This is the second-to-last letter I have from Marcy to her parents, and the last typewritten one.<\/p>\r\n
In this letter, they seem completely set on moving to Seattle, but that never happened. By early 1970, we were living in El Cerrito, California, and we lived in various parts of the Bay Area all through my growing-up: Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Cotati, Palo Alto. I had no idea until I read this letter that there had ever been a plan to move to Seattle. I don\u2019t know what happened to that plan.<\/p>\r\n
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\r\n\r\n Wednesday (probably) [handwritten: (5\/1\/68)?]\r\n\r\nPeter just had a magnificent idea ! about how to travel:\r\ndriving all that distance is kind of hard, and will be quite\r\nhard on the car, and expensive (that many days' food,\r\ndiapers, laundry, etc,) so here is what we'd like better to\r\ndo:\r\n\r\nWe'll be going up to Seattle quite soon (we're trying to get\r\nmoney together to do it with some degree of ease) to get\r\nsettled, find a place to live, get Peter enrolled, find\r\njobs, etc. Then to wander around the Olympic Peninsula,\r\nPuget Sound, Straits of Juan de Fuca (see map) by ferry and\r\nother such very cheap contrivances, and get to Vancouver,\r\nthence take Canadian Pacific R.R. to Montreal. About $60 one\r\nway per person, including<\/u> meals<\/u>, from Montreal to Phila by\r\nbus is about $15, possibly cheaper by train. Anyway, then we\r\ncan (I assume) use your car for transportation while in\r\nPhiladelphia, and get a drive-away (where you drive someone\r\nelse's car) to go back, so that we can stop off in Yellow\r\nSprings and possibly elsewhere......it all sounds to us like\r\na lovely way to travel-----\r\n\r\nWhat do you think? Would you be willing to sponsor such a\r\nventure? Twould probably cost about $100 less<\/u> than traveling\r\nall the way in our car, maybe even a greater difference than\r\nthat, as the train-etc will cost roughly $200 and with the\r\ncar it would be that much just to get it into shape for\r\ntraveling, then there's food and gas and carburetors and\r\ngenerators and all those things that give out when\r\ntraveling. Besides, Jed says he'd rather take the\r\ntrain--it'd be cooler and both his parents could spoil him\r\nall the time (no less than constant attention will do) and\r\nthey wouldn't get tired with 7 thousand miles of driving to\r\ndo.\r\n\r\nAs to timing:--when we'll come I can't be sure. Our leaving\r\nhere depends on money, and it surely won't be before May 20,\r\nas Peter has a math class to teach at the 6-Day School in\r\nsonoma, for a week starting May 12, and Jed and I will want\r\nto go down there too. And we want to get settled in Seattle,\r\nat the very least to the extent of finding a place to leave\r\nour stuff. Trying to find a house any later in the summer\r\nwill be impossible or worse. So I guess it'll be sometime\r\nbetween xxx the end of May and the middle of July, none of\r\nwhich is too terribly far away.\r\n\r\nI'm not teaching right now, though I may go back on a\r\npart-time basis. Before the baby came I had been more or\r\nless running the show, and now Bertha, the other teacher,\r\nhas to take over and finds it impossible to do so with me\r\nthere, and I find it very difficult to be in the same\r\nsituation but unable to do things the way I've been doing\r\nthem. So at her request I'm staying out to let her get\r\nthings organized her way.....if I'd tried to continue doing\r\nit my way I would be neglecting Jed more than I like (though\r\nsome women are away from home working 40 hours a week by the\r\ntime their babies are 5 weeks old.....how xxxx sad, for the\r\nmother and the baby). But I'm still getting paid, whatever\r\namount that is, and I'll probably be gong back as she can't\r\nteach reading. But I begin to like being free. All is very\r\nleisurely and luxurious [handwritten: & uxorious]. A friend\r\nof ours has come to stay for a week or so and do housework\r\nfor me and enjoy Mendocino, leaving me free to nurse the\r\nbaby umpty-trillion or so hours a day without thinking about\r\ndinner or cleaning.\r\n\r\nRecieved a very clever little card and a check from Eunie\r\nand Barry ($5) which amazed me all to pieces. Went on a long\r\ntrip about Hutchinson street and living there and learning\r\nwhat the word \"hideous\" means and about Laney Forman\r\n(Barry's younger sister, who I used to play with, but I\r\ncan't remember her face) and Elise and ....oh,shiver.\r\n\r\nPeter is making a mincemeat pie and didn't put any cloves\r\nin, xxxx which is fine. It's from the end of the venison we\r\nwere given a long time since, which we preserved in a bit of\r\nbrandy. Mincemeat is beautiful. Day (the friend who's\r\nstaying here) says it's so good it's xx obscene. She just\r\nbaked a batch of rolls and claims she's trying to not gain\r\nweight. The quoet for today is It's a great life if you\r\ndon't waken.* end of letter,\r\n\r\n xxxx love from Peter\r\n and\r\n [handwritten: Marcia]\r\n\r\n\r\n[handwritten: regards to Sachs’s & Aunt ’Stelle & all]\r\n[handwritten: * it’s supposed to be “weaken<\/u>”—never heard of\r\nit either way.]\r\n<\/pre>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Postmark: May 2, 1968, Mendocino, CA. Handwritten: “Rec\u2019d this 5\/4” and “Ans. this 5\/8.”<\/p>\r\n
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