History Lessons (alternately, ch-ch-ch-ch-changes)

Today's post will discuss some of the things we ran across in 1967-68 that were a little different than the way things were 50 years later. We'll also review a few historical moments. Let's start with the culture at the time. 1967 was the Summer of Love, with the Monterey Pop Festival taking place in June on the west coast, the song "San Francisco (Be sure to wear flowers in your hair)" climbing the charts, and the hippie subculture gaining a foothold in many large cities, most notably San Francisco. That cultural phenomenon was clearly present in Los Angeles as evidenced by the various mentions of hippies in Mom's letters, especially the earlier ones. My small-town Texas parents definitely went through a bit of culture shock being exposed to all that, which gave us some entertaining reading on more than one occasion. Closely related to that cultural movement, and no doubt somewhat of a driver of it, was the escalation of the Viet Nam war in 1967. Protests against the war were also escalating, including marches that often turned violent. A Peace March scheduled to pass within a few blocks of our apartment on August 6, 1967 made my parents nervous enough to leave the area that day and make our first of many visits to Knott's Berry Farm. The military draft was also in effect at the time, and we got to see the impact of that on a young family in a letter one of Mom's friends wrote to her. Another bit of civil unrest during this time was the race riots that were occurring all over the country. (Look up "long, hot summer of 1967.") We moved to L. A. only three years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, and two years after the famous riots in the L. A. neighborhood of Watts. So when Dad found out Mom and I had unintentionally driven through Watts one day, he was understandably upset. Technology has obviously advanced a bit in the past 50 years. Some things that were relatively new at the time, with a certain "wow" factor, are either taken for granted today or have almost disappeared entirely. For instance, Dad spent a lot of money to purchase a Polaroid camera while we were there. Polaroid instant pictures were a good alternative to waiting days to have film developed and they gave people nearly instant gratification. But today, given how easy it is for anyone to take a digital picture and see it (and share it) instantly, for free, Polaroid film doesn't have much of a chance although it does have a certain nostalgic charm to it. Polaroid instant cameras are still available, although with slightly different technology. Another thing that wasn't commonplace in 1967 that we take for granted now is color TV. We had a black and white television set in our apartment, and one of the letters mentioned my parents' friends, the Dirrs, inviting us over to watch a TV special on their color television one night. Mom mentioned that she hoped we could buy a color TV when we got back to Texas, and I'm pretty sure we did before the end of the year. As previously noted, 1972 was the first year in which more color television sets were sold in the US than black-and-white sets. Also in the area of technology, something important was happening in the late 1960s that I don't think was mentioned in any of the letters although there were a few front page newspaper articles about it while we were in L. A. That was the race to the moon. The Apollo program was in its early stages, having yet to launch a manned spaceflight, yet we found our apartment in L. A. exactly two years before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. The changes in technology in the past 50 years have certainly changed the way we communicate. In 1967, long before the internet was even a gleam in Al Gore's eye, there was no such thing as email. This was also long before mobile phones of any type were available, so there were no cell phones either, which meant no texting. No cell phones. No internet. No email. No texting. So how did people communicate? Well, people communicated the old fashioned way, via letters and phone calls using telephones connected to landlines. To make matters worse, the telephone companies charged extra for long distance calls outside of your local area, so most people, especially those who were pinching pennies, just didn't make a lot of long distance phone calls and tended to rely more on letters. We know letters were the primary method of communication between Mom and my grandmother. Letters at the time could go via ground, or you could pay a few cents more for airmail if you wanted faster delivery. All but one of Mom's letters was sent via airmail, and even with that we could see on a few occasions where the lag between sending and receiving caused some communication issues that wouldn't occur today. We have grown so accustomed to nearly instant communication these days that it's hard to imagine having to wait several days, perhaps more than a week, to have