Sunday, January 14, 1973

Jan 14, 1973

13119 Hermitage, Houston

Dear Family,

As I start to write I’m watching the last gasp of the football season and sort of rooting for Washington to win, mostly I guess because I’d like to see Miami, which has its 17 game winning streak to defend, get its comeuppance. It’s a beautiful day here in Houston today — and yesterday was a beautiful day also — but both days are quite a change from some of the wintry weather we experienced last week. The week thru Friday was cloudy (up thru Friday Houston had had only one day with any sunshine at all in 1973) and Thursday Houston had its first snow since about 1960. I suppose a couple of inches fell altogether but it was enough to make the landscape white, pretty much disrupt business & school activity, and give the children of Houston a chance to make numerous snowmen, throw snowballs, go sledding on a whole range of improvised sleds and generally experience what the north has every year. Over the years Houston has averaged a real snowfall like Thursday’s every 10–15 years so it was due to happen. The last snowfall in 1960 was 4 inches and that had been the record except for a real freak snowstorm back in 1895 when about 24 inches fell. After seeing what 2" could do, 24" would really have paralyzed Houston.

The snow started early Thursday and there were a few accumulated flakes on the newspaper when I picked it up off the sidewalk at about 6:15 AM. The ride to work was a pretty slushy one with the snow falling steadily with large flakes tho not really heavily. It kept on well past midday and work at Shell was let out at 3 PM, so I was home early )in time to wrap the outside water pipes & faucets against the anticipated ~20°F temperature Thursday night). I also took the precaution of draining the radiator of the old ’58 Plymouth, it only has water in it as it still leaks (where the water goes to I’ve never been able to figure out). The girls went to school on Thursday tho attendance was rather spotty and were also home early — most school districts in & around Houston didn’t have school on Thursday but our district did. It turned out that the supt was off skiing and no one was willing to act in his absence — the supt is a rather autocratic individual and sort of runs the district as his personal fiefdom. However, school was let out on Friday so Palma & Laurel had a day of vacation; Shell however thought the situation wasn’t that bad (as indeed it wasn’t) so I spent the day working as usual. Both Thursday & Friday nights the temperature did get down to about 20°F, so I was glad I’d brought all the delicate plants inside and to have taken the other precautions I did.

Even before the snowstorm Texas had been having some unusually cold weather and these involved fuel shortages in parts of the state. The Univ of Texas at Austin was involved in one of these shortages so the opening of the spring semester was delayed for one week; as a consequence we didn’t take Muriel back to Austin yesterday as we had planned. Instead we’ll do that next Saturday, and miss seeing Nixon’s second inauguration as a result — can’t say I was that interested in seeing the inauguration anyway. Muriel would be happy to be back in school, she’s about had her fill of being back home again. This past week she bought a secondhand bicycle to take back to Austin to help her get around; I guess she feels there is too much walking to suit her.

Yesterday (and from late afternoon on Friday) Palma participated in a 24 hour fast held by the youth groups at Memorial Drive United Methodist church. She came home shortly after 6 o’clock yesterday evening and said that she certainly felt the effects, tho I think it was at least partly psychological. Their fasting was sponsored on an hourly basis by church members and the proceeds were to be used for earthquake relief in Nicaragua and partly for local purposes. We left shortly afterward (Palma stayed home & Laurel was babysitting so it was just Jean, Muriel & I) for supper & an evening of visiting at the Woods — Shell friends from California. Today has been about the usual Sunday; Jean & I did go for a walk in the bayou after lunch but iut was still rather muddy so we didn’t go far.

All for now, With love, Carl

Sunday, January 7, 1973

January 7, 1973

13119 Hermitage, Houston

Dear Family,

It’s the middle of a cloudy, rainy, cold afternoon on this first Sunday afternoon of 1973 and it’s the kind of day which ain’t fit out for man nor beast, in my opinion. One thing you can say about it though is that it is consistent with its immediate predecessors, which were generally equally cloudy and cold, but at times rainier. At that I suppose we shouldn’t complain after reading about the ice storm and interrupted electrical service in the Kansas City area (we surely have wondered how the Prairie Village Strands were making out) and the wintry temperatures reported from the upper midwest and other parts of the country.

Today started off in the usual fashion with some pecan rolls for breakfast that Muriel had made earlier in this holiday season; then Palma, Laurel & I went to church — Jean stayed home with a lame back which she got yesterday when she straightened up too suddenly (it’s a little better today but she isn’t bending or stooping over for the time being) and Muriel wasn’t in the mood for a Memorial Drive United Methodist church type service. After church but before lunch Laurel, Muriel & I went off an a shopping expedition of sorts — Muriel to inspect a bicycle which she thought she might want to buy (the boy who had it was making some repairs and it wasn’t ready when we arrived so we left altho Muriel thought it looked like it might meet her requirements — maybe we’ll inspect it again later this afternoon), Laurel to get some supplies for the art class which is one of her classes this semester, and all three of us to do some grocery shopping. It was one o’clock before we were back & had lunch and since then I’ve been occupied with various odd jobs till I started in on this letter.

