Five-page handwritten letter on unlined paper.<\/p>\r\n
Postmarked May 21, from which (plus a May 1971 calendar) I deduce that this was started around May 14.<\/p>\r\n
\r\nFriday Evening, late<\/p>\r\n
Dear Grandma & Grandpa<\/p>\r\n
Just a brief note to say we\u2019re sorry we didn\u2019t make it on Mothers or GrandMothers\u2014day\u2014we just don\u2019t seem to keep track of holidays, as we have our own\u2014like the day we celebrate someone\u2019s birthday, the day we have a train ride, the day the Financial Aid form came in positive\u2014($1750 for next year, zowie!) The day we cleaned all day & shampood the rug for a Johrei meeting\u2014with our minister, John Tatematsu (going to be once a month from now on) and about 15 or so people were here (that was today) including a 9-day-old baby who\u2019s been recieving Johrei for months, now. Her name\u2019s Bethra, and she\u2019s so<\/u> small & soft.<\/p>\r\n
Your letters, check, dollarses, etc, are most thanked, most belatedly. But still unreplied-to, as right now all is buried under piles of piles of piles. (all dumped in the Study to clean up the living room) Jed is saving his dollar for a train ride from the Duck Sanctuary to Fairyland for Children, at Lake Merritt, in Oakland.<\/p>\r\n
Off to wash the dishes & munch on leftovers, then more Villager crises<\/p>\r\n
Goodnight, love from us all<\/p>\r\n
Peter<\/p>\r\n
Marcy<\/p>\r\n
Jed<\/p>\r\n
Joaquin<\/p>\r\n
\r\n11 pm Monday<\/p>\r\n
\r\nAn Ode<\/p>\r\n
Yet once more, oh ye dishes,<\/p>\r\n
And once more ye leftovers brown<\/p>\r\n
And moldy, and yet sere,<\/p>\r\n
I do ignore your fiercely calling sound<\/p>\r\n
And with dark fingers rude<\/p>\r\n
Do letters write before the table\u2019s clear<\/p>\r\n
For I am tired of housework, and no more<\/p>\r\n
Will do before tomorrow\u2019s day is clear.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
How can a respectful former-almost-English-major do such a wicked thing? Oh, well, it gets the haunting lilt out of my brain, where it was revolving. Actually, it\u2019s not that messy, but the cricket frogs is chirpin\u2019 outside<\/p>\r\n
(Spring is here<\/p>\r\n
The Frogs drink beer\u2014<\/p>\r\n
The Birds
xxx<\/strike> chirp;<\/p>\r\nThe Frogs burp.)
x<\/strike> and I can\u2019t run dishwater to drown out their lovely music. So I put on my new bright-gold mandarin robe that my neighbor found for me at the Swappe Shoppe (where I also have found a velour suit & a magnificent pants-suit, and Peter a suit & many useful clothes, & all the kids\u2019 clothing, all for the taking & eventual trading.) and proceed to finish that Mothers\u2019 Day letter that I never did find a stamp for that day.<\/p>\r\nAnyway, we recieved your card & check the next day so I waited to thank you properly:<\/p>\r\n
Thank you Properly. and good, too! It was indeed useful. And (I think) the only mothers\u2019 day card I\u2019ve ever recieved. (This was only my fourth, after all).<\/p>\r\n
Joaquin celebrated it (M\u2019s day) belatedly by weaning himself day before yesterday! It was quite a surprize!<\/p>\r\n
What happened was on Monday Jed had a fever & (as we told you) we thought it was the old Chicken pox. But the pox never showed up\u2014Joaquin had a fever the next day, so I started nursing him more (he was down to one for nap, one to wake up, one for bed, and a few during the night) so he\u2019d be more comfortable if he was going to be sick. Jed got better fast, but Joaq (pronounced WOK) progressed into a very heavy teething venture\u2014four at once, all eye teeth. This often brings him fever and discomfort, but always before he let me comfort him. By Saturday he\u2019d been up every two hours for two nights in a row, and when he
xxx<\/strike> napped (on me) in the afternoon I sneaked him into nursing while I put him down. That was the end<\/u>! He\u2019s refused to touch it since. But still wanting me to walk with him in front of me, clinging around my neck. Only he won\u2019t fit in the space, there,.<\/p>\r\n
\r\nTuesday<\/p>\r\n
on which note I fell asleep.<\/p>\r\n
Yesterday I donated some milk to Childrens Hospital & felt a lot better; by today I\u2019m well on the way to being dried up\u2026 mentally, too, as it\u2019s after midnight again, lots more news if only I could remember any, but sleep
xxx<\/strike> beckons with convincing plaisance\u2026<\/p>\r\nGot a magnificent letter from John<\/p>\r\n
nope, no shaklee bugspray. write to Northern Calif. Committe for Environmental Information, P.O. Box 761, Berkeley, 94701, for their May \u201971 newsletter w\/article on The Backyard as an Ecological Unit, & perhaps inf on your local ecologically oriented information center.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n
Notes:<\/p>\r\n
\r\n
- \u201cDuck Sanctuary,\u201d \u201cFairyland for Children\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
- Lake Merritt Wild Duck Refuge<\/a> and Children\u2019s Fairyland<\/a> are still around. I\u2019ve never been to the latter as an adult, and have no memory of childhood visits.<\/dd>\r\n
- Villager<\/dt>\r\n
- The Villager<\/cite> was the University Village neighborhood newsletter that Marcy was co-editing (as mentioned in a previous letter or two).<\/dd>\r\n
- \u201cAn Ode\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
- Turns out this is a parody of the opening lines of Milton\u2019s \u201cLycidas<\/a>\u201d:\r\n
\r\n\r\nYet once more, O ye laurels, and once more,<\/p>\r\n
Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,<\/p>\r\n
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,<\/p>\r\n
And with forced fingers rude<\/p>\r\n
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.<\/p>\r\n
Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear<\/p>\r\n
Compels me to disturb your season due;<\/p>\r\n
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,<\/p>\r\n
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Mother\u2019s-Day thank you, a couple of poems, and an update on Jay\u2019s weaning status. \u201cHow can a respectful former-almost-English-major do such a wicked thing?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-marcy","category-uc-berkeley"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}