someone reply to a question. We did learn about one method of almost instant communication that was occasionally used back then, and that was the telegram. When my grandmother made her flight plans to visit us she sent a telegram because sending an airmail letter would have taken too long. Strangely enough, we also learned that Western Union continued their telegram service until 2006. Speaking of letters, we also learned the use of zip codes was somewhat new in 1967. Although Mom grew up in the house my grandmother was still living in, she didn't even know my grandmother's zip code when she started writing letters. It took her several months to get to the point where she always remembered to include the zip code when addressing the envelope, but she ended up doing it consistently. Not only was it nearly impossible to communicate as quickly as we do now, it was also difficult to get stuff as quickly. We moved to L. A. six years before the first overnight delivery service, Federal Express, began operations. People in 1967 probably didn't see much of a need for overnight deliveries, and they definitely would have been amazed that in the future you could even get same day delivery of some items. During our stay in L. A. we also ran across a few things that seem totally out of place today and have since been changed for the better, often with the prodding of the legal system. The first notable event was the search for an apartment in Los Angeles when my parents found it difficult to find an apartment building that would allow children. This was before the Fair Housing Act of 1968, so that was a perfectly legal practice at the time. The next incident that comes to mind was my encounter with a pay toilet when I was unable to pay. Fortunately pay toilets were banned in most places in the US in the 1970s and are rarely seen today. We learned that car seats were not very common in the late 1960s and certainly were not required by law. On a related note, I don't think any of the letters mentioned seat belts, but seat belts were not even required equipment for all seating positions in passenger cars until 1968, and wearing seat belts wasn't mandated by law until the mid 1980s. For most people it's weird to even think about not wearing a seatbelt today. Another more recent change in the area of child safety was the design of playground equipment. I haven't done any research on that, but the playground equipment I played on in Griffith Park would be viewed as quite archaic and hazardous today. Another item related to health and safety that was mentioned many times during the first half of our stay was the smog. Say what you will about California's environmental regulations, but they seem to have greatly improved the smog situation over the past 50 years. It was really sad reading Mom's description of how the smog affected us. Even if people who were living there got used to it, you know it had to have a negative effect on people's respiratory systems and who knows what else. If you want really bad smog today you can go to some big cities in China. We also learned that the medical guidelines regarding the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy have changed in the past 50 years, since Mom did not abstain early on in her pregnancy. In the world of sports there was a lot going on, although in most cases Mom just mentioned it as an aside, leaving me to do the research to figure out what game she was talking about. (You're welcome.) The most important thing from a historical perspective was the rise of OJ Simpson to national prominence as a junior running back for the USC Trojans. I really wish I could ask my dad what his thoughts were while watching college football's "Game of the Century" between USC and UCLA, especially OJ Simpson's touchdown run that is considered one of college football's best plays ever. The same goes for college basketball's "Game of the Century" between UCLA and The University of Houston two months later, which Mom and Dad both watched intently with friends while I played on the floor with coloring books and dominoes. Finally, since we were so close to Hollywood, it's only natural that the world of entertainment was featured in one way or another in many of the letters and diary entries. Mom and I saw a scene from the 1968 movie "The Party" being filmed, we saw a Shasta root beer commercial being filmed, and we attended tapings of Let's Make a Deal (with Monty Hall) and Art Linkletter's House Party. Our friends the Dirrs appeared on The Newlywed Game with Bob Eubanks, and Mom and I got to see Dean Martin's dressing room, including the toilet, as part of an NBC studio tour. And some television history was mentioned in one of the letters, too. That was the final episode of "The Fugitive" television series, the most watched TV show of all time until the world found out who shot J. R. Ewing 12 years later. In tomorrow's post I'll try to fill in a few gaps and tie up some loose ends.

