Letter from Alma to Eva: 12/13/1958
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Alma, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, writes about her Christmas woes to her youngest sister, Eva, in Atlanta, Georgia
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1958-12-13: tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
South Hadley, Mass. Dec. 13th
Dear Eva:
It would be hard to think of anything more tactless or worse - than to send a financial statement just before Christmas and NO PRESENT. O, woe is me. I can't believe that Christmas is really coming. I had expected to have it on the trip and was set to ignore it - and now it catches me.
Never did I think less about it except to send cards, and I have been sending them intermittently for 3 weeks beginning with India. Now some replies are coming in, and I may send some - if I find them, but it may be later.
There is the Grammitid paper.....shall I never be through with that? I went to Amherst on Thursday and Lenette and I had a session; she is still working on one section, and I have lost the first page of the DISCUSSION, and that part has always troubled me. So now I must think that up. I meant to begin typing for PHYTOMORPHOLOGY, but left the first 4 pages in Amherst, so exhausted was I by our conference. So that all I can do is the Literature Cited and the Legends - both more tedious to type than the text, and I rejoice to have them done, as they involve figures; and that is particularly hard for me.
It has been below zero several nights this week, and was down to 7 last night. We did not get away soon enough. Geoffroy is doing well; he said it was largely because he had his operation in time and did not wait until his condition was acute. His blood pressure is down properly and he is feeling pleased with himself, but troubled that Lenette has so much to do. She is making a request for a Grant to help on the work in Maui and the other islands - the expenses of collection, etc., but I doubt if she gets it. [Handwritten note on the side:] Nat. Research Council [End of handwritten note on the side] The first request was turned down for further information, but the new man in charge was in Amherst recently and he and Harold Plough gave her more pointers as to what to say.
The A.A.A. has our route worked out - via the Penn. turnpike, then to Indianapolis, and St. Louis, and S.W. to Oklahoma and northern Texas, then to Tucson (that pleases Clara as Meta is there) and on to Los Angeles, but if we make good time, we shall go on to San Francisco and get the LEILANI there on the 14th before it goes to L.A. That would have the advantage that we could leave the car there and not have to go to L.A. on our return, but start north from S.F. In that case I would not see Harry Van Doorn, unless he came to the boat. Clara wants to see someone in L.A. and that might be possible for her. Clara is coming here on Saturday, Dec. 20, as Adelaid is not going to Wellesley this year. Fredda will meet her in Holyoke and then bring her here. Edie is coming for us on Saturday. We stay until Friday, Dec. 26.
You never did say what you wanted for Christmas. It might have helped my mind.
Your letter has come - and the check for $10.00 made me especially penitent. I'll spend it in Hawaii - I think. Is there anything from there which you would like. I had thought of asking you to deduct $10.00 from the Fernbank account for something special - or a concert, or trip, but do what seems best. I am feeling as if I had done everything badly about Christmas, except getting Roger & Edie the dinosaur track from us.
I'll enclose AG's card. I think it is lucky that she has enough money to feel around before getting tied up with something she doesn't really care for; Clara and Fredda both feel the same way. I never did have time to tell Geoffroy and Lenette; we had so little time and it went on the Grammitids.
I am with the people who protest the road up to Stone Mountain - such foolishness to try to make everyplace accessible to everybody and into a hot dog stand. I am sure that my climbing companion Elizabeth Hook feels the same way.
Love,
Alma.
Ellen Hinsdale died this week, 99 yrs, in a nursing home. What a pity that her fine mind did not live as long. I did not see a notice but heard it at the [???].
Dear Eva:
It would be hard to think of anything more tactless or worse - than to send a financial statement just before Christmas and NO PRESENT. O, woe is me. I can't believe that Christmas is really coming. I had expected to have it on the trip and was set to ignore it - and now it catches me.
Never did I think less about it except to send cards, and I have been sending them intermittently for 3 weeks beginning with India. Now some replies are coming in, and I may send some - if I find them, but it may be later.
There is the Grammitid paper.....shall I never be through with that? I went to Amherst on Thursday and Lenette and I had a session; she is still working on one section, and I have lost the first page of the DISCUSSION, and that part has always troubled me. So now I must think that up. I meant to begin typing for PHYTOMORPHOLOGY, but left the first 4 pages in Amherst, so exhausted was I by our conference. So that all I can do is the Literature Cited and the Legends - both more tedious to type than the text, and I rejoice to have them done, as they involve figures; and that is particularly hard for me.
It has been below zero several nights this week, and was down to 7 last night. We did not get away soon enough. Geoffroy is doing well; he said it was largely because he had his operation in time and did not wait until his condition was acute. His blood pressure is down properly and he is feeling pleased with himself, but troubled that Lenette has so much to do. She is making a request for a Grant to help on the work in Maui and the other islands - the expenses of collection, etc., but I doubt if she gets it. [Handwritten note on the side:] Nat. Research Council [End of handwritten note on the side] The first request was turned down for further information, but the new man in charge was in Amherst recently and he and Harold Plough gave her more pointers as to what to say.
