Sunday, March 4, 1956

March 4, 1956

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters:

Last night we went to see the play “There Shall Be No Night”  at Wheeler auditorium up on the Univ of Calif campus. This play was written by Robert Sherwood in the late thirties or early forties (he died in the last six months or so — the Saturday Review used the occasion to write rather extensively about him) and was concerned with the conflict between Finland and Russian occurring about that time. It was quite an interesting play but not exactly light entertainment since it treated the subject with no touch of humor. In fact the play seemed a little contrived in places since it was used primarily as a vehicle to propose ideas etc and only secondarily was it concerned with the fates of the particular individuals involved.

The play lasted from 8 to 11, with a couple of intermissions, and I was glad it didn’t last any longer since I was tired after a rather full day of working in the yard. Wheeler auditorium has no stage curtain so all the changing of scenes was done by people scurrying on stage, carting things on or off; this added I thought a touch of novelty to the presentation.

Jean combined the seeing of the play with some gossiping with the people we went with — the lady worked in the same room with Jean at Shell until she quit a few weeks ago. She decided she’d rather go back to school, learn to be a primary teacher, & teach in this area, rather than continue in her work as computer. 

As a consequence of being out last night we are a rather logy family today, except for Muriel. Muriel woke about 4 and slept only fitfully thereafter till five, being troubled with a cold & cough she has had recently. About five her objections became quite marked so I got up & brought her to bed with us; we slept only a little after this since Muriel is not one to lie still very consistently. She did spend half an hour or so tho sleeping, lying across my chest, & we all three dozed off for awhile.

Because of her cold, or perhaps it is that she is teething again, Muriel has not had much appetite this past week. Today we had fried bread this morning — ordinarily one of her favorites — and she declined any until Jean put a little raspberry jam on a few pieces. Perhaps her taste has suddenly become jaded and she wants what her father & mother get. Yesterday we had an eventful occurrence with Muriel; Jean had been shopping & purchased some buttons. Right after she returned she put Muriel in the playpen & went downstairs to take in some wash. Muriel managed to to reach the buttons on the table & chewed four off the card, swallowing one. This morning it completed its journey, none the worse for wear, but we were happy to note its reappearance.

This past month has been a fairly busy one. We’ve got the floors refinished in the “front” part of the house (Jean’s brother in law & I did it — it was quite a job), I made some cupboards (still partly incomplete — no doors) for the garage & a bookcase for the rumpus room (not sanded & painted). Our new sofa & ottoman came so the old green sofa I bought to furnish 931 Seaview is in the garage — it’ll go in the rumpus eventually. Outside things are really starting to grow & it looks like spring is just around the corner.

With love,

Carl, Jean & Muriel