1973 Catherine's Letter - May 8

 Transcription follows.

9:30 P.M.  May 8, 1973

Dear Mom, Dad, Serena, John, and Mary,

Hi!  Received your letter of May 3 yesterday.  Thanks for enclosing the letter from Roger.  I sent them a thank you note right after we got here but we haven't invited them here yet.  I'm going to try to get the curtains made and up before then.  We bought some el cheapo curtains for the sliding door in the bedroom but we decided to buy material for the others.  The windows are 45 x 65 multiplied by four windows, something like 17 years of material.

We've wasted two morning this week going to Portland and it looks like we're going to ave to go again either tomorrow or Thursday.  X decided to get the Land Rover tough-coated (that isn't how they spell it but it is a type of rust-proofing) and the closest place is in Portland.  So yesterday we took the car up there.  It takes them all day so we both had to drive and then today we went back to pick it up.  It turns out they didn't wash it before they did it so instead of rust-proofing the underside of the car they mostly rust proofed big clumps of dirt which when kicked fall right off and they also didn't do things that they had said they would like under the hood.  So we had to give them another day.

Yes, we do have Kuman near us.  Her dog house sits right outside our bedroom sliding door.  We have her chained so she only has about a 20 foot span to wander around in.  We let her inside sometimes when we are home but for the rest xof the time she seems fairly satisfied outside.  We also try to take her for a run once a day.

We would be glad to have you come anytime.  August sounds fine.  Serena is welcome to come stay with us in June if you all are taking off for South America before she does.  Anybody is welcome almost anytime as far as that goes.  As Roger said, when the beds get filled up there is still the floor.  Maybe you told me but I had forgotten that Lisa was adopted but I had forgotten.  She is really cute.  Helen said that they have had an application if for a little boy for quite awhile but nothing has come up yet.  [Blaine was adopted in May or June 1973.]

A lady came into the library yesterday and said she had read in the paper where we were from Kalamazoo and she wondered if we knew her son who is at K College.  I thought she meant her son was a student but it turns out that her son is the head of the physics department and was my advisor while I was a physics major.  I also babysat his kids when I was a freshman and sophomore.  Just before Christmas we sat with them at the K College Christmas dinner and he told us he was form Maine but he didn't say what part and at that time we didn't know we were coming to Sanford so it was quite a surprise to find that his hometown is Sanford.  His mother hopes that someday he will come back to this area.

There is a Giant store in Sanford.  I haven't been there yet but we get an ad every week through the mail.  I have also seen several other Giant stores throughout the area.  We got a call last week from the Welcome Wagon giving us a whole lot of little cards which say Welcome to Sanford from such and such a store and when I stop in their store and introduce myself they x have a little gift set aside for me.  I haven't collected any of the junk yet.  McDonalds gave me a gift certificate for a hamburger and xfrench fries which we did cash in, and one of the grocery stores will give me $3 worth of groceries.  I could go on and tell you stuff about the library but since space is running out I'll wait until the next letter.

Love, Catherine & X