October 5, 1980
Little Rock, Ark.

Dearest Ron, Ann, Susanna & Jessie,
Rick, Jean, Ricky and Barbara Jean,
and Roy,

This will probably be a short, short letter - it's about 7:30 Sunday night and I have missed the time for the Brady Station so we will take it down town and Daddy won't let me go if it's too late!!!

The big news for this week is that Ron is changing jobs - (this is mostly for you Roy) - last week was his last for Billings Corp. - they wanted him to move to Kansas City and he decided now was the time for him to try it on his own - we are really excited about it and even though it's Linda' scary it surely is worth the try. We really admire you for having the courage to start "Woolley Corporation" (is that right?) and just know it will be successful even if you have to struggle for a few years - if we had any business of that sort we would surely want you to handle it for us - we have all the confidence in the world in you. If there is ever a time when your bills are fewer than another time it is when your children are the ages yours are - when they get older your wouldn't be able to start out on a new venture like this. It was so fun to talk to both of you last weeks and also to hear Susanna say "B" - we get so homesick to hear her talk and to see Ricky walk - we feel like we're missing out on so much. Susanna is probably feeling so much better now that you have her eat problem taken care of - there is nothing more painful than that - you said that "Dimetapp" didn't help her - we would start to give that to Johnny the minute we suspected that he was getting a cold and it would clear it right up.

We loved talking to you too Jeannie and I told Daddy what you said about his diet, but you will have to write it personally for him to believe it. When I said - red meat only twice a week - he wanted to know why!!!! We can't believe that Barbara Jean has light blue eyes - we haven't seen blue eyes in our family for so long we won't think she in ours - Grandpa Mellor had blue eyes so maybe that's where they come from. Annie said that Jessie and Barbara Jean are about the same size - I'll bet they're darling together.

Roy - we haven't heard from you for a long, long time - maybe you'll call tonight. I think I will send you a check to be used for phone calls to us because there is no way we can ever call you. Robert came over today and he is in a sad mood - his folks home was broke into last week-end and they took a complete set of sterling and also some of his mother's jewelry - they had to be gone again this week-end so he come home to take care of their place and he went to sleep on the road and "totaled" his car and the one he hit. He said he only had liability insurance so his car is gone and he has decided to quit school after this semester and work for long enough to go back to school - he was really down and we felt badly because we had to hurry off to church - we stopped at his home on our way back from church and asked him to come home and have some turkey with us but he said he had already promised someone else he would come by and spend the evening with them. He said he would come over later - I hope he does, because we would try to talk him out of quitting school at this point. I taught at Williams one day last week and a lady who is in the "hearing disability" lab or something came up to me and asked me if I were Roy Mellor mother - it was Tal Thweet's Mom - we had such a good visit and she said to be sure to tell you hello - Tal is still at Fayetteville - studying Psychology, I think.

Bob and Claire came over and had dinner with us today - Daddy had fixed dressing and sweet potatoes and we really had a Thanksgiving dinner. Claire is in a "tizzy" with her accounting class and had to leave early to meet someone who was sharing notes with her. Bob is doing fine in school but he surely is thin - one day last week they were doing some kind of an experiment with some culture and they wanted a tear drop - so Bob volunteered and held an onion skin up to his eye and either some of the onion or some of the culture got in his eye and he had had quite a time - he had a rash on his lower eye lid and has had several appointments with the doctor - they didn't do that experiment again.

Johnny is doing fine too - Mrs. Butts is trying to get him to be a cotillion Helper but he doesn't want to be. He has had several calls from that girl is Utah - Wendy some this. She lives up by the Osmonds and her folks are in Japan right now going to something at the Japanese Temple - they were in Hawaii all Summer - I'm afraid all this impresses John!!!! We went to his open house at Forest Heights and he is really doing well in school.

We had a big party for the Powers family on Friday night - we baked a big turkey and then sliced it for sandwiches and we had ham, pickles, a relish tray and chips and dips and that really good slush punch made with bananas, apricot nectar and pineapple juice and then a lot of the ladies brought pies - the pies were just out of this world. There were about sixty people who came and it was really nice. They're going to leave this next Sunday - Dianne is expecting a baby the first of November so she is going to fly and the others will drive. They still haven't sold their home so they are going to leave their furniture here (it will sell better with the furniture in it) and just take their personal things. I really hate to see them leave - our Ward has changed so much.

Daddy and John and I went to the Fair yesterday - I believe it was better than it has been for the past few years - they had the Bamix demonstration there and the lady sole one while we were there. (For Roy - that's a little kitchen gadget that we bought in Utah and paid an extra $25 so we could have a dealership, but we haven't sold any yet.) We really just love ours - we use it for everything and it is so handy.

Today after we had listened to conference - it was on radio broadcast at the church - Daddy and I went out in the country and picked some applies - they are really good - some of them aren't very pretty but they are so juicy and sweet.

Daddy taught at Central all last week - he is impressed with the caliber of student there and really enjoyed it - he is "re-learning" algebra. He says he is ready for a rest so I hope they won't call him for awhile. I have to teach at McDermott all next week for teacher whose grandchild was running with a stick and fell and it went into her eye and they live in Kansas City so he went to help out and will be gone a week. I had them two days last week and it's second grade with seven students who are classified EMR - educable, mentally, retarded. I hope it won't be too bad.

Well - now it's nine o'clock - Chris called and I visited with her while and then I had to put a new typewriter ribbon in so that delayed me!

We surely do love you all and miss you very much - please be careful in everything you do and let us know what we can do to help.
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