Personal History Website

Thursday, July 15, 2010

May 1967

3819 E Farr Pl., Tucson
Dear Family,
I don’t think Mother had such a good Mother’s Day. To begin with I did not get her a
present. I inserted a Promissory Note in her Mother’s Day card as follows-
I will “pop” for a show
When you say let’s go
I will buy you a dinner
Because you are a winner
I will give you a ten
When my pay check comes in.
So far I have paid everything but the show. I think she is a little reluctant about asking
me to take her to a second rate show, knowing my attitude. With her Mother’s Day “ten” she
bought a pair of socks, pardon me, hose, and gadgets for the house, what a present.
Then, by Mother’s Day she had only heard from three of the family. We went to church
and seeing other Mothers with their children and Grandchildren make her bluer still. She
expected phone calls that day especially from Marion and David, but nada! We hardly expected
anything from the Stobbes in as much as Rina had already given her a Mother’s Day present.
Lloyd called the next day and we received a nice long letter from David yesterday, which is the
reason for this decker. It seems he bought his Mother’s Day card two weeks in advance, then
lost it! Anyway David I am sure your letter more than made up to Mother.
David expects to be transferred soon to San Diego, where he will be further schooled
until September, when he will possibly be assigned Sea Duty. Hey Boy! How come you are
broke? When we were in S.F. you had money to loan. Those trips to Nevada must be
expensive, or have you been playing the slots? You should all see the nice, shiny, legible copy
of this letter David is getting. I just cleaned my typefaces and bought a new ribbon. You don’t
know what you are missing by not writing.
Betty, what was the idea of sending Mother that sleazy, slinky, diaphanous, short
connected, mini sided, night gown? You are wrong. My blood pressure will rise.
We are beginning to start to get ready to take off north. As the temperature climbs
Mother becomes more willing to go just anyplace where it is cool and possibly damp. I don’t
know what we are going to do. She hates it here, but just a thirty minute sun bath a day keeps
my chest clear. It is no more than right that we should live half the time where she can be
comfortable.
Que pasa Marion? We do hope that everything is “Bueno” at your house.
We are reading a new book called “A long Hot Summer” published at BYU about the
Mormon “Exodus” from Mexico. You should read it Bill. You will run across many familiar
names.
WRITERS GET GOOD COPIES.
Dad

Tucson May 3, 1967

Dear Family,
David gets the original copy. We were glad to hear from you David. Your letter broke
the cob webs in the mail box at our new address. I called Mrs. Lance to get the news of John
and she said to tell you that John made Radioman 3/C, that his sister Kelly? Kitty?, is in Russia
on some sort of Student exchange. She said that Rusty Moser is expected home from Viet Nam
very soon. The Lance Family is moving to Washington for good. She said she hopes to see
you if you go East. We heard that you bought a new Polaroid camera. How about having one of
the boys take your picture when you write next. Marion says you were gaining weight, but
Mother would like to see some concrete evidence of this. Have you any dope about future
orders? Keep us posted.
Mother just about has this house fixed to suit her. She can at least sit down and take a
rest once in a while. Her leg keeps hurting her. We are going to the doctor today. Maybe they
can do something about it. Her back has been bothering her too. The other day I was called by
my old boss to do a job for him in Casas Grandes and she mopped and waxed the floors while I
was gone. This is probably one of the reasons her back is hurting her.
Lloyd, did you find out anything about that exercise board? How about calling the
Chamber of Commerce in Compton. If you will get me an address I will order from here. Mother
insists that it did her a lot of good.
It has been sunny here, but we have had a cold wind. I wore my heaviest suit to church
Sunday. By the way they have a new set up at conference here. They have two morning
sessions dividing the wards. It is easy to get a soft seat. The afternoon session is for everybody
as a lot of people usually do not go.
This place is quite comfortable. I don’t know how it will be in the winter but I am already
shivering. It has no central heating and believe me we won’t go through another winter like we
did in the other house. We also have a hard time getting a bed just right for us. This one,
although just right for me, was too soft for Mother and hurt her back because she sunk in too
much. I solved this by laying some one inch by 12 boards across the center of the bed, (short
ways). Mother now sleeps comfortable, but, when one of us is in bed and the other sits down on
his or her end of the boards, he or she gets tossed. As I am the one in bed first, I am beginning
to feel like a “sputnik”.
We talked to Marta by phone since I wrote last. Lloyd was over the week end after we
were and helped them do the things we would like to have done. She said she was still feeling
pretty good. We hope she has not overdone on getting the home in shape.
Bill, David said you wrote him about building a catamaran to float on Paradise Lake. You
had better take it to the Flamingo Gorge where you can catch some fish.
WRITERS GET GOOD COPIES
All our Love, Dad

May 12, 1967

Dear Family,
Betty went bond for this decker and our face is very red. Two birthdays were celebrated
at the Rice home last month and we forgot both of them. Robin and Renee, we want to make a
public apology for our forgetfulness and promise to try to make it up to you when we see you.
Anyway Congratulations Robin and Renee. It seems like yesterday that we peeked through the
glass at St. Mary’s Hospital at a puckered face infant who is now our teen aged Robin. Stay
with it Robin! It is a hard row to hoe, but if your mother did it, I am sure that you too someday
can show off the babies at the Hospital, among your other duties as a nurse.
Congratulations to Bob on his promotion to Assistant Manager of the Engineering
Department at Harrah’s Club. I never thought I would see the day that he would stand hitched in
a white collar job. What is this bit about him being appointed (or elected) “commodore of the
Flotilla”? Do you now click your heels, salute and say “Aye Aye Sir”? I am very glad that you
have found an activity that you and the whole family can engage in. It is too bad that you don’t
have more nice weather for boating.
Here I went to all the trouble of giving all of you the address of each member of the
family and you throw it in the ash can. David’s address is. David has not telephone. You can
reach him by calling the Locator section of T.I. they leave him a message to call you. His
address or part of it (enough to get him) is Class 6707 SAW, ETA,
T.I. San Francisco 94103.
By the way David, you were doing really good with your letter writing and all of a sudden
you stopped. Is writing to Nevada taking all your time? Carl Uda, the son of friends in Hawaii
has been transferred to T.I. If you have time we would like for you to look him up. His mother is
a good friend of yours. You should find him through Locator. He too is ETA.
The doctor told Mother that her knee trouble was due to poor circulation. He said she
should get as much exercise as she can without overdoing. We have been playing golf at least
twice a week. She does a lot of complaining when she gets on the course about this and that
not being just right, but she managed to clean my clock the first 9 holes. She begins to “poop
up” (as Lane would say) about the 15th hole and I pass her.
The little golf course we now play is now managed by a couple of Mormon boys from
Logan Utah. We were talking to them yesterday about how much a Golf Course was need in
Guadalajara and one of them made plain reservations to go look it over. Maybe we can go
down and help if he decides to build one there.
Lloyd, we called Marta the other evening about things we might have left at her house
and she told us about your efforts to locate one of those exercise boards. I am sure you did
everything possible. I guess they are just not out on the market. Thanks anyway.
I am in a quandary about what to get Mother for Mother’s Day. I have promised I will
take her to a show, for one thing. You all know how much of a concession that is!
Vaya Con Dios,
Dad