August 7, 1954

Saturday Morning

Dear Mom,

Many thanks for your letter, I was very pleased to hear from you. I'm glad to hear that you got a new washer, as I remember your old one spilled all of its water on the floor on me when I was getting ready to come down here. I have been seeing Louise Palmer now and then; Linda has written her a couple of times and she has brought me the letters. Linda also wrote to the little boys, were they excited. I have been doing a lot of reading this summer; a friend of Linus', Ransom Arthur, who is staying here, has infected me with thwe [sic] reading bug. He has a lot of books about US Naval History, which are terribly interesting.

I hope that Elfriede tells me when she is coming so I can meet her. I like her very much, she was too, too kind to me. Don Sandbom stayed over night a few times before I left, with Elfriede's permission. I hope that that was alright. Also the night I left Dave Wailes, Adrienne, Mary-Ellen, and myself had a little barbeque before going to the airport, also with Elfriede's permission. Dave bought the steaks, so it was no expense to us other than charcoal. I hope that you don't mind, but it is so much cheaper than to go out to dinner, and also nicer. Dave had just gotten back from Frisco with his Parents the day before, so we thought that it would be a nice idea.

I never told Jim that he could stay here for more than three days, which I did with Anita's permissin. [sic] But as there are already 4 houseguests (me, Irma and Ray Hahn, and Ransom Arthur), Linus and Anita both feel that I should try to find some other place for Jim to stay. So we will see how it works out when he gets here (tomorrow). Also I don't know how long I can stand to live with Jim; he is a little too active and impatient for me to be around him for long amounts of time.

Well, must run. I am trying to catchup on my correspondence this morning. Say hello to Al and Jack for me, tell Jack that I will write to him soon.

Crel