1988 Leslie Reynolds letter -Feb 7
February 7, 1988
Dear Harold
Joan and I were thinking about you and Jean the other day and we came to the realization that it has been ten years since you visited us at our place in Valencia. I can't remember when I last saw Mary.
Since we saw you we have been busy working our call cattle ranch here in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains in Kern County. Strangely enough about 60 miles from where all the Reynolds Kids were born. We've also been occupied building a new house. A nephew on Joan's side of the family is an architect and he designed for us what we call our tree house. We're on the side of a hill and our living room looks right into the trees about 20 feet above ground. The place is somewhat unusual in that the living room walls which are floor to ceiling glass fold back in the summer time and we expand out onto a screened deck that goes all the way around. The nephew, a local retiree and I started on it in April of 1981 and we "took up camping" in it in December. We spent the next year finishing it up. It's all done now and we really like it. The house has a guest bedroom that is just waiting for some Uibles to occupy it.
Our weather here is rather a far cry from what is generally thought of as "California weather." We at 4,000 feet elevation so we get cold and snow with frost each night for about six months. Gardens have a season of from 90 to 120 days. So far this winter it has been down to 5ยบ.
All this kind of cold weather gets us to thinking like the birds and we head south as often as we can. In fact, we are leaving early tomorrow morning for Mexico. We go down the Baja Peninsula to the small Mexican seashore town of Mulege in our fifth wheel and live it up on the beach for three or four weeks at a time. We also visit the desert communities in southern California and enjoy the warmth and sunshine there but there is not the good fishing that can be found in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.
Do you get to Southern California any more? If you haven't been here for a while you wouldn't believe the place. There are so many people; jammed freeways, tall buildings, etc. that its hard to relate it to what we grew up with.
I guess everyone feels that way any more, though, as rapidly as things are changing. Joan's Dad who is 94 remembers when it took two days in a wagon to get from this area to the closest major town (Bakersfield) and a couple of years go we took him and Joan's mother out to Edwards AFB to see the Shuttle come back from space. They thought it was remarkable – and so do we!
As I sit here writing this letter I am thinking about the summer of 1940 which I was so fortunate to be able to spend with all of you in New Vienna. I have many fond memories of that time. The garden your mother had and the delicious corn that came from it and the string beans – the croquet we played and the ice cream suppers we had on Sundays. Good living! I also remember the time your dad let us use his Ford Coupe and, foolishly I brought it back late without filling the tank which really created a problem when we got ready to depart for a road job early the next morning. Your dad was whistling "South of the Border" whenever I was around for the next week!
Well, Harold, it's been a long, long time since we erected any new memories together. Let's try to see more of each other (and all of us). Joan and I are really fond of all of you and are thinking, we need to have more contact with my family. Gayle, our daughter, is planning to be involved in some kind of function in Cincinnati this fall. Maybe we can make a get together out of it. I'll investigate it more and report what I find.
Please write (or call) and let us know how all of you are, what you are doing, etc. By the way you may not have our new phone # –––.
Give our love to your Mother and Mary.
As ever, Leslie
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