January 23, 1968: Tanks, trains & automobiles

Letter postmarked January 24, 1968 (Part 2):

This is Part 2 of the letter postmarked January 24, 1968. This part covers Sunday, January 21.

Sunday morning we decided to go to the Calico Ghost Town. This place is owned by the same people that own Knott's Berry Farm and it is not as commercialized - everything there is old and just like it was when it was a mining town. The only trouble with the place is that it's so far away - it took about three hours of driving to get there.

[Calico Ghost Town is in Yermo, CA, which is about two and a half hours northeast of Los Angeles. Calico was a mining town during the California silver rush of the 1880s, then became a ghost town after silver lost its value in the mid-1890s. Walter Knott purchased Calico in the 1950s.]

[Mom doesn't mention it, but just before we got to Calico we must have stopped in Barstow and taken some pictures at a park. Barstow is home to a Marine Corps Logistics Base and Fort Irwin Army Base. Surplus military equipment must be a common sight in that area because Mom's caption for this first photo indicates that we found this old tank in a park.]

[Note that Mom is six months pregnant in that picture. I don't know what was going on with me at the time, but if you zoom in on my face it looks like I wasn't very happy. Maybe that bare metal tank was burning my butt through my britches.]

[The next photo is me and Mom inside the tank. I look much happier there in the shade.]

We took a picnic lunch. (Dave's really pinching pennies so he can get me that washing machine quickly!) David Wayne wore his guns, holster, and cowboy hat and we got some really cute pictures. He took a donkey ride, all of us took a train ride, went through a museum, and we walked through an old mine. We had a good time and really it didn't cost us much as admission and parking were free and we didn't have to eat out.

[Here are various photos of our day at Calico. Let me begin by saying I didn't include all of the pictures from Calico Ghost Town, not even all the pictures of me.]

[First up is me (with my awesome red cowboy hat) in an antique wagon. The front of the wagon says:

Lanes
General Merchandise
Free Delivery

[Next is me (with my awesome red cowboy hat, holster, and gun) and Dad in front of a sign that says "1881 Calico Lives Again." Behind that sign you can see "CALICO" in gigantic letters near the top of the mountain. You will note that this picture is a little blurry, much like a previous picture of me where the blurriness was blamed on me doing the pee dance. I doubt Dad and I both needed to go while Mom was taking this picture.]

[Next is me riding a donkey. If I don't look like a real cowboy there with my red hat, blue jeans, and tennis shoes, then nobody does.]

[Next is me sitting in a very large cast iron kettle with this lettering on the front:

Chinese bath tub
Back Scrub 5 cents
Full Scrub 10 cents
(Try it for size)

[That's all the pictures I'll be showing from Calico Ghost Town, but it should come as no surprise that Mom saved some items from our visit, much like she did for almost every other place we visited. Since I doubt we'll be back here before we move back to Texas, given how far Calico is from Los Angeles, I won't be able to spread these out over several posts. Therefore, you now get to experience the Calico Ghost Town Ephemera Extravaganza!]

[First up is a nice tri-fold brochure giving the history of Calico and the current layout. Fully unfolded it's 11" x 17" so it required four full-page scans to get it all. You're welcome. If you read closely you'll see two mentions of the Walter Knott connection to the original Calico mining town.]

[Next is a scan that includes each of the different tickets Mom saved from Calico, not including duplicates. These have a similar look to the tickets from Knott's Berry Farm, but they don't have as much clever writing.]

We left Calico at 5 o'clock but we didn't get home until after 9! The traffic was terrible. First, we ran into the cars coming in from Las Vegas and also there was a truck that had lost control and blocked all but one lane. For two hours we just creeped along, stopping and starting a little at a time - it was horrible. Only our sense of humor kept us from going batty. We ate supper in the car on the freeway - I told Dave it was a good thing we had our leftover picnic food with us or we could starve to death on an L. A. freeway. Then Dave really got me tickled by saying, "I'm glad I'm not taking you to the hospital to have the baby." Then we tried to guess how many babies were born on freeways each year in L. A. Poor Dave was so tried when we finally arrived home - he had a headache, his back and neck were stiff and sore, and he just fell in the bed. He wasn't much better this morning and I felt really sorry for him having to go to work.

