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Once the Thanksgiving turkey is eaten, the year is about over, except for Christmas. Getting ready for that crowds everything else out, so for newsletter purposes, the year can be reported before the calendar says it's time to do so. As usual, Les got in quite a bit of travel. It started in January. The '52 Chrysler was drinking gas at 6 mpg, so it was traded in on a new Hillman- Minx 4 door sedan, bright red with gray trim. Les took delivery at Houston, Texas, then swung over to New Orleans for a few days of balmy sunshine as a short winter vacation. Coming back to work refreshed, he dug into the boron fuel fire research program, where after a long series of frustrations, a breakthrough finally came. The job was successfully completed in May, and an Air Force Technical report appeared in November. The little car was a big success, even though a collision put it in the repair shop awhile. The police report blamed the other driver, whose insurance company paid all costs. The travel highlight of the year was a trip to Eastport, Maine. The event was a symposium on foam, and Les described the work done for the Air Force. Meetings were held on Campobello Island; the hospitality was outstanding. The Roosevelt cottage, now owned by a well known New York art dealer, was next door, and Les lived there for several days. The house is to become a memorial soon. In 1958, his book, "Engineered Hydraulics in Fire Protection" was looking for a publisher. It still is. John Wiley and Sons came close to accepting it, but couldn't be sure of enough sales. Now it's being completely expanded and rewritten to include considerable new material, so in 1960 the search for a publisher will resume. Les is finishing the year by driving his little red "tomato can" to Detroit for a few weeks of school fire safety surveys. The tragic fire in Chicago really woke up a lot of people. There were a number of interesting fire and explosion investigations during the year. That sort of job is like a "whodunit' except that it's "whatdunnit" as well, and there's no obliging author to supply answers on the last few pages. The house didn't get as much attention as in previous years. In June, the back yard was roto-tilled and planted with Zoysia to get a good tough lawn. It didn't take too well. We hope that next summer it will. Walls were chopped open to install a laundry chute. Upstairs a closet was coaxed into yielding enough previously useless space for a built-in chest of drawers and linen cabinet. The mess was horrible, but eventually cleanup, plaster, and paint restored the status quo ante, and Polly's good nature with it. Bit by bit, the hi fi was changed. First came a stereo tuner kit. Then a stereo preamplifier and control kit appeared on the scene. Later on, a second amplifier was added. The next step was to be a record player with stereo arm, but the old TV quit working, and a new set took priority in the budget. The old set will eventually be patched with chewing gum and hairpins as a second TV for use when the family disagrees on what program to watch. Larry was hoping for a tape recorder, but got tired of waiting and bought his own. Year after year, Polly seems to spend more time at the piano. Last year she played for the boys' choir at St. Andrews. This year she added the girls' choir. At Southwest HS in the spring she played for rehearsals and performance of Carousel. This fall, she did the same for the Revels, a variety show. In between she played for many students in various competitions. At the start of the school year, she played full time for a few weeks at one school to help out. Now she has several days every week at a private school plus paying for special occasions. As relaxation, she sings in the St. Andrews' adult choir, and is Secretary and Librarian for the Cantata Singers, a carefully selected group with high musical standards directed by Dr. William Lemonds. When she can find time, she studies organ with Dr. Lemonds. In the spring, just to keep things interesting, she had Pixie bred, so that 4 puppies were underfoot awhile. For a lit

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

in KC Mo Ed (19) Dan (16) Mom Larry (22)

