Monday
November 27, 1978
Dear Mom, Dad, Mary Virginia & John,Hi! Thanks for your letter which arrived on Friday. Sorry that we woke you up Thursday evening but we did want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. It would be fine with us for John to come and it is ideal for his arrival to coincide with DeeDee's. Depending on the weather or rather the temperature – he can ride in the cab and hold DeeDee on his lap or we'll bring plenty of blankets and pillows and he can ride in the back. DeeDee's plane arrives at 2:55 so it is a little later than I had thought. If he is thinking of taking a bus from Madras to Phoenix or wherever he would be going next – the Trailways bus comes through Madras two or three times a day each direction.
Wendy is walking a whole lot more now. She is still a little unsteady but she goes slow and holds her arms out in front of her. She has also started pointing to things and saying "that." She can identify things like her shoes, socks, shirt, cats, dogs, etc. She doesn't always obey simple commands like sit down, or bring me the truck, but she understands.
The snow is slowly melting but the ground is still amply covered. I have to push Wendy's stroller in the middle of the road where the snow has been packed down. There are no sidewalks in this town except for on the main streets and they aren't shoveled too well – mostly just packed down in a narrow path which isn't wide enough for the stroller. So we stick to the back streets until we get close to where we want to go and then cut over to the main street. We had given some thought to getting Wendy a sled for Christmas but supposedly they don't get too much snow here so I don't know if it would be worth it. I'd think it might be better to wait until she is old enough to want one. The last two nights have been cold and foggy which I don't usually associate as going together. It has turned all the trees white which is very striking looking.
Is there a Firestone tire dealer anywhere near a place you might be going? I would really like to have the Christmas tape that they put out but there isn't one here. We would need the 8-track tape. I bought the one they put out last year at the Firestone place in San Diego. Don't worry about it if it isn't convenient because I can certainly live without it.
On Friday I babysat for the 7-year-old son of Judy. (The woman who works with Gerry, where we went for Thanksgiving.) His older brother and sister were going skiing. Wendy enjoyed having someone else around and he was pretty good with her.
They are just beginning the interest on the checking account out here. I heard somewhere that they want you to keep $2000 balance. It seems like if a person had that much extra they could put it in a savings account anyway. We have to pay a $4.00 monthly service charge here but we write more checks as all the stores take checks – even the restaurants accept local checks and people seem to write checks for everything. I'm surprised when people don't ask for my identification since alot of these places I have only been in once or twice. I have an insurance card and my voter registration with the current address on it but everything else is Gilroy or San Diego, and my driver's license is still from Maine. It expires on my birthday though so I'll have to decide whether to get an Oregon license or renew the Maine one.
We have been eating much better eggs here since Gerry buys them at work from an egg lady who comes once a week. She charges 75¢ for large or 85¢ for extra large (and they are big) which is roughly comparable to what the store charges but they are much better. We did know a place where we could get fresh milk for $1.25/gallon but the cow went dry.
Well, it is about time for the mailman to come so I will close and put this out. I am in hopes of getting downtown to the post office and library later this afternoon but it all depends on when Wendy takes her nap so I can't count on it.
Love,
Catherine, Gerry
& Wendy
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