1967 Newsletter
It's been twenty-seven years since Les produced the first in this long series of Christmas cards. Probably 20 out of the 27 have carried newsletters. A few years we used photographic cards, and printing a long letter on them just wasn't practical. During that period, the family grew, grew up, and now the boys are beginning to strike out for themselves in homes of their own. There were two wars, or was one of them just a "police action"? Maybe we should say three wars, to include this current conflict. But anyhow, it meant that each year about Thanksgiving time, the old man had to rack his brain for a card design, try to remember what had been going on for 12 months, then concoct a plausible story.
When you live in south Texas snow is a rarity. You forget that winters offer problems when Mother Nature gives you an overdose of that thick white stuff. Les went to a technical meeting in Washington in February. A blizzard hit the city, traffic came to a screeching halt, and most of the time was spent in a struggle to get back and forth. Later in the month, delivering a paper at an AIChE meeting in Houston, the weather was a little nicer. Starting in 1966, Les had been working on a system to detect and suppress explosions in the manufacture of aluminum powder. Just after the Apollo fire at Cape Kennedy, two airman were lost in a similar fire at Brooks AFB. Les participated in the investigation, and later when systems had to be evaluated for protecting men working in 100% oxygen atmospheres, his background in explosion work proved
extremely useful.
There's always home improvement going on someplace. Back in 1963 while Les was out of the country awhile, Polly had a contractor enclose the back porch with jalousie windows. This year, that space was remodeled. The outdoor shingles were stripped off, sheetrock installed, and new
doors put in. Now it's another room inside the house. It should have been enough work for the year, but the do-it-yourself bug had scored another bite. Les began to plot ahead for central air conditioning. Knowing that Polly and Dan planned to be away all summer, no overt action was taken until they left. That eliminated the sideline bosses. Then the fun began, or perhaps hard work would describe it better. Single-handed for the most part, a concrete slab was poured outside, the compressor unit set. Inside, the furnace had to be removed, the sheet metal ducting modified to take the chiller, lines run, controls wired, etc. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The neighbors helped with the heavy work as needed, and Ed came down one weekend to join in moving the furnace around. The whole job only took about two weeks, but there were many, many strenuous hours working in a sweltering cramped crawl space above the house. Once it was done, though, the trials and tribulations could be forgotten. Here in Texas where the summer sun gets over enthusiastic on occasion, central air is a real comfort.
While Les was laboring, Polly and Dan were headed north. This year, they drove a better car. The old '60 Valiant, after 97,000 faithful miles was definitely tired out. A long trip would have been risky. So the travelers fell heir to the '65 Dart, while Les got himself a brand new second handed '66 Dart. As in 1966, Canada was to be the target, this year at EXPO 67 in Montreal. The general idea was to rendezvous with Larry at Fort Dix, then all would go to EXPO. Unfortunately, he couldn't get leave at the right time. For three months and 16,000 miles the gad-abouts swung in a big loop up northeast across Tennessee to Virginia where they visited old Williamsburg, into New Jersey where they visited around a week or so, on up across New York at a snail's pace, and finally to EXPO 67. They said it was a marvelous fair. In case you hadn't heard, we should do pretty well ourselves in San Antonio next summer with HEMISFAIR 68. It's shaping up fast right now. After some post EXPO touring in Canada, the travelers angled down toward Buffalo, generally heading west across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to Iowa where they relaxed awhile. Dan had to be back at Texas A&I for preseason band practice, so in a few days they went down through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and finally back to Texas.
Just about the time the travelers returned, Les had to take off on a 2 1/2 week business trip to the East coast. Shortly afterward, with just enough time to clear up the desk of interim accumulated work, he set off again for the West coast. This time the trip took 3 1/2 weeks. All this was good practice in how to live out of a suitcase and wait around airline terminals, but it sure took a lot of nervous energy and Les badly needed a rest afterward.
Larry is still at Fort Dix in Medical Supply, and has gotten up to Staff Sgt. His leave came through in late summer, so he went up to EXPO 67, returning across Canada via Buffalo to visit the family there. We can't figure out how he stays in the States. At various times he's been expecting to go to Okinawa or Viet Nam, but nothing has happened, and we've come to believe this is the normal confused state of the military life. If sent overseas, he promised to travel via San Antonio. Wonder if HEMISFAIR 68 will get him here? He has his headaches with car accidents, fortunately none serious. Such things are part of life in a metropolitan area. But there are compensations too. The army gave him a $275 award in October for a suggestion that saved them thousands of dollars in supplies every year.
Ed, working for Ling-Temco-Vougbt just outside Dallas, gets home on occasions such as when his father gets desperate at the piled up work. LTV builds the A-7 airplane for Air Force and Navy. Changes are always being made, and Ed is involved in instrumenting the necessary test work. There's been a lot of overtime, and Ed has also gone through training in various sections, so his time since he left Texas A&M in 1966 has been quite productive. In November, he finally managed to get away for a vacation, flying down to Acapulco, Mexico. Ed enjoys life these days. He's earning enough to be comfortable, and as a carefree bachelor can look over lots of sweet young things, appreciating their charms with a discerning eye. No entanglements are anticipated. He's strictly playing the field.
In San Antonio, Polly has pretty much a set routine of musical activities. Most of her time is spent playing accompaniments at a vocal studio though she has a few piano pupils at home. She still plays the cello in the Trinity U Community Orchestra, and does promotional talks in the schools for the children's concerts given by the local symphony. If and when any time is left over, she, like the postman walking on his day off, often goes to a concert.
Dan is now a Senior at Texas A&I at Kingsville. Playing in the band, he closely followed the fortunes of their football team, and when they wound up on top of the NAIA scramble, was proud as Punch. We know he attends classes, for we see his grades, which are excellent. We wonder, though, when he has time for them for he seems to be working hard to be a BMOC (Big Man on the Campus). He is in many student organizations, holds office in several, and when they pick delegates to go to conventions, seems to get the bid. One such trip last winter was to Minneapolis. Hurricane Beulah was headed straight at Kingsville this fall, and we had our misgivings as to Dan's safety. It swung a little to one side, and though the campus got thoroughly soaked, the damage was nominal.
As you can see in the picture, Zeke and Kit, the two white longhaired cats are still around. Usually they are docile for the annual picture, but this year they were anything but tractable. Maybe jealousy of Ming caused this. She turned up in October as a sick, miserable, homeless waif. It took a lot of care to get her back to health. Ming is a bluepoint Siamese, half way between kitten and little cat. Maybe little monkey would describe her better. She's almost five pounds of deviltry and affection, racing around the house at breakneck speed. How any one animal can get into so much mischief is a mystery. At first the other cats resented her, now they accept her as something to tolerate. Pixie still trails Polly around as a feeble black shadow nearly 13 years old.
230 Montpelier Drive
San Antonio, Texas 78228
