Friday morning
October 6, 1978
Dear Mom, Dad, and Mary Virginia,Hi! It was nice talking to you last night and sorry that we didn't call sooner. I wondered, Mother if you had gone to the Egyptian place in San Jose. I'm sure your letter will probably give us more details.
We had a nice drive up to Klamath Falls and arrived around 5:30. We hadn't driven through the Mt. Shasta area so we were able to see some new scenery. Saturday morning we had breakfast at Sambo's where the service was much better than our previous meal at Sambo's. [Sambo's restaurant chain had 1,117 outlets in 1979, but about that same time negative pressure about the name increased and by 1982 the chain was defunct.] and then it took us about 3.5 hours to get to Madras. We went straight to the co-op where I met Fred [Gerry's new boss] and he took us to meet our new landlords and we were able to move right into the apartment. The electricity was on so we had lights to see by and we set up our temporary beds and made ourselves at home.
There are 16 apartments here altogether. Two long buildings facing each other. We are at the end of the first building which was built about two years ago and then last year they built the other building. They are about 40 feet apart. The laundry room is in a separate building about 10 feet beyond our apartment with 4 washers and 4 dryers – the washers taking 3 dimes and the dryer costing 25¢ for 40 minutes. We have really been going through the dimes! Our apartment is on the south end of the building with the kitchen and Wendy's bedroom (plus both bathrooms) on the East side and the living room and our bedroom on the west. There are 10-20 children (I haven't been able to get a firm count yet) living here and Wendy likes to watch them play. I've seen a little girl who must be around 2 but I haven't seen any closer to her age yet. There is a girl named Wendy who must be around 8 and she has a younger brother named Jason.
The only couple we've gotten to know so far lives right across from us and were just married on Sept. 16. He had been living here since January as he works with the forest service marking trees to be cut on the Indian reservation. She is from Livermore which is near Oakland, CA. I have walked down town with her several times (it's about 6 blocks) and they had us over for dinner and to watch the first game of the American League play-offs on TV on Tuesday night. He is from Kansas City so is hoping that KC can beat the Yankees to go into the world series.
The Co-op is at the north end of town about 1.25 miles from where we live. The library, post office, town hall, county building are all within about two blocks of each other which makes it convenient. They are sort of between here and the Co-op so Wendy and I often leave the apt. around 4:00, do our errands and check out the stores and then meet Gerry at 5:30 when he gets off work. That has the additional advantage that it is down hill going and we avoid having to walk back up the hill.
Rt. 97 goes right through town but the traffic isn't too bad because there are two one-way streets. We are about four blocks west of there. I understand the traffic is worse than usual right now because hunting season runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 8 which is so short that all of the hunters are out at once and 97 is a semi-major route.
After church on Sunday, Fred and his wife, Hazel, took us out to eat at Jerry's which is a chain sort of like Denny's. Two other couples, friends of theirs, also ate with us. They said that they had all come here in the late 40's and started farming and now their children are taking over the farms and they are in the process of retiring. One guy said his 33-year-old son had a doctorate in organic chemistry and two years of post-doctorate work but was unable to find a suitable job so is now farming.
Well, I better save something to write in my next letter. Wendy is doing fine. We think she may be cutting some new teeth as she has had a slight fever the past few evenings and she hasn't been sleeping as well. The windows here are all nearer her level and she especially likes the sliding glass door in the kitchen as she can see the children when they play in the back and there is also a cat that comes around visiting every morning.
We hope you are all doing well and sorry it was so long before you heard from us.
Love,
Catherine, Gerry
& Wendy
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