A word for you on '62 About the time turkeys begin to wonder how soon the ax will fall, the Xmas card recap becomes order of the day, it always seems that you never realize how much has gone on in the past 12 months until you start to knit the loose ends together. Some years Les seems to travel more than others, this was one such year. Early in January he started with a trip to Chicago, a final conference on the book about library fire protection which he co-authored. Its publication by the American Library Association has been delayed several times, but there's still a good chance the 'Protecting Library Resources" may be rolling off the presses before the year closes. In May, a two-week assignment took him back to Regina, Saskatchewan, with a swing over to Winnipeg on the way home. The stay was long enough to justify taking the car, so the little Valiant had its first taste of Canada. Consulting firms have their ups and downs. Like all other businesses and in July this unfortunate economic fact caught up with Les. Some contracts didn't materialize as hoped, so job hunting had to substitute for engineering as an essential activity. As the result of many letters back and forth, plus two trips to the West Coast (via military aircraft, naturally!), it looked for a while as if California might have another settler, but that land of smog and taxation wound up in second place. In September, Les accepted a position as Senior Research Engineer in the Fire technology Section of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. It wasn't easy to Leave Kansas City. It's a wonderful place to live. The decision came after school arrangements for the year had been set up, so the family is staying in Kansas City to finish school. Les set up a Texas bachelor apartment for the interim period. So far, he has resisted the urge to go native and buy him a ten-gallon hat and cowboy boots! In San Antonio the research projects proved to be most engrossing. One concerned the supersonic commercial transport to fly in 1970-75, the other covered a study of conflagrations by using small scale models. There are high hopes that a useful invention may result from the model project. The idea looks good if it can successfully be demonstrated as feasible. The trips continued - Washington and New York in October; New York, Boston and Washington in November; San Francisco, Seattle and Portland in December. They make a good way to get back to Kansas City for unexpected weekends there. Two weeks of active duty in March in Kansas City were followed by a two-weeks electronics refresher at Keesler AFB, BiLoxi, Mississippi, On July 1, that long-awaited silver leaf arrived! It's nice to be a Lt. Col. Once again, in August, the uniform was donned for a two-week unit encampment of the 8581st Recovery Group. So Uncle Sam's Air Force got its share of attention in 1962 - a full six weeks in uniform. As communications officer, there was an implied obligation to acquire practical knowledge in the field. After many hours of code practice, Les got up to 13 words per minute, passed an Amateur General License and received the call signal WA0BRC. This was in March. A kit type transmitter was purchased but many obstacles slowed down progress, so not until September in San Antonio did WA0BRC get on the air. Les operates single sideband phone, mostly 40 meters when he can find time. Contacts have been made all over the country. The rig really gets out. Larry had a frustrating year, and probably wishes 1962 could be erased from the calendar. The nervous trouble that plagued him at Gettysburg in 1958 and forced his withdrawal, put him on the skids at Missouri so that in February, history repeated itself. Again he had to abandon the student way of Life. Larry knows his way around an organ, though, and was offered a lump sum contract to remove an organ in sad repair from one building, recondition it and install it in a Columbia church. It should have been a quick job. It wasn't. delay after delay dragged it out until in May a phone call from his roommate at Columbia said Larry wa

Newsletter - 1963 Just about the time the last agonized turkey gobble is heard, another kind of cooking-up begins. It's the Xmas card project, and invariably there's some storm and strife getting everybody together for a picture. This year we did better, using an August photograph. But you can't write about events before they occur, so the newsletter is a last minute production that takes a lot of memory racking. Eventually a design is clipped, patched and pasted together. As always, the printer seems to work a miracle from the crude copy we hand him! The year started off badly. Mother Eggleston died early In January after what was thought to be only a slight illness and Les rushed up to Buffalo for the funeral, getting there just ahead of rapidly deteriorating weather. Afterward, a howling blizzard set in, accompanied by subzero weather. When the skies finally cleared, he moved on to shiver in -19 F weather in Chicago. In March business took him to Atlantic City and Washington. After his return that month, Polly came down from Kansas City and spent ten long days house hunting. Finally, the right place turned up and a signature placed on the proverbial dotted line. April is Fiesta time in San Antonio and the activities are hectic. They include a river parade, a big day parade, and a torchlight parade. Along in May, Les moved his bachelor quarters to the new house, using a few sticks of borrowed furniture. He tried to grow corn in the garden but soon found he was no farmer. The crop was a flop! As usual, there was travel - a quick trip to Chicago. June war moving month. The Kansas City house was rented rather than sold. Les drove up to expedite things dragging a trailer behind him, which came back to San Antonio well laden. What a night. Everything happened in July. Early in the month ALA (American Library Association) published the book on library fire protection that Les had done so much work on during 1961. Then Creole Petroleum asked him to come to Venezuela on a consulting contract; as soon as details were fixed up, a mad race began to get unpacking and settling done before the August departure date. Venezuela was an interesting experience. Much had changed since the last visit in 1956. The contract was split into two phases, the first of which was completed just before Thanksgiving. After three months in an atmosphere of political terrorism, it was good to return to the States even though the arrival was clouded by President Kennedy's assassination. En route, two days were spent in another old stamping ground, the windswept island of Aruba north of Venezuela, one of the Netherlands Antilles. Ham radio war a big help during the year. Les used his Station WA0BRQ to keep in touch with Kansas City, and the hams there obliged by running phone patches. After the new house gave him a permanent address, he was assigned WASGOQ as his call. It didn't get much service from August to November, but down in Venezuela. Les was regularly talking to the States on YV1CM. Larry put on Uncle Sam's uniform last November. After basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, he came to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio where they turned him into a Medic (better known as a pill roller). That was January to March and Polly got to see him once during her house hunting excursion. From Fort Sam he was lucky enough to get his preferred area of assignment and is now a PFC with Serial #RA 17 646 388. He is sweating out promotion to Corporal and can be addressed at 4th Field Hospital, Fort Dix, New Jersey, Zip 08640. Here his principal job is as a clerk. Perhaps they needed help in counting those pills. Ed was in Drury College up in Missouri as the term began last fall and had just discovered to his evident astonishment that going to college is a serious business requiring both study and hard work. So he belatedly dug into his books and just missed getting respectable grades but, when he applied to Texas A & M, it was most strongly and pointedly suggested that he go to summer school to get 2 good grades, thus offsetting 2 not-so-good ones. A word