The A.A.A. has our route worked out - via the Penn. turnpike, then to Indianapolis, and St. Louis, and S.W. to Oklahoma and northern Texas, then to Tucson (that pleases Clara as Meta is there) and on to Los Angeles, but if we make good time, we shall go on to San Francisco and get the LEILANI there on the 14th before it goes to L.A. That would have the advantage that we could leave the car there and not have to go to L.A. on our return, but start north from S.F. In that case I would not see Harry Van Doorn, unless he came to the boat. Clara wants to see someone in L.A. and that might be possible for her. Clara is coming here on Saturday, Dec. 20, as Adelaid is not going to Wellesley this year. Fredda will meet her in Holyoke and then bring her here. Edie is coming for us on Saturday. We stay until Friday, Dec. 26.
You never did say what you wanted for Christmas. It might have helped my mind.
Your letter has come - and the check for $10.00 made me especially penitent. I'll spend it in Hawaii - I think. Is there anything from there which you would like. I had thought of asking you to deduct $10.00 from the Fernbank account for something special - or a concert, or trip, but do what seems best. I am feeling as if I had done everything badly about Christmas, except getting Roger & Edie the dinosaur track from us.
I'll enclose AG's card. I think it is lucky that she has enough money to feel around before getting tied up with something she doesn't really care for; Clara and Fredda both feel the same way. I never did have time to tell Geoffroy and Lenette; we had so little time and it went on the Grammitids.
I am with the people who protest the road up to Stone Mountain - such foolishness to try to make everyplace accessible to everybody and into a hot dog stand. I am sure that my climbing companion Elizabeth Hook feels the same way.
Love,
Alma.
Ellen Hinsdale died this week, 99 yrs, in a nursing home. What a pity that her fine mind did not live as long. I did not see a notice but heard it at the [???].
1958-12-13: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
Four people get multiple mentions in this letter:
2.
South Hadley, Mass. Dec. 13th
No year given, but the envelope is postmarked 1958, and anyway Alma is talking about her upcoming trip with the Atkinsons and Clara to Hawaii.
3.
Never did I think less about it except to send cards, and I have been sending them intermittently for 3 weeks beginning with India. Now some replies are coming in, and I may send some - if I find them, but it may be later.
I think that what Alma is saying is that she'll send some of the replies on to Eva.
3.
There is the Grammitid paper.....shall I never be through with that?
It got finished just before the Hawaii trip started.
4.
Geoffroy is doing well; he said it was largely because he had his operation in time and did not wait until his condition was acute. His blood pressure is down properly and he is feeling pleased with himself, but troubled that Lenette has so much to do.
I don't know what was done in Geoffroy's surgery. I googled to find out what surgery might address high blood pressure, but it seemed to me that the answers I got might not have been used back in the 1950s. Also, I don't know if the high blood pressure was the reason for the surgery or if the surgery was the reason for the high high blood pressure.
5.
The A.A.A. has our route worked out
The A.A.A. is, of course, the American Automobile Association. Google AI tells me that the Interstate Highway System was barely begun in 1958:
In 1958, the Interstate Highway System was in its explosive, early phase of nationwide construction following the landmark National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956. The initial focus centered on mapping, funding shortfalls, and early construction in both rural and urban areas.
6,
then to Tucson (that pleases Clara as Meta is there)
I think that Meta is probably the widow of Clara's brother Paul.
7.
In that case I would not see Harry Van Doorn, unless he came to the boat.
I've got the Van Doorns - sort of - in the Non-Family page for Woods Hole folks. I still haven't figured them out.
8.
I had thought of asking you to deduct $10.00 from the Fernbank account for something special - or a concert, or trip, but do what seems best.
So Alma and Eva had a Fernbank account - maybe just a list with a total of what Eva owed Alma? I don't know.
9.
I'll enclose AG's card.
We have an undated letter from AG from around this time:But it's a letter, not a card, so I don't think it can be the card that Alma is sending with this letter.
10.
I am with the people who protest the road up to Stone Mountain - such foolishness to try to make everyplace accessible to everybody and into a hot dog stand. I am sure that my climbing companion Elizabeth Hook feels the same way.
This bit is what gets this letter included in the Tour about the Civil War.: It's very small, but I wonder if Alma would have less of an objection to the road and the tourist facilities if Stone Mountain did not glorify the Confederate cause. Here's what Wikipedia says about Stone Mountain for 1958:
In response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling and the birth of the civil rights movement, in 1958, at the urging of segregationist Governor Marvin Griffin, the Georgia legislature approved a measure to purchase Stone Mountain at a price of $1,125,000.
