1973 Catherine's letter -Nov.23

The 1973 oil crisis started in October when several Arab countries proclaimed an oil embargo which lasted until March 1974. The situation in Maine, as in other cold weather states was filled with dire forecasts.

November 23, 1973

Dear Mom, Dad, John and Mary,

Hi!  Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.  Things have been very hectic here.  Last Friday (the 16th) the new shelving for the library came.  It was put in place of and in addition to what used to be in the lobby.  So the library was closed for 4 days and we moved all the books around.  The fiction are all downstairs now and the non-fiction are on the main floor.  We worked form early in the morning until late moving books and setting fixing up the basement.  And now that they are moved, comes the hardest job – showing people how things are changed.  Several people have expressed approval – it's too bad though that those who don't like it seem so much more willing to talk loudly.

To add to the "hecticness" Bruce & Beth got back from Europe.  We picked them up i Boston last Friday night and they left this morning.  We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday with just the four of us.  We had an 8# turkey with cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, corn, mincemeat pie, etc.  It came out pretty good considering it was the first turkey I ever cooked.

The oil situation here does not look good.  We keep our thermostat here at home at about 61º.  Only the radiators in the living room are turned on so the rest of the house is cooler.  We will have problems if we get only a potion of last year's allocation for this house as it was vacant last year and the thermostat was set at 55º.  At the library the thermostat went down to 65º when the President first made his announcement.  The board decided that was too cool so it was raised to 68º, now they think that is too cold and they want it raised again.  The alternative is to close down one day a week.  If the oil gets too scarce we may close down for a month or more later in the winter.

We already sold Mohasco – it was Foremost-McKesson we were wondering about.  We'll assume the advice is the same.

We finally decided to get cable TV with your anniversary money.  WE had it installed last week – now we can get 15 stations including several educational and independent ones.  Watched one of the original Charlie Chaplin silent movies the other night hosted by Orson Welles.  Boston stations come in loud and clear.

Write again soon!

Love, Catherine & X