lousy weather here anyway - by lousy, I mean it rained. I didn't care to be out on the roads, especially the freeways. There were several people killed in car accidents (27 or 28), two boy scouts died while on camping trips, and one whole section of town close to the mountains was plagued with flooding and mud slides! So as you can see, your children were pretty wise to stay home. Maybe old age has set in.
Dave did take me out to eat Friday night. He took me to "Taix," a French restaurant. The food was just wonderful, but not very Frenchy - we had a vegetable soup, a salad, and pot roast with new potatoes and spinach, and of course that wonderful fattening French bread. Borrowing a word from dear Aunt Sara, the place was "elegant" but not expensive at all - the meal plus two (one each) before dinner cocktails was $7. You could hear Dave's sighs of relief all over the joint when the bill was presented.
[You may recall from the November 17 letter that Dad hadn't committed to taking Mom out anywhere on Friday night when Gene and Suzie offered to watch me.]
[Taix opened in 1927 and moved to the current location on Sunset Boulevard in 1962. It is still run by the Taix family. Here's the web site: http://taixfrench.com/. Regarding the cost of their meal, $7 in 1967 purchased about as much as $51 in 2017.]
I was terribly disappointed that we didn't go anywhere after eating - like dancing, show, etc. We left David Wayne with Gene and Suzie at 6:30 and we picked him up at 9 o'clock. But, Dave and Gene had plans to watch a football game on TV for Saturday, so they have to get their reset. They keep better "in training" hours than the football players.
[The football game on Saturday happened to be #1 UCLA vs. #4 USC, so I can see why Dad and Gene wanted to watch it. USC won 21-20 and went on to win the national championship. This game, which has its own Wikipedia page, is considered by some people to be a contender for college football's "Game of the Century" (20th century). USC's win was in no small part due to the efforts of junior running back OJ Simpson, who scored two touchdowns. One of these, a 64-yard run in the fourth quarter to put USC ahead for good, is considered one of college football's best plays ever.]
There was a bit of excitement during the game. We heard this terrible noise outside and when we went to investigate we discovered there had been a terrible car accident just up the street. Two women ran a stop sign and hit a car with three women passengers. One car had run onto the sidewalk just missing this poor old woman who was out for a stroll. We had two ambulances, two fire trucks, and one police car on the scene. During all the excitement I happened to notice several pregnant women standing around and some women in white uniforms. On closer inspection I discovered no wedding bands on their fingers. Then it hit me - Gene and Suzie live next door to a home for unwed mothers! You should have seen me fly into action - I flashed my ring around, kept calling David Wayne in a very loud voice, and I stuck to Dave's side like glue.
[Now we know Gene and Suzie lived within a block or two of our apartment building. What is it with car accidents on this street?]
Sunday we stayed indoors and watched television and read. The "Alice In Wonderland" special was on Sunday night. Gene and Suzie had told us to bring David Wayne over to watch it on their color set. It was just wonderful. I had seen it before, but seeing it in color was great. We are hoping to get a color television when we get home.
[Yes, color television was a big deal in the 1960s. The first television season that had only color programming in prime time on all three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) was the 1966-67 programming season. The first year in which more color television sets were sold in the US than black-and-white sets was 1972.]
David Wayne is really having fun with Gene and Suzie. They are crazy about him and just beg to keep him for us. Suzie even wants to keep him during the daytime when I go shopping. Since Suzie is a speech teacher, I'm trying to enlist her help on getting David Wayne to pronounce his t's and s's. As we were watching the wreck on Saturday my son (in a loud voice) said, "Look at the clouds of the shitty." Suzie said she thought that was one time he pronounced it right.
[I think I got my "t" sounds straightened out fairly quickly, but I know I had a problem with "s" sounds until second or third grade.]
I guess your work is still keeping you pretty busy. Maybe you can rest over the Christmas holidays. Resting seems to be my specialty these days. I don't even like to watch television during the daytime.
[Good, that means I can watch TV all day.]
Well, I will close for now. I would like to get this letter mailed today. Take care and make Mike behave.
Love,
Linda
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