Peter, Marcy, Jed, and Jay

Handwritten on two sheets of roughly 6"x8" notepaper. The first page was designed to fold in thirds and be its own envelope; the second page was just folded inside of the first. The bird art shown here is preprinted on the outside/back of the first page. No artist credit given.

6 September, nearly

Dear Gran’ma and Gran’pa,

Hi and hello, and thanks for all the goodies. Specially the stationery—this is the free sample they sent. Enjoyed the catalog immensely. And all the goodies via David & Karen—I love those tiny tupperwares. Use them constantly. Jed thinks his Jacket is wonderful—he needed it, too. And the napkins were (are) great—they’re our favorites. A number of things around the house have taken on status of “from Gramma”—even ones that aren’t. The Mickey Mouse towel is one of your biggest hits, still, and the 3-duck washcloths that we’ve had for so long. Joaquin lost his down the toilet 2 months ago and still mourns it. (“my ducky-towel gone! Maintoo (maintence) men get it back!”) He’s finally learned what that appliance is for, by the way, tho not ready to use it all the time.

Big Interview next week in Tracy (60 mi East of here, South of Fresno) Actually this is the second for this job—already met the director and evidently cleared that hurdle, as we’re all invited to meet the rest of the staff & see how we look to them & they to us. Hopefully, all will be decided at that point, as a few fat paychecks ($9000 per annum) would be mighty nice around now—as our beloved ol’ heap picked yesterday to play its ace in xxx the hole. xxx After months of piddling—xxx leak here, there xxx horn failure, over here something else it finally took the BIG STEP and threw a rod. Got us home from S.F. (xxx quick trip to the Ocean to celebrate Labor Day)—which a mechanic friend says isn’t hardly possible. Like we had one chance in a hundred of getting here before acute shutdown set in. And we did. So it’s really a good and loveable ol beast after all, and all VW’s throw a rod sometime or another. Trying to decide whether to invest in getting it running before we try to sell it. We’d like to get a Ford or Dodge Van or GMC Travelall and a tiny BMW car (really a superfine motorcycle with 2 extra wheels and a body) for Peter to commute if we do live in Berkeley and work in Tracy. which might happen. Peter says to say at this point “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Consider it said.

and off to baid—er, bed.

love,

all of us