I\u2019m fascinated by Marcy\u2019s references to contact lenses in these letters; she seems to strongly prefer them to glasses, but by the time I knew her, she almost always wore glasses. She did have a pair of hard contact lenses (when I first found out about them, I was kind of horrified by the idea of putting something in your eye), but I think she almost never wore them. So I wonder what changed in the years after these letters.<\/p>\r\n
(And speaking of contacts, here\u2019s another of those odd money references. In the previous letter, she indirectly asked her parents to pay for her contact-lens insurance; in this letter, she says she assumes they aren\u2019t going to, and that she\u2019s not going to either.)<\/p>\r\n
Another interesting followup in this letter: discussion of Pete Kuner's visit. Not clear to me whether they had gone out at some point, or whether he was just unrequitedly interested.<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\n monday morning\r\n [pencil: 8\/9\/65]\r\n\r\n'allo, 'allo. Trust you recieved my last letter by now,\r\nwhich you claimed you didn't get.\r\n\r\nGlad you are coming along, Daddy. What else are you allowed\r\nto do by now? I did wish I would see that beard. oh,\r\nwell.....maybe you'll let your hair grow to a decent lenght,\r\nanyway. Hope you still remember how to drive and such.\r\n\r\nI assume you aren't going to pay for the contact lens\r\ninsurance. Which means they will go uninsured, as I sure as\r\nhell can't afford it. The Dr. xx sent me the \"annual service\r\nagreement\" furnished by his lab; I'll have to return x it.\r\nNo great loss; I don't intend to lose them anyway.\r\n\r\nWhat did you decide xxxx about your contact-lens-vs-glasses\r\nproblem? Remember that some people can wear them with no\r\nsensation of discomfort even in the first few minutes, and\r\neven when you do feel it, it goes away. I'm only aware my\r\nlenses are in most of the time by checking to see what\r\ndetails I can see from how far. And I can't x even be\r\ncomportable in sunglasses as I'm x not used to having\r\nanything sitting on my nose at all.\r\n\r\nIt's been delightfully cool here; enough to use a blanket at\r\nnight. Much rain, but quite tol'able between showers.\r\n\r\np.s. to above paragraph: I was reading a 10-th century\r\nsurgery text, which explores the best method of cauterizing\r\ningrown hairs and fistulas of the eye--one Dr. preferred\r\nlye, another used hot lead. both complete with devices for\r\nmost efficient application. (I'm doing a paper on the\r\nhistory of anatomy and this is a side-track) woosh, some of\r\nthe ideas they had about delivering babies: if it didn't\r\ncome out at the right time it was the foetus's fault, and\r\nthey considered smoking it out, starving the mother so the\r\nbaby would be hungry and come out for food, and singing it\r\nsongs about the glories of the outside world. well, we all\r\nmanaged to survive to the time of population problems,\r\nwithal.\r\n\r\nPete Kuner was here Saturday night on his way back from St.\r\nLouis (told you about that, I think, in last letter) and\r\nmuch more tolerable than usually. Seems I ruined his life\r\nfor about 3 years until he finally got over me. Good for the\r\nol' ego but a bit disconcerting nonetheless. Sally went back\r\nwith him, to pick up her car xxx which was (is?) in New\r\nYork, for all sorts of unbelievably complex reasons, which I\r\ncouldn't explain even If I had time to write all ninety\r\npages of it.\r\n\r\nLast night--no, night before--a bunch of us picked up add\r\nwent to the Fair--the Greene County Fair, in Xenia. It was\r\nreally fun: we looked at all the cows and bulls and calves,\r\nand some sheep, and something called cheviots, which looked\r\nlike tremendously wooly goats and were little and kind of\r\nugly, but friendly as all get out. It was night, and none of\r\nthe 4-H'ers or Friendly Farmers were around to ask, so we\r\nstill don't know what they were....and we rode on the Ferris\r\nwheel and ate cotton candy and affle tappy and such. the\r\nexcitement lasted for about an hour; then we got bored and\r\ncame back and went to a movie. Damn dirty commies--can't\r\neven enjoy a wholesome American evening of good clean fun.\r\nthey go right back to their dirty beatnik collegre and look\r\nat them Art films. x just a bunch of pornography if you ask\r\nme. (the film in question was a cinemascope B-western with\r\nCary Grant and various baddies. I left after the first reel)\r\n(not that it was really in question: just that we get kind\r\nof resentful at the idiotic mockery that goes on at things\r\nlike a peace-in-Viet Nam demonstration on Hiroshima Day\r\n(Friday) where all the local yokels can do is call us jerks\r\nand reds and dirty and obscene--not because they care\r\nwhether we are or not, but because our politics disagrees\r\nwith their herd-following.\r\n\r\nhave to get to work. take care....\r\n\r\n [handwritten: love]\r\n [handwritten: Marcia]\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Postmark: Aug 9, 1965, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Handwritten: “Rec\u2019d this 8\/11” and “Wrote to M 8\/11 + again on 8\/15.”<\/p>\r\n
\r\n