[We will conclude Part 2 of this letter here.]

January 1, 1968: Party Pooper

Letter postmarked January 4, 1968 (Part 3):

This part of the January 4 letter covers Sunday, December 31, 1967 and Monday, January 1, 1968. (New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.)

Sunday we went to Knott's Berry Farm. The girls wanted to go to Disneyland, but there just wasn't time - I had to be home by 7 o'clock to get ready for our New Year's party. The girls were supposed to meet us at a certain time and Mary just turned them loose. (Yes! I kept David Wayne with us.) Well, they didn't show up until about 40 minutes after the appointed time which made everything very rushed for me (like I didn't have time to change clothes, comb my hair, or put on lipstick for the party.) But our day at Knott's was a lot of fun and we even had one of those chicken dinners out there - delicious again!

[Yet another trip to Knott's Berry Farm. Here's a fuzzy picture of Dad and Cliff sitting with some women other than their wives.]

[And here is a picture of me standing next to a snowman that probably wasn't made out of real snow. This is one of those rare photos in which my clothes appear to fit and you can't see that growing belly of mine.]

[Before we cover the New Year's Eve party at our apartment, here is a picture of all of the guests except one, I think.]

[The people in the back row are Cliff, Suzie Dirr, Gene Dirr, Hartford (Christmas Eve guest), Barbara Hansen (red dress), and Erland Hansen. The people in the front row are Ginger and Lynn (Cliff's stepdaughters), and Mary (Cliff's wife). I'm pretty sure Hartford's girlfriend was there, too, because in the same area of the photo album there is a picture of him and his girlfriend sitting on our couch, and she isn't mentioned in the letter describing Christmas Eve.]

[In that group photo it looks like Erland may be holding a camera in his left hand. The table is set up for serving a lot of food, so I'm sure everyone had a great time.]

Now for the party, which was a complete bust!

[Well, maybe everyone didn't have a great time.]

Mary allowed her girls to stay up for the whole thing and they were so loud and silly that they were the whole party, much to everyone's disgust (except Gene and Suzie). I've never seen kids behave in such a manner and get by with it. To top that - The Dirrs brought their puppy.

[Oh good, a one-bedroom apartment with 13 people milling about, plus a puppy that isn't housebroken. Let the fun begin!]

We couldn't believe it. After several new puddle circles on our rug and shooing it away from hosiery, I blew! I told (not asked) Gene to take the damn pup home and not bring it back. Dave backed me up all the way, bless his heart. Does that sound like me? Gene took the pup home, but unfortunately, he and Suzie stayed - she in my bathroom crying and he making a general nuisance of himself. As I said before, the girls and the Dirrs were so loud and silly that no one else could talk. That was our party - "The Sandbox Crowd." Everyone stayed until midnight and we ate (food was good - ham, potato salad, black-eyed peas, cornbread) then all left and I didn't blame them one bit.

Monday morning I just said, "To hell with it!" I stayed in bed until 10 o'clock, fixed only coffee for breakfast (except the girls and David Wayne had Toast'Em Pop-Ups), and I wrapped up ham, bread and potato salad for them to eat and just sent them on their merry way. The rest of the day was spent with relaxing and just talking, talking, talking.

[Can you tell Mom was a little upset? That late trip to the airport on Christmas Day made it the best Christmas ever, and now the puppy and the loud young girls made it the best New Year's Eve ever. I bet Mom and Dad breathed a huge sigh of relief when our company left.]

[This concludes Part 3 of the January 4 letter. I'll post the 4th and final part on January 4.]

December 10, 1967: The Hairy Playboy

Letter postmarked December 11, 1967 (Part 1):

The CCZCC now stands at 8.

