Family letters: mid-1969, plus thoughts on moving

I knew that we had moved around a fair bit when I was a kid, but until I looked at these family letters, I hadn’t realized quite how often:

We moved at least five times before I was 18 months old. (And to a different town/city each time.) I’ve started mapping our moves; so far I’ve only listed the first four moves (five locations), but there’s at least one more coming in the next couple of weeks.

And then we moved at least eight more times during the next 17 years, before I graduated from high school. But at least that pace meant we were averaging 2 or 3 years in a given house or apartment instead of the 3 months or so average in my first couple of years. :) …Meanwhile, my grandparents George and Helen were at the same address in Tacoma for the entire nearly-30-year span of these letters. G&H had moved around a fair bit in their younger days, but by 1968 Helen was 60 and George was 56, and they stayed in that Tacoma house for decades.

Since I returned to California after college, in 1991, I’ve moved only four times; averaging about 6 years per location, and all of those places have been in Mountain View, all within about a 2-mile radius. (And I’ve been in my current house for 12+ years.) I didn’t hate moving around as a kid, but I suspect that all that moving was part of what’s led me to want to stay in one place as an adult.


Onward to this week’s letters:

July 23, 1969
Peter suggests to his parents that they should write a book about how (not) to be bad parents. “the book would be entitled, 'How to Help Your Children Become Juvenile Delinquents'”
July 31, 1969 (postcard)
Marcy lets G&H know that she’s pregnant. “Next grandchild due in Jan, Feb, or March”
August 21, 1969
Peter and Marcy and I visit Peter’s brothers in prison. “what a lovely birthday present. It was just what we needed, at that very moment, due to circumstances which will presently unfold.”

Join the Conversation