Peter, Marcy, Jed, and Jay

One-page letter on three-hole-punched lined notebook paper, in red ink.

No date on letter, but it’s postmarked 13 June 1983.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

My Plans for this this summer are coming along nicely, I have already saved about $280 so far.

I was on my schools track team, and the season just ended. I did fairly well. / I ran the half-mile. First, therxe is a league meet / The first one of post-season play. I ran the half-mile in 2:33:17 and finished third. This was good enough to get me to the next meet, the sectionals. In the sectionals, I ran a 2:30 flat, finishing fifth. This was good enough to get me to the last meet, the Countxy Meet. By this time, a high-jumper and I were the only ones left representing our school. (everyone else had been eliminated in the previous meets.) I ran terribly that day. (I was very cold) I finished last. However, I think it was a pretty good achievement that I made it as far as I did.

I am also on a baseball team, and we are in last place.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Love,

Joaquin

Notes

$280

That would be over $820 in 2022 dollars. Jay ended up earning and saving about double that amount before he left on the trip. He was always the only one in our family who was good at money-related things.

track

I wasn’t really paying attention to Jay’s sports exploits at the time, so it’s neat to get to see what he was up to.