A Christmas Letter to Rose and Doug (her husband)

Bozeman, MT
1964

Hi, Rose and Doug,

You certainly picked the right present for Cherie and me-our old alarm clock was about shot-we never knew if it was right or wrong. And your card was the most charming of all we received-in fact, about the most Christmasy we've seen.

We had an enjoyable Christmas, watching Kandy and Jamie with their toys. Kandy went to bed with the little doll with the hurt feelings that you sent. Of course, Cherie let the kids eat cookies and candy instead of food, so Kandy was sick all night. We all have to learn the hard way to say "no".

We had some of that terrifically cold weather here-it was 30 degrees below one morning, but the spell lasted only a few days.

We were marooned in a blizzard for several hours, in Idaho. I had visions of us all perishing. We weren't too well prepared, as far as clothing is concerned, but, fortunately, snowplows were on the job and we made it, but it took almost 11 1/2 hours to travel 218 miles. I was relieved and happy to get home, but happy to have had the experience. That was quite a feeling, to have sleet pelting me in the face so I could hardly see, and be driving through drifts, never being sure just when I'd get stuck.

I wish you could enjoy snow and cold weather as much as I and Kandy. She's getting independent-goes out and entertains herself occasionally-also tends to travel afield, which is sort of worrying.

We had mostly bare ground, but two days before Christmas it snowed several inches.

The house trailer's crowded, but little by little we are organizing and reoganizing, for more efficiency, and it is livable, now. If we are lucky, we can buy some land next year (if I find some way to ake money), and build a log structure enclosing the trailer, with room for tools, books, car and goats. I'm a dreamer, I guess.

Doug, do you think it would pay to put a straight shift in a '50 Dynaflow v8 Buick Super? It's a pretty rugged old car, but the automatic transmission gets stiff and hard to start on cold mornings. It also is hard to start when the motor is hot, sometimes, choking itself out. What do you think causes it? If we were closer, I'd liketo hire you to work over both these vehicles (my Dodge '56 pickup, too).

I hope you are both well and happy-we're so darned busy we don't have a chance to notice whether we're happy or not, so we must be.

Hope to see you somehow this year.

Love, Lou, Cherie, Kandy, and Jamie