I don't know who Elizabeth Hook is. Maybe Alma went on a hike with Elizabeth during her visit Eva in Atlanta the previous spring. But that's just a speculation.
11.
Ellen Hinsdale died this week, 99 yrs, in a nursing home. What a pity that her fine mind did not live as long. I did not see a notice but heard it at the [???].
Ellen Hinsdale was a good friend of Alma's, and is on the Non-Family page for South Hadley folks. If she made it to age 99, then I'm not surprised that her mind went first.
I tried to make that illegible word into "lab" but couldn't persuade myself.
Four people get multiple mentions in this letter:
- The Atkinsons - Geoffroy and Lenette. I've got them in the Non-family page for South Hadley folks.
- Clara Jones has a Non-family page of her own.
- Fredda Read has a Non-family page of her own.
2.
South Hadley, Mass. Dec. 13th
No year given, but the envelope is postmarked 1958, and anyway Alma is talking about her upcoming trip with the Atkinsons and Clara to Hawaii.
3.
Never did I think less about it except to send cards, and I have been sending them intermittently for 3 weeks beginning with India. Now some replies are coming in, and I may send some - if I find them, but it may be later.
I think that what Alma is saying is that she'll send some of the replies on to Eva.
3.
There is the Grammitid paper.....shall I never be through with that?
It got finished just before the Hawaii trip started.
4.
Geoffroy is doing well; he said it was largely because he had his operation in time and did not wait until his condition was acute. His blood pressure is down properly and he is feeling pleased with himself, but troubled that Lenette has so much to do.
I don't know what was done in Geoffroy's surgery. I googled to find out what surgery might address high blood pressure, but it seemed to me that the answers I got might not have been used back in the 1950s. Also, I don't know if the high blood pressure was the reason for the surgery or if the surgery was the reason for the high high blood pressure.
5.
The A.A.A. has our route worked out
The A.A.A. is, of course, the American Automobile Association. Google AI tells me that the Interstate Highway System was barely begun in 1958:
In 1958, the Interstate Highway System was in its explosive, early phase of nationwide construction following the landmark National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956. The initial focus centered on mapping, funding shortfalls, and early construction in both rural and urban areas.
6,
then to Tucson (that pleases Clara as Meta is there)
I think that Meta is probably the widow of Clara's brother Paul.
7.
In that case I would not see Harry Van Doorn, unless he came to the boat.
I've got the Van Doorns - sort of - in the Non-Family page for Woods Hole folks. I still haven't figured them out.
8.
I had thought of asking you to deduct $10.00 from the Fernbank account for something special - or a concert, or trip, but do what seems best.
So Alma and Eva had a Fernbank account - maybe just a list with a total of what Eva owed Alma? I don't know.
9.
I'll enclose AG's card.
We have an undated letter from AG from around this time:But it's a letter, not a card, so I don't think it can be the card that Alma is sending with this letter.
10.
I am with the people who protest the road up to Stone Mountain - such foolishness to try to make everyplace accessible to everybody and into a hot dog stand. I am sure that my climbing companion Elizabeth Hook feels the same way.
This bit is what gets this letter included in the Tour about the Civil War.: It's very small, but I wonder if Alma would have less of an objection to the road and the tourist facilities if Stone Mountain did not glorify the Confederate cause. Here's what Wikipedia says about Stone Mountain for 1958:
In response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling and the birth of the civil rights movement, in 1958, at the urging of segregationist Governor Marvin Griffin, the Georgia legislature approved a measure to purchase Stone Mountain at a price of $1,125,000.
I don't know who Elizabeth Hook is. Maybe Alma went on a hike with Elizabeth during her visit Eva in Atlanta the previous spring. But that's just a speculation.
11.
Ellen Hinsdale died this week, 99 yrs, in a nursing home. What a pity that her fine mind did not live as long. I did not see a notice but heard it at the [???].
Ellen Hinsdale was a good friend of Alma's, and is on the Non-Family page for South Hadley folks. If she made it to age 99, then I'm not surprised that her mind went first.
I tried to make that illegible word into "lab" but couldn't persuade myself.
1958-12-13: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---~LINKS~---site navigation
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- EVA: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- THE NEXT GENERATION: DOCUMENTS ----- Roger, AG
- NON-FAMILY: CLARA JONES ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: SOUTH HADLEY FOLKS ----- Geoffroy and Lenette Atkinson, Ellen Hinsdale
- NON-FAMILY: FREDDA REED ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: WOODS HOLE FOLKS ----- Harry van Doorn
OTHER DOCUMENT LISTS:
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- Western Massachusetts
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY SOURCE ----- Barbara
- AUDIO READINGS OF THE DOCUMENTS: 1950-1959
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
1958-12-13: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---~SITE NAVIGATION~-
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