Dear Mother and Mike,

Boy, have I been busy! Since we came back from San Francisco, I've been home only two days - the rest of the time I've been goin' and a blowin'! I think I wrote you that on Monday, I went to the stamp store and got Dave an ice crusher. I told him that I didn't know whether he would like his Christmas present or not, but he'd love the thought behind it - it only cost him 49 cents.

[In the December 5 letter Mom had also mentioned going to the stamp store, and I thought she meant going somewhere to purchase postage stamps. But now I realize she was talking about going to an actual S & H Green Stamps store, which was where you could redeem S & H Green Stamps for some or all of the purchase price of discounted items carried at the store. (S & H Green Stamps were previously discussed in the October 27 letter.) So Mom must have saved up enough Green Stamps to cover almost the entire cost of the ice crusher she got Dad for Christmas.]

Tuesday I babysat - Suzie Dirr's dog. The little pup is really cute and smart. David Wayne really enjoyed playing with it. When Suzie came back home from her shopping we visited. Also, Barbara Hansen came over, so I umpired their conversation - as I told you before I can get along with either of them but when they're together I get nervous. Suzie is 22 and Barbara is about 43 - just too big an age difference there.

[I have a feeling it was more than just an age difference that made Suzie and Barbara a little incompatible with each other.]

Wednesday morning I drove Suzie and David Wayne to Knott's. I finished my last bit of shopping while there and I really felt good. I must tell you this, but don't you ever tell my brother Wayne or my husband! Promise? I wrote a check for my new purchases at Knott's, but when I went to show my driver's license I couldn't find them. Then I remembered - they were at our apartment safely tucked inside my checkbook and that's where they've been the whole time I've been driving in Los Angeles!

[I'm a little confused here since Mom would likely have had her checkbook with her if she were writing a check while at Knott's. Maybe she meant her license was in the box of checks at the apartment. In any case, yeah, I bet she didn't go home and brag to Dad about that one.]

Knott's was not crowded at all so we had a good time seeing all the stores and the Christmas decorations. We went on the Coal Mine Ride and Suzie and David Wayne screamed and really had a big time. They also rode the merry-go-round, shooting at all the people. I told Dave that I felt like I had taken two little kids, instead of a kid and one adult. They had a blacksmith working at Knott's and Suzie had never seen that before. She and David Wayne were so interested in what he was doing that the blacksmith gave each of them a horseshoe and put their initials on it. They also had an old woman spinning cloth and several other "old timey" demonstrations.

Now to tell you the big event of the day - I had David Wayne sit still for 40 minutes while a lady painted (chalk rather) his portrait. I figure that that is my Christmas present to myself. It's really a good picture, but it really doesn't look like my son - the mouth is closed and the nose doesn't turn up enough, also the horns are missing. Everyone that has seen it just raves over it. Dave says he knows it isn't David Wayne because he couldn't have sat still that long. But really he did!

[If I could easily get to that portrait right now I'd post a picture of it. Mom was very proud of it and had portraits of both of my sisters done when they were about five years old as well. All three were hanging in her bedroom.]

After leaving Knott's, we stopped off at the Movieland Wax Museum and Palace of Living Art. I didn't particularly care to go, but Suzie wanted to. I wish I had taken you as I think you would have really enjoyed seeing the "old" stars. Suzie had never heard of most of them - alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Gloria Swanson, Hedy Lamar ["It's Hedley!"], etc. Yes, Mother, I knew them and I felt at least 65 years old. Some of the figures really moved and all of them were fixed up from scenes from their famous movies. I had seen most of the pictures (Suzie had seen only one or two) and the others I had heard you talk about.

[Here are scans of the front and part of the inside of the brochure Mom saved from Movieland Wax Museum, and the front of the brochure for Palace of Living Art. Both brochures have lots of detailed information.]

