The return address on the envelope for this note is a PO Box in Middletown, California\u2014which is to say the Harbinger commune at Harbin hot springs.<\/p>\r\n
Letter is handwritten in pen, on yellow lined US-letter-sized paper.<\/p>\r\n
\r\nDear Parents\u2014\u2014<\/p>\r\n
Just a hurried note\u2014\u2014we\u2019re going to San Rafael to the library & to hear Don lecture tonight\u2014\u2014<\/p>\r\n
Anyway, wanted to get this off so you\u2019d know about the package we\u2019re sending\u2014\u2014it\u2019s books for David\u2019s birthday\u2014\u2014I thought possibly they\u2019d have a better chance of reaching him if you could deliver them when you visit\u2026<\/p>\r\n
Also, there\u2019re so many, I think he wouldn\u2019t mind if you took out a few if you wanted to read any of them\u2026<\/p>\r\n
Everything is very beautiful here, I\u2019m feeling about the same as I always do, & I hope you\u2019re feeling good, too\u2026<\/p>\r\n
Jedediah sprouted his first tooth yesterday, huzzah! (loud cheers!) I\u2019m doing well in the 3 classes I\u2019m taking, Japanese, shorthand, & biology, & I\u2019m tutoring mathematics & studying matrix calculus & quantum mechanics\u2026<\/p>\r\n
As far as money goes, which isn\u2019t far nowadays, the Fellowship manages to keep going, but rather short of ready cash\u2014\u2014the assets I mentioned are mostly in the form of equipment, books, tools, vehicles, land, \u2026 but we owe maybe $20,000, and some creditors have been getting up tight, which explains the Love Letter\u2026<\/p>\r\n
Well, the other thing
I<\/strike> we wanted to ask you, is about the possibility of borrowing back about $80 of the money we sent, & we would get it back to you within 3-4-5 months (when our ship comes in)\u2026<\/p>\r\nThe reason for asking this, is that Marcy & I want to take a course in Mill Valley on spiritual healing, from a Japanese church called Church of World Messianity, and it costs $36 each to attend\u2026<\/p>\r\n
So, if that money is not being used right now, and we could use it for a couple months, it would be greatly appreciated\u2026<\/p>\r\n
In a couple months, when we get this platinum process going, we will all get paid about $700 a month, and donate $500 back to the Fellowship, so we\u2019ll be able to more than repay the $80, as soon as\u2026<\/p>\r\n
Hope this finds you well, and finding joy in His service,<\/p>\r\n
Much love from<\/p>\r\n
Peter & Marcy & Jed<\/p>\r\n
P. S. Some friends from here are coming up there & would like to visit you & also J.&D. (Philip & Leslie)\u2014\u2014they\u2019re very beautiful, please invite them for dinner (soon, but they don\u2019t know when)<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
In this note, Don<\/i> is Don Hamrick, founder of the Frontiers of Science Fellowship.<\/p>\r\n
This is the first mention of the Church of World Messianity (also known as Sekai Ky\u016bsei Ky\u014d), which will become very prominent in later letters.<\/p>\r\n
I have no idea what the platinum process<\/i> that Peter refers to was. Whatever it was, it didn\u2019t work out. One of many times in these letters when Peter expresses strong confidence that something is about to happen that will result in their having plenty of money.<\/p>\r\n
The \u201cLove Letter\u201d that Peter mentions here was a FoSF fundraising flyer (dated October 21, 1968). It of course includes the I Ching reading that they did to help them determine how to proceed with fundraising.<\/p>\r\n
I don\u2019t know whether the fundraising was successful or not, but over the next few months, Harbinger shut down. Ellen\u2019s book says that hundreds of people would show up to weekend parties there, but that not enough of the people there were doing anything to keep the place running. A couple of government raids eventually led to a final shutdown in March of 1969.<\/p>\r\n
But we were gone from Harbinger well before then. The next letter I have from Peter and Marcy is dated January 31, 1969, and postmarked Modesto, 150 miles away from Harbin; and in that letter, Peter says that he\u2019s been looking for work for seven weeks, which makes me think that we must have left Harbinger sometime in December of 1968, about a month after the above letter was written. I don\u2019t know what led Peter and Marcy to leave Harbinger, or how they felt about it after they left. They referred to it fondly in passing throughout my childhood, but never really told me about it in any detail.<\/p>\r\n
J.&D.<\/i> are Peter\u2019s brothers Dobe (who was then known as John) and David. I don\u2019t know who Philip & Leslie were.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n