1973 Catherine's letter - June 30

 Saturday morning, June 30, 1973

Dear Mom, Dad, Roberta, Serena (?), John and Mary,

Hi!  Thanks for sending the addresses of you and Serena for the next month.

Our big news is that we found a house which we can rent.  It has four bedrooms, 2 car garage, basement, attic, and is partly furnished.  It isn't in the country but it isn't in the middle of town either and seems to be a quiet neighborhood.  And the whole things costs the same as this dinky apartment.  The people who own the house are presently living in Grand Haven, Michigan whi ch is about 25-30 miles north of Kalamazoo.  They are going to stay here in Sanford until the first of August when we will take possession.  so you will be able to stay with us when you come.  There are two hid-a-beds, one double mattress, a twin bed and our own double bed so I think there will be plenty of room.  There is also a bathroom on the ground floor (actually 1/2 bath) in addition to the full one upstairs, so I think we could work it out so that it wouldn't be too inconvenient for Grandma.  Mr. Haggard was formerly a Methodist minister in the Cincinnati area, I guess his father is a retired Methodist minister (possibly he preached in Kentucky, I'm not sure) and he and his wife now have a cottage at Lakeside.  At any rate we seem to have alot in common with our new landlords.  We signed a two year lease.

The last we heard from X's mother she is planning to come sometime in the fall.  X's aunt has retired from her job.

Yes we still have Upjohn.  I saw in the paper where it went down 5 points yesterday.  Our stop loss order is now at 70.  I think the Jewel you gave us for a wedding gift is also depreciating.  The library does get the WSJ and also the CSM.

There is some talk about the gas crisis here although I haven't seen too many effects.  Evidently it is affecting the tourist trade slightly.  Now that we'll be living in town we are a whole lot closer to work.  It is probably still about a mile.  If we buy another bicycle we could ride our bicycles to work.  That will save some gasoline.

Sanford is also having a big 4th of July celebration with fireworks, skydivers, a parade, homing pidgeons, etc.  Coming on a Wednesday it will split the work week nicely.

Entertaining you people is the only plan we have for the week of our anniversary.  WE will be waiting for more details about where you will be flying to.

Send us some postcards from SA.  I'll have to get some aerograms so I can write to you all and to Serena.

Love, Catherine & X

After Aug 1:  21 Middle Street