[Movieland Wax Museum and Palace of Living Art was open from 1962 to 2005. It was located at 7711 Beach Boulevard in Buena Park, California, just two blocks north of Knott's Berry Farm. The building was only recently torn down but the iconic sign is still there, as you can see on Google Street View. Thanks to the wayback feature of Google Street View, you can look at older Google Street Views and see the building before it was torn down. (Unfortunately, the Starbucks built in front of it blocks most of the view of the grand entrance.)]

[There is a lot of information to be found online regarding Movieland Wax Museum and Palace of Living Art. It was the largest wax museum in the US, and many of the wax figures were featured in reproductions of the sets of their well-known movies, rather than just standing around in poses. The Palace of Living Art featured full size marble reproductions of many world famous sculptures such as Michelangelo's David (18 feet tall, pictured on the cover of the brochure), and master artist reproductions of famous paintings such as The Last Supper and American Gothic. But instead of just reproductions of famous works of art, many were displayed in settings depicting the artist's studio, with a figure representing the model posing for the painting, such as the model posing for Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. That might account for the incident Mom is about to recount.]

I also liked the wax reproductions of the famous paintings, but there were a few nudes that I rushed David Wayne by. They were very life-like and the men even had hair on their legs, arms, underarms. I whispered to Suzie to notice this but if I would have waited she would have heard David Wayne proclaim in a loud voice, "Look, they've got hair all over them just like Daddy!" Everyone, even the guards, giggled.

[Like most five-year-olds, I didn't always know when to whisper.]

David Wayne spent the day with Suzie on Thursday and she had him make Christmas presents for me and Dave. I thought this was very thoughtful of her and David Wayne got very excited about it. He needed some materials to make the gifts with us so we let him "earn" his money - he washed dishes for me and polished Dave's shoes. This made him feel so big and I think the gifts mean more to all of us because of this - they are completely from him. Also, that day he helped Suzie cook shrimp gumbo and we ate supper with them that night. 

Now, for what I did on my "day off" and hold onto your hat. Barbara Hansen took me to lunch at a - - - Playboy Club! I've never had so much fun in my life and I picked up a few souvenirs - that means I picked up everything that I could carry out. The only things I missed were the table we ate off of and the "bunnies." Barbara even bought me a $3 cocktail just so I could get a Playboy mug. Barbara got permission to show me the whole club - VIP room, Penthouse, Playboys Club Room, and I started into a door with a sign, Playboys Lounge, but Barbara informed me that was the men's room. I think Barbara had as much fun as I did because it was so obvious that I was having a wonderful time. After lunch (and cocktails) we went shopping at the most expensive store in Los Angeles. Naturally, neither of us could afford anything, but it was great fun just looking at $100 handkerchiefs and $200 purses.

[$3 in 1967 purchased almost as much as $24 in 2017, so that was an expensive cocktail. $100 purchased about as much as $728 in 2017, so those were stupidly expensive handkerchiefs and purses.]

[I remember seeing a few of those souvenirs from the Playboy Club around the house when I was growing up, including the mug and some swizzle sticks. I also remember wondering how Mom and Dad came to acquire those items after I learned what Playboy Magazine was.]

Friday I stayed home and washed and cleaned. Dave surprised me by coming home early from work - all the men took off early. Gene and Suzie were to be on the Newlywed Game that night and we wanted to go, but we couldn't find anyone to keep David Wayne. They told us the next day all about the show - and believe me, we really missed a performance. It's to be shown this Saturday night, the 16th, so don't miss it. I could never write to you and describe this couple, but if you watch the show you'll know all about them. Let me say this - they have been wonderful to David Wayne and he really has fun with them.

[I guess we'll have to wait for another letter to find out what happened during Gene and Suzie's appearance on the Newlywed Game. This seems like a good point to end Part 1 of this letter. We'll continue with Part 2 tomorrow.]

November 7, 1967: Golden company

Letter postmarked November 7, 1967 (written November 6):

The CCZCC is reset back to zero due to a missing zip code on this envelope.

