Peter, Marcy, Jed, and Jay

Three-page handwritten letter on unlined paper.

22 January 1981

Dear Mother,

A very happy birthday to you, and many more to come!

I’m sending a box with some gifts, and wanted to tell you about some of them:

There’s some bee pollen, and in a vial wrapped in cotton, a few drops of a very marvelous & concentrated elixir, it’s the substance which turns a bee larva into a queen--royal jelly. It’s supposedly a longevity food for humans, as well as regulating our metabolism through endocrine system. It has a very strong taste & after-taste, so be ready with some honey and/or water. I generally dip a chopstick in & lick it off, followed by honey & pollen.

The PAN-TROPHIC was the only one of Marcy’s vitmains that I had a strong intuition that you could use. You could confirm this using the AK test I showed (pushing down on arm, with & without a pill in the other hand, to observe strengthening or weakening effects).

The plankton powder I had an intuition about also--that you & Dad could both benefit from it--so I hope you have a “whale” of a time with it, har har har.

The wintergreen liniment isn’t the same as the foot creme you’ve liked, but it smells like it, & eases sore muscles.

A few odds & ends of surprises in the box--I won’t spoil them. Oh, I just remembered the lecithin-vinegar-kelp-B6 tabs--it’s supposed to give people pep & vigorx (especially when they’re dieting), in a way like “pep-pills”, but all natural.

Well your marvelous grandsons have been chosen for yet another honor: Joaquin was the only one from his school to be selected to attend a Young Writers’ Conference in Saratoga in March! At Jed’s school, his teacher nominated him, and two names were drawn from a hat containing the nine students’ names who were had been nominated by English teachers. Jed’s was one! (I always thought told that kid he had more luck than brains…) So the school pays their fee & lunch; and attendance is limited to those thus chosen and sent by their schoools…

Love from

Peter, Jed, Joaquin

Notes

royal jelly

Wikipedia says: “the European Food Safety Authority has concluded that current evidence does not support the claim that consuming royal jelly offers health benefits to humans.”

“AK test”

“Applied Kinesiology is a pseudoscience-based technique in alternative medicine[…] the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology stated there is ‘no evidence of diagnostic validity’ of applied kinesiology. ‘Another study indicated that the use of applied kinesiology to evaluate nutrient status is no more useful than random guessing,’ and the American Cancer Society has said that ‘scientific evidence does not support the claim that applied kinesiology can diagnose or treat cancer or other illness’.” See also an 2012article from the Science-Based Medicine website: “Applied Kinesiology by Any Other Name…”

“plankton powder”

“Clinical trials do not support any alleged benefits of phytoplankton supplements.”—Livestrong

“pep-pills”

I assume Peter was referring to stimulants, such as amphetamines.

Young Writers’ Conference

I barely remember the fact that I attended this; I don’t remember anything about what it involved.