December 21, 1972
13119 Hermitage, Houston
Dear Family,
Today is the shortest day of the
year and the beginning of winter — but we certainly feel that Texas
(along with most of the rest of the country) has already had more
than a taste already of real winter. One thing we have noticed in
this more southerly clime though is that these short winter days
aren’t as short as they were in the SF bay area — for example
this evening after I got home from work it was still light enough for
me to go out and rake up enough leaves, pine needles, cones &
accumulated debris in the front yard to fill up the trash can. That’s
a bonus and as Clarice wrote in her Christmas letter it should be one
of the blessings we can count if we but look for them.
Muriel arrived home from Austin
early this afternoon and she said the weather was clear & bright
there, becoming progressively cloudier and grayer as they neared the
coast. She’ll be home for nearly 3 weeks as classes don’t resume
until about Jan 15, so she’ll have a good long relief from those
dormitory meals — this evening she really enjoyed the sweet corn
(which came from the vegetable club Jean has joined — the ladies of
which take turns going to the farmer’s market and buying fresh
produce for the whole club).
Today was also the first day of
Christmas vacation for Palma and Laurel and they welcomed the end of
school for awhile. It is also the middle of the school year and they
have been having final tests the last week or so; after Christmas the
new term begins. Palma celebrated by sleeping in till close to noon
and Laurel by coming down with a cold which had been developing for
several days. Hopefully she’ll be better after a good night’s
rest tonite but right now she looks rather dreary — she had
expected to babysit tonite for the family just behind us but as it
turns out they too are suffering from some bug so she could back out
of that commitment easily.
Tuesday evening Jean & I went
to hear her play in the school orchestra in the Christmas program of
music as Spring Forest Jr. High. It was a good concert I thought &
the orchestra was surely an improvement over that at Portola Jr High
in El Cerrito last year — there the head of the music dept had
interest only in band music and the orchestra really suffered. The
orchestra had already played 2 or 3 times that day for various
elementary schools in the district, so she really had a workout.
We continue to get accounts, in
Christmas cards & letters from California, of the unusual cold there.
Fuschias, poinsettias, citrus trees have been dealt harsh blows by
the freezing temperatures and many doubtless won’t survive. In a
way I’m glad I’m not there to see more poor frost-bitten
fuschias. At the botanical gardens at the Univ of Calif some 50 years
of plant development may be largely lost. One friend wrote that snow
remained in her backyard for 2 days after it fell — usually when
snow falls in the Bay area it’s only in higher elevations and lasts
only a couple of hours. Lately it’s warmed up there, but the damage
to plants has been done.
Work continues rather busy these
last days before the holidays and I have a busy half day ahead of me
tomorrow to get things cleared away before my week of vacation next
week. Should be able to get things done though if there aren’t too
many interruptions. A lot of people are on vacation already and the
offices will have a half-deserted air next week I’m sure. Here at
home I brought in the Christmas tree yesterday evening and
decorations. it will be a rather different Christmas for us this year
— the first one really way from any of the rest of the family,
altho with Jean’s dad’s passing over a year ago the old family
traditions would be passing regardless of where we were. We’ll be
home by ourselves Christmas morning but we have invitations out for
Christmas Eve and for Christmas day in the evening so our days then
will be filled with fellowship. All for this time
With love, Carl