Dear Mother and Mike,

How are both of you? Busy, I presume. Dave told me to ask you to please write as I am impossible to live with when I don't get a letter from you.

It is nearly noon and I haven't done anything this Monday morn. I just can't get going. Finally, I made the bed up so I won't be tempted to spend the rest of the day there.

The examiner from Texas came Thursday night instead of Friday. We were so glad to see people from Texas that we haven't given them a minute to themselves. They ate supper with us Friday night, then Saturday we took them to Olvera Street and made them eat supper with us again, then Sunday we took them to Knott's. We are really going to enjoy having them in L. A.

[Mom and Dad were quite the L. A. tour guides after living there less than four months.]

Suzie, the wife, is just really nice. She is an ex-speech teacher. She has also had a bit of training and experience with testing children for I. Q., etc. David Wayne is crazy about her and they have played several little "games" (which are really tests) together. I am enclosing the "Draw a Man" test which is given to all first graders. She was surprised that he did so well on it and that he knew all the parts of the body except hips. She said she would grade his drawing a 6.5 (6-1/2 years old) or a 7 (7 years). Since David Wayne likes her so much, he isn't shy around her and he really shows off his "boundless energy." She looks at him, shakes her head, and says, "Gosh, I'm glad I'm not a first grade teacher."

[Here is the man I drew for Suzie. I don't think my drawing skills have improved much in fifty years, although I'd probably draw skinnier arms now.]

[In case you can't read Mom's handwriting in the lower right, it says, "Notice hair, and 5 fingers on the fat arms. Also facial features - everything but eyebrows. Suzie says the body structure with the shoulders and waistline are really advanced for his age."]

[On the back side of that piece of paper is what must have been my first attempt to draw a man for Suzie. I guess I didn't like the shape of his head so I started over.]

Dave and Gene are about to go out of their minds from listening to me and Suzie planning what we're going to do. Dave claims that every time he looks at a dollar he sees wings on it. Suzie and I are going to take all the movie tours and she even knows how to get tickets for the TV shows. We should have a lot of fun together.

[It sounds like Mom's life in Los Angeles is about to change for the better now that she has someone to pal around with. You can't help but be genuinely happy for her.]

Sunday at Knott's, my boys did something different - they panned for gold. Both of them got a small sample of gold in a bottle, but David Wayne was disappointed - he thought he was going to get rich. We also watched a puppet show that was really cute.

[I remember keeping that little bottle of gold flakes for awhile after we moved back to Texas.]

On Olvera Street they have some cute Santa Claus pinatas. We're going to get one to keep and get him another kind to break. I think it's going to be interesting when we pack to come home - with all the turtles, banks, and pinatas I don't think there's going to be room for me and David Wayne.

We got a picture in the mail today of David Wayne and Santa Claus. It is cute. I would send it for you to see, but I'm afraid you wouldn't give it back to us. I would have gotten more prints, but at $1.70 per picture, I couldn't afford it.

[We might see this picture when Christmas rolls around.]

Mrs. Sivell invited us to eat Thanksgiving with them - isn't that nice? We are going to San Francisco over the holidays, however, so we won't make dinner with them, but we really appreciated their thoughtfulness.

Well, that's all the news for now. Take care and get a letter to me soon!!

Love,

Linda

October 2, 1967: Wet sandals, haunted donkey

Letter postmarked October 2, 1967 (Part 1):

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.]

"We all went through the "Haunted Shack" and we took the Stagecoach ride - scared David Wayne to death when we got held up - and we went to the show featuring the Wagonmasters. First western music we've heard since getting here. They (Wagonmasters) asked if there was anyone from Texas in the audience and all three of us went wild yelling and clapping. Then our host very gallantly welcomed us to the United States. Oh - embarrassment!"

[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.]

"David Wayne went on the donkey ride, too. We took your suggestion and bought some corn meal and we bought some pancake mix (just add H2O) and boysenberry pancake syrup."

[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.]