Saturday - November 11, 1978

Dearest Ron, Ann & Susanna, Rick & Jean, Bob & Claire and Roy,

I'm writing this on Saturday morning because the house is quiet and I know it won't be tomorrow - Johnny spent the night with Ronnie and then they are going to the Carnival at Pulaski Academy today and Daddy just left to go get our boat - they said they have fixed the shifting gear and I hope they have - he said he wouldn't accept it unit he made sure it was fixed - that has worried me for a long time because it is so dangerous!!!

First of all I want to congratulate Ann & Ron for the birth of their beautiful little baby girl - Annie, I have never been around a more perfect Mother than you - any young woman who can work right up to three days before her baby is born and then come home a day after the birth and take over the way you did really deserves high praises and we are so proud of you. I try to not think of little Susanna too much because I get so homesick to see her - we don't have our pictures back yet and I hope they're good. Ron- that was much a busy time for you and we hope so much that everything you were working on turned out the way you wanted it to. We felt so bad that we took Rick & Jeannie away from their home to go look at property with us because I'm sure you would have had a good visit - I'm sure you felt that you just bad arrived when we all left - we should have planned that better because visiting was more important than looking at property. We hope you were able to see your folks that night and make the trip worthwhile.

Claire - thank you so much for that adorable Halloween card for Johnny - he has told that joke one million times to his friends - thank you too for sending Roy's letter on to us and for your sweet note. We appreciated all you did for us at Aunt Marvel's home - I felt that we left you with a lot of soiled laundry and a messy house!!!! Bob - we loved having you with us on our trip home and also for the visit here - I always feel that we are much too busy and don't have the time to do all that we would like to - I remembered that you were going to look for your aquarium after you left - it's here right in the cupboard behind where we keep the typewriter when you want it. Your trip back sounded awful - for those of you who might not hear about it - Bob left here about 2:30 Wednesday afternoon and was to get in Salt Lake at 8:30 that night. Claire called here about 11:15 Little Rock time and said he hadn't come in - they had had plane trouble in Denver and the passengers were put on two different planes and he wasn't on either one of them - Daddy was getting the phone numbers for the different airlines when Bob called us back (about midnight our time) and he had just gotten there - evidently there were two passengers who had to take another plane and he was one of them - did I understand it right that you had to put your head down because of landing gear trouble? Anyway, we're grateful that things turned out okay. You should have called Claire so she wouldn't have had to worry so much!!!!

Roy- what a treat to have two wonderful letters from you waiting for us (one that was meant for the family and sent to Utah). Daddy had your letters copied and we'll enclose them for the Utah family and then the computer letter that they will love to read too. You really sound busy with your school activities and I A.M. SO GLAD!!!! That is the only way you can really be happy in school and you have always been so involved in school activities before - that's wonderful. Dana Abraham called yesterday about 3:30 in the afternoon - she said "This is Dana Abraham calling from Dartmouth" - it scared me for a minute - I tried to recall your letter and all I could remember was that you were going to Harvard for a game but before I could worry more, she asked for your phone number and said Dartmouth and Brown were in the finals for the Ivy League Championship and the game was at Brown and she wanted to go for it - I hope she was able to reach you and you could help her find a place to stay. We were so thrilled that Terri Scott was chosen Homecoming Queen at the University. I hope that Jill will call us when she comes home for Thanksgiving.- I'm homesick to see her. We won't plan to come for Thanksgiving since you are going home with Ty - if things change let us know. I really want to come see brown before you finish there - maybe in the Spring. Daddy and I went to the Taco Kid yesterday for lunch and Don was there - he said he had ordered our usual - sanchos - and he had the girl bring us our tray and it was loaded with extra - cheese dip - cheese dip, chips, etc. Robby McKelvy is working for him.

Rick and Jeannie - thank you so very much for all your help with the property and everything - you really do things up right and we appreciate it so much. For these of you who might not know what I'm talking about - Ellen Mae and Mel Manning have had their names on a list for first choice of some very desirable property in Kaysville and they decided they didn't want it and would let us buy it if we wanted to. The night of Jeannie and Rick's family dinner we went to look at it but it was dark and hard to see so Rick took colored pictures of all of it to sent us. The piece we would want is $38,000.00 and it is only about 2/3 of an acre so we have decided to not get it and the Weinerts agree that it isn't that good of a deal. We have just been sick about little Sadie - for those of you who might not know about that - Sadie was the teacup poodle that had been staying with Frau at Ron and Ann's home until Jeannie and Rick could get in their home. Ann and Jean put a leash on her when they left on Wednesday to go shopping and when they got home they found that she had hanged herself - I can just imagine how hard that was for all of you because we have had dogs die and it just breaks your heart - we hope you love your new little cocoa brown poodle so much. Johnny cried!!! We know there is a dog heaven. Your home is absolutely gorgeous and we all love it so much - we feel so much better about you now - it is really hard to live in small apartments. We hope you and Pam were able to get together - Loree Olinghouse called here and said she had been trying to get someone home for at least a week. Loree told me that the three girls who were living together just before they all married are all now divorced - Pam & Eddy, Judy and John Robert and I didn't know the other.

We had a disappointment on Thursday - Daddy called me about 9 a.m. to tell me that the merger between Olin and Celanese was off and he was going to sell as much of our stock as he could. Well - when he went to sell it, it had been taken off the Stock Exchange and when it was put back on it was 16 - down 63/4 points - he was sick. There was a big article in the Wall Street Journal that explained what happened - it was Olin's decision to not merge and the only explanation that given was that they couldn't come to a definitive agreement. There is a lot of speculation that another company (a West German Company) is interested in buying Olin and there could be higher bids. It won't make a lot of difference in our original retirement plans but when you plan on stock at 15 and it could be 30 it would naturally be better. The stock has gone up considerably since Thursday and yesterday it was 173/4 so we're jus sure something is in the wind - it's kinda' exciting because of Daddy's age and position - many people stand to lose their jobs so they were happy when the merger didn't go through but we weren't!!!! The whole economy of the world is in a turmoil and I keep thinking of your position with E. F. Hitton Rick - that must be a very exciting and promising job - we would like to have you explain some things to us sometime!!!!

Daddy just came home with the boat and he said they have promised him that they fixed it - he wants to take it out to Maumelle and give it a test run - we probably will this afternoon. He has more energy - he was up at 5:30 yesterday morning to go to Houston and then his plane were changed and he didn't leave until 2 in the afternoon and got home last night about 7. It's a beautiful day and we should really rake leaves and work in the yard.

Annie - I really love our beautiful table cloth you brought from Switzerland - it goes beautifully in our dining room - picks up all the pinks from the room and adds light too.

Claire - I really love the beautiful soap dish from Europe too - it is perfect for our pink bathroom and I needed something like that - thanks so much.

Ann and Jean - thank you so much for going to Brigham City - you just can't imagine how much that means to me - I know the folks were thrilled to see little Susanna because they were so disappointed that you weren't with us the day we went to visit them. Ann - I know the Woolleys were thrilled with her too - write and tell us about the day Sue and Cal's baby was blessed.

Daddy gave a demonstration in Relief Society on Wednesday on "de-boning turkeys" - we had de-boned one and stuffed it with your Apple sausage dressing recipe Ann and cooked it so they could taste it and see what it was like and then he showed them how to de-bone one - he told them all that Ron had taught him how to do it. THEY WERE ALL IMPRESSED!!!!

We are really so very proud of all our family - you're all doing just wonderful and we hope and pray things will continue to go well for each one of you - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB on Monday - Nov. 13th - We love you all so much.
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