Dear Peter:
It seems to me that we got a strange letter with a check (excuse me, cheque) from you some time ago. I didn't understand, and I'm afraid that the passage of time hasn't helped any. Anyway, Merry Christmas.
Life here continues on. Last summer I won a series of sailing races before giving up racing, and would have gotten a trophy had I gone to the awards banquet. My work continues, but slowly. I finally passed the goddam german exam, on the third try, and have my orals soon. I hope to finish up next summer, but in the rare moments that I pretend at realism I'm sure I won't. God knows. Every time I run into your friend E. C. Lingafelter (you remember??) he says hello and asks how things are going. Real camaraderie. With parental assistance and mostly due to parental persuasion we have bought our house. Quite nice. I wish that I could get a job here. It is really quite nice here. No snow.
Bloody shame about Linus and Anita. [...] I suppose that I ought to write her, but it will be hard not to say what I think. I ought to write to Linus as well, but at least Lucy has. Lucy is pretty good about that sort of thing. In fact, Lucy is the ideal wife. I don't know how I rate. Linus apparently is going to S. Calif., sometime soon. Maybe I'll fly down there. I have eyes on the ex-Peter Porsche, but not much hope.
Do you remember Bill McCormick, from Cal-Tech. He used to have a snazzy TC model MG. He is here now, in Physics. He does work in low temperature physics, whatever that is. He has a new Porsche, the bastard. Anyway he’s been out a time or two. [...]
The brats are thriving. Right now they all have some sort of belly flu, and are miserable, but generally they are fine. The boy is now over two, and has developed a remarkable vocabulary. He hasn't quite caught on to stringing words together to make sentences, but tone the less he communicates quite well. The girls are growing at a fantastic rate; Cheryl will be in the first grade next fall. They both write quite well if we tell them how to spell, and I think Cheryl is beginning to recognize a few basic words. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures; it takes a while to get around to taking them, and then forever to make prints. Maybe I should take my negatives to the corner drug store.
There is a jerk in Maths whose new number plates on his car read ASL 300. The A is for King county; guess what kind of car the bastard has? I wonder how many palms he had to grease???
I saw a paper of yours some time ago in Nature. I didn't understand it. I still hear from my friends in chemistry about your seminar. It apparently made quite an impression. I'm hoping to go to the International Congress of Genetics at The Hague, first week of September. Perhaps I'll see you if you’re home then. I've forgotten how to type.
Love from
Crellin
February
4, 1963
