Saturday, November 22, 1958

November 22, 1958

411 Bonnie Dr

El Cerrito, Calif.

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Since I wrote last in the round robin we have driven to Iowa, using the three weeks of vacation I still had left, and we have been back now over two months. This was our first experience in driving such a long distance and I can’t say I would want to do it again soon, but might at some later time. On the way to Iowa we stopped for several days to Rocky Mountain Park and returning we came via Joplin and stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison & the Colorado National Monument. We have just recently got our last batch of slides from the trip finished and they turned out quite good. One we lost tho since it was the first one on the roll and I hadn’t rolled the film far enough before taking the picture. On the way back we stopped one hot afternoon at a cafe in western Kansas and by chance happened to try their apple dumplings. They were so good that Jean has copied them & this is now one of our favorite desserts.

This fall has been a warm one in Calif, except for a short cold snap a week ago and severa flowers have started growing as tho it were spring. Among these are the roses and we have had as pretty roses as we have had at any time just recently. Because of the nice weather I have the yard in pretty good shape in anticipating of the winter. There will be the usual pruning jobs to do in the winter but except for those there will only be such tasks as mowing the lawn every other week, some minor trimming etc. My next major project is the replacement of the backyard fence but I’m not sure when this will get started.

Muriel and Palma continue to grow and change rapidly as is usual for children of this age. Muriel is in the kindergarten class at Sunday School now and every once in awhile pops up with something she has learned there; she’ll be eager to start school next fall I’m sure. Lately her coloring skill has improved a lot and she does fairly well by the hula-hoop (she’s only had it 3 or 4 days now) but nothing like Billy I’m sure. Palma seems to be passing thru a less desirable stage right now, being somewhat fussy much of the time, not wanting to eat as she should and being prone to falls etc. I guess she’ll grow out of it though.

My work at Shell continues much as usual and last August I passed by 16th anniversary with them. Not too many years and I’ll have lived longer in Calif than in Iowa. My luck at avoiding business trips held up for more than a year but it looks like I’ll need to make one in Dec (maybe the airline will be on strike though and this would cancel it).

For the next year or so I plan to try to develop my cartooning into a salable product. I haven’t had any puck so far but haven’t kept at it too conscientiously tho so that may be the reason.

All for now.

With love,

Carl, Jean, Muriel & Palma