1973 Catherine's letter - June 25

Monday morning, June 25, 1973

Dear Mom, Dad, Serena, John and Mary,

Hi!  Thanks for the latest letter and the clippings.  Interesting about Carolyn Collier.  Before I forget, please send me a copy of my birth certificate I need it in order to get a driver's license.

That week in August sounds fine.  Portland is alot closer to Sanford than Boston is but might be more inconvenient to fly to.  Shall I rent a wheel chair and make some reservations for motel?  Will Serena be coming?

We've looked at several ap cottages and houses during the last few weeks but haven't really found anything that suits us.  It think right now we're back to our original plan of buying acreage and living in an apartment until X can get something built on it.

I've been keeping us supplies with wild strawberries.  They certainly are good.  The blueberry bushes have formed the berries but they are still very green.  Won't be too long.  There seem to be lots of wild ones around of them too.  Can't beat the price either.  Did you read that article in a Christian Science Monitor last week about a possible food shortage?  We've been slowly building up a stockpile of canned goods and other supplies and after that article maybe I'll step it up some more.  Going back to the blueberries, I'm hoping to get enough of them to do some canning -- and see how the new pressure canner works.

Kiman is in heat so we've been keeping her inside all the time except when we can keep her under constant surveilance outside.  We are lucky that x there is lots of open space around where we can un her.  The airport is gigantic -- to walk around the perimeter of it would take several hours.  From what I understand Sanford Airport was the major airport in New England during WWII.

I met a boy the other day from Bloomington Indiana who told me how lucky he thought Serena was to go to Earlham.  We also met a couple at the beach who were vacationing here - from Columbus.  The traffic in Sanford gets worse almost every day.  The Main St is about the only street that has stores and goes through town.  At most of the intersections there aren't any stoplights.  We have to turn left on to it when we come home form the library and sometimes it seems that it is almost impossible [still is!].

We had the 1000 mile check up on the Land Rover last week.  It seems to be doing ok.  They have a safety check system here and every car has to be checked x every six months.  We're having the Toyota checked today so we can put the Maine license plates on it.  The insurance rates are lower here than in Michigan and I guess when X turns 25 we'll get a further reduction.

All of the apartments are now filled.  Supposedly they're going to have the swimming pool ready soon but they haven't even broken ground yet.  There is a Richard Hill in Apt. 19 which causes some confusion with the mail.

Do you have any address in South America?  When will you be back?  Please send the copy of the birth certificate before you go.

Love, Catherine & X