1960 ln Small Doses
Christmas comes only once each year butt with all its blessings arises the problem of what to do. about a card. This year things were complicated by the fact that Les was in Detroit and Larry in Columbia at picture-taking time. Wonder when phones will be wired for TV.
Last December, Les was just: starting some fire safety work in the Detroit schools. It turned out to be his major effort for 1960. In mid-February a field headquarters was set up in Detroit and from then on he got only occasional weeks at home. Those weeks were strenuous, preceded and concluded by an 800 mile trip with the little red "tomato can." All the work, though didn't concern school fire safety. One interesting assignment was to conduct a one day session at Oklahoma State University. Another was to investigate an accident which damaged a reactor vessel en route to an atomic power plant near Omaha. Other jobs involved exotic fuel applications. That '59 Hillman was driven hard. It figured in a minor traffic scrape at Paxton. Illinois in April and was convincingly run into in Detroit in June. Maybe it was too small for some drivers to see. As it approached 40,000 miles Les decided it could be honorably retired, so he got a blue Valiant in September. Surely that would be big enough for anyone to see! A month later, somebody clipped the front fender. Guess the only place for a car is home in the garage. The book "Engineered Hydraulics in Fire Protection" was at an almost complete standstill during 1960. Most of the major rewriting and expansion started in 1959 was complete early in 1960 but the Detroit work took so much time and energy that something had to be neglected, so the critical editing and the putting on of finishing touches had to
wait.
At home the house was pretty much neglected except for the most urgent repairs. Even those were done with a lick and a promise. The Hi Fi took less effort and was upgraded to a new high quality turntable, stereo amplifier, stereo tone arm and multiplex adapter. All these were built from kits While that takes work, it has the same sort of fascination found in putting together a jigsaw puzzle. With Les away Edward had a heavy load of maintenance chores much of the year. He has gotten to be a good electronics trouble shooter and with many radios around he has had plenty of chances to keep in practice.
If anyone had to predict what Polly might be doing in any given year, he'd be safe in saying she plays the piano. In this, 1960 was no exception. She continued playing for the boys and the girls choirs at St. Andrew's and substituted at Gregory Methodist in the summer for two weeks. She played all year at Notre Dame de Sion, at Southwest and began to play some at Barstow School this fall. To this was added some ballet playing at the Y as well as playing the eight o'clock Communion service once a month. In the spare hours, she continued with Cantata Singers and covered the state contest with Southwest High School as well as hearing many concerts.
Larry spent most of the year working at the Main Library. Gradually the nervous knots of 1959 began to ease up and he started back into the scholastic routine at KC Junior College. By summer he was feeling like himself again and he registered at the University of Missouri as a history major. During the summer, Larry substituted as organist at Oak Park Christian Church. When he got to Columbia, he found a need for an assistant organist and choir master and with all this, he still manages to spend enough time with his books to get good grades at MU. He became one of the marching band on clarinet and his tooting took him to many football games including some out of town trips. Having watched the big team do well, he is about to fly to Miami for the Orange Bowl.
Edward is enjoying his Senior year at Southwest and is getting mostly good marks. Sometimes he meets trouble in numbers, but he fights back. His trumpet does a good job now in band and orchestra and this year the school band did well in their marching. Maybe Ed's previous ROTC experience helped... In the summer he worked as junior counselor at the municipal camps at Swope Park where many campers and staff lived for a period with short breaks home. It was lots of fun, more work and fine experience which he hopes to continue next: summer. Now Ed is beginning to look around at colleges trying to make up his mind what comes next.
Dan finished up his eighth grade at Southwest and enjoyed his time there. He was ready to continue at Southwest when he received a scholarship at Pembroke-Country Day School, so there he is, doing well and making a good record. So three boys go to three schools. Last summer, Dan attended a week's music camp at Warrensburg with his French horn. It was a good week and deserves an encore.
Mother did not get here this fall for she and Doris have bought a house of their own near Georgianna - the little sister. After 27 years in the flat, and a wait for the move, the snow and Les got to Buffalo at the same time to help after the movers left - and how much remains to be
done after a move. Dan went to Oklahoma with Aunt Lois to visit with Aunt Edna Wall and Franklin Oler. He had a wonderful time there and learned a lot about a farm. At the same time, Polly and the two big boys took off on a quick camping trip with one dog and a tent. They headed to Colorado Springs where they spent several days and saw a lot of country and wonderful mountains. Next came a few days outside of Denver in the mountains there with it swing through a little of Wyoming on the way home. They covered many miles up and down.
Nephew Jim Wiegley brought his bride here on the way to Japan. They spent several days with us and now they are waiting for a new addition over in the Orient .
We added a new member to the family this fall. Since Larry was to be at MU, we persuaded Nancy Allen Outten to let her eldest, John, come over for the school term. John is a year younger than Dan, and since he has a yen for tools and experiments, he had plenty to try here. He and Dan scrapped like the proverbial Kilkenny cats, but they now live in comparative peace.
The two dogs and one cat are a bit older - Buffy seems to be quite deaf but takes kindly to sign language. Show her a can of food, and she acts very lively.