Well, it was back to work for Shell on Tuesday and as the week progressed more people kept returning from all the year-end vacations so that by Friday there were only a few people still absent. A fair number had spent the time back in California and brought back accounts of frozen plants, snow and freezing temperatures. Next week will be a full five-day week for a change and I can look forward to a succession of these now with only occasional breaks until summer comes — the first half of the year is always lean on holidays & vacation time it seems.

Palma & Laurel were back in school on Wednesday with about the same schedules except for one or two classes. Palma has a humanities class this semester which sounds good (they are starting out with WDurant’s book on history of philosophy) and Laurel has this art class for which the Texas school system provides no supplies — Jean says we’ve spent about $10 so far on this class, rather different from the custom in California.

Friday evening we had the Johnstons for supper — Palma & Muriel made crepes for both the main meal [ham with mushroom & cheese sauce] & the dessert [chocolate & tangerine] both of which were delicious. Yesterday our Shell friends the Towells came for supper & a visit and later we played our new dictionary game with them & they seemed to enjoy it. Laurel missed out on the game as she was babysitting again for the people who live directly behind us.

We almost acquired a cat again from two small girls in the neighborhood who had found a small half grown stray cat and were trying to find a home for it. However it wandered off last night and since then we haven’t seen it so it may not come back. It resembled our previous cat somewhat. It looked like it had had a hard time of it through its young life and I hope it makes out wherever it is today.

All for this time.

With love, Carl

Monday, January 1, 1973

Jan 1, 1973

13119 Hermitage

Dear Family,

The new year of 1973 is starting out wet and rainy here in Texas — I woke a couple of times during the night to hear some thunder rumbling way off in the distance and to hear the rain on the roof, and the rain is continuing as the day gets started. Generally it’s sort of a light rain but there was a brief heavy shower as we were having breakfast. Jean & I went to bed well before midnight and more or less slept in the New Year, altho I dimly recall being awake about then and being surprised at the lack of noise and commotion outside which was usually the case in El Cerrito. Laurel was baby-sitting for the family behind us and I don’t know just when she got home — she’s still asleep as I write (about 10 oclock AM), I also don’t know when our other two daughters got to bed, altho Muriel was up and around about as so soon as we were.

The year seems to be starting on a sort of optimistic note, as judged from the news in the morning paper. Nixon has ordered a halt in the bombing and hopefully the new negotiations may lead to the long hoped for settlement. The oil workers’ union and the oil companies appear to be headed for an agreement which will avoid a strike and all the accompanying inconveniences. Mr. Shultz says the economic picture is good for the year ahead.

As far as our family here is concerned, we seem to be pretty well over the flu or colds which have been afflicting us for the last week or ten days, altho I still have sort of a stopped up nose today. Today of course is a holiday and I at least will be watching some of the football games; tomorrow it’s back to work at Shell after a week’s vacation and it won’t be too easy getting up at a quarter to six, after getting pretty accustomed to a considerably later rising time. Palma & Laurel start school again on Wednesday or Thursday of this week but Muriel won’t be going back to Austin till the middle of January.

Our Christmas was generally a happy one despite being far from the family contacts of all our previous Christmases as a family. Christmas Eve we spent at the Johnstons — two of their children were at home and Elsie’s mother was visiting with them also; before we went to their house for supper Palma & I went to a Christmas communion service at ~5 PM in the afternoon — sort of a candlelight service which was quite meaningful.

We had our Christmas presents on the morning of Christmas day and we all received many worthwhile gifts & happy surprises. In the afternoon the Johnstons stopped by for coffee & cookies as did also the Kruegers (I ride to work with him) and we also had a visit across the bayou fence with some Shell acquaintances in the neighborhood who had gone for a walk there. In the evening we went to an open house but didn’t stay too long as the girls were suffering from their respective colds and weren’t too interested in the company; my bout with the flu didn’t really start till the next day.

In between times during the rest of the week I did get a few jobs done when I felt like doing something. Friday we went to see a traveling art exhibit at the Houston art museum (part of the Norton Simon collection) which was pretty good. Saturday we had breakfast at Brennan’s (a delayed birthday gift to Muriel because Jean was in the hospital on her birthday last August) and we then went to ITC where I work and made free phone calls to Calif and other points. Yesterday was the usual Sunday, then we had the Guthries for lunch and a good visit. All for this time

With love, Carl