WE LOOK ONCE MORE AT SIXTY-FOUR It happened again! In spite of all good resolutions to the contrary, the annual newsletter didn't get written until well into December. Even though the year is pretty well along by December 1, the spirit of procrastination dies hard... It's so darned easy to put things off a few days at a time. Ideally, any annual effort should be written as of December 31st, and dreamed up some six weeks in advance by liberal use of a crystal ball. Then the printer and the mailman would have plenty of time to do their respective parts well before Xmas. But crystal balls seem to be of plastic these days, and give confusing results. So the literary dilemma of covering a year a bit early is still with us. What was the year like for us? Well, as you might guess, Les got in a lot of travel, covering quite an assortment of geography. It started in February, with a return to Venezuela, where he spent a month. En route, he stopped over in Mexico City, and was greatly impressed by that bustling metropolis. Venezuela was quiet compared with 1963. The political terrorism abated after the December elections, and so he was able to get in some interesting side trips on weekends. One was to Mérida, high in the Andes, where he rode the highest teleférico in the world, reaching up to over 15,000 feet. It was a scenic marvel. On another trip he got deep into the Motilone Indian country on the west side of Lake Maracaibo. The next trip was by car in April. Sis came down from Buffalo for Fiesta Week so, to start things off, we three drove down into Mexico, swinging around through Saltillo and Monterrey. Sis came back loaded with souvenirs! Fiesta is always a big occasion in San Antonio. Then followed another trip out to Stanford, attending a technical meeting. It was a busy, interesting week. For several months there were only a few trips around Texas, but late in July business took Les to Pittsburgh, Pa., and Niagara Falls, N. Y., so he was lucky enough to see all the improvements at the Falls and visit the folks in Buffalo. The honeymooners who never got to see Niagara Falls back in the days when it was a Mecca for newlyweds, would certainly be surprised today. Back in 1959, Les attended a Foam Symposium up on Campobello Island, where he was a guest at the Roosevelt cottage. August took him there again, but this time the cottage bad been turned into a national monument. Those at the meeting all commuted from the Maine shore, using a new International bridge. This particular trip was highlighted by hours of tired, aching feet - the result of weekends en route spent at the World's Fair. The Fair is a tremendous spectacle, and well worth while, but it sure is a physical challenge. There's so much to see, and usually so little time to do it in. About this time, our Kansas City tenants decided to move to a larger house. The place was quickly re-rented, but it was obvious that some long-deferred maintenance should be done at moving time. So, just before Labor Day, Ed and Les drove up with a car full of tools, plus 3 kittens to deliver in KC. That was a week of nightmare. It involved carpentry, electrical work, masonry - even putting in a new steam boiler. The two labored from early morning until late at night, fell into bed exhausted, only to repeat the pattern the next day. When they got back to San Antone, it was all like a bad dream. But just the same, they'd worked miracles in fixing up the house. There was another quick trip up to Pittsburgh in October. Quick means on short notice, for often these days air travel is anything but quick. You spend hour after hour in air terminals waiting in frustration for a relatively few minutes aboard a plane en route. Ham radio has kept Les pleasantly distracted during the times when he wasn't off on a trip. A big vertical antenna sprouted in the back yard and a beam was stuck on the roof peak. It didn't stay where it was meant to. One morning when Les was in Venezuela a guy wire parted and the beam collapsed with a mighty thud that shook the house giving the banana plants a new kind of f

san antonio ed (22) dad, mom, dad (19)

230 Montpelier Drive San Antonio, Texas 78228 The '65 Gossip Column Theoretically it's easy to write a news letter. All you have to do is summarize what everybody has been doing for the past twelve months, then wrap this up with corroborative details contrived to lend literary verisimilitude to what could easily be a bald and uninteresting narrative. But it isn't quite that simple. We all live a day at a time, and casting back for a year means cudgeling the memory a bit. This has rewards, though, for once the chore is done, you can realize how much has happened. Writing isn't the only problem. The camera hasn't been invented yet that can come up with a group photo with the principals widely separated. With Larry in New Jersey and Dan and Ed away in school, you do the best you can at Thanksgiving, hope for the best, and process film in a hurry just in case you have to repeat the process. The animals don't help either. Last year we had to borrow a neighbor's white cat in a hurry to complete the ensemble! Zeke had wandered off while the camera was being set up. As you'd expect, Les was the first of the family to travel, starting in January a trip to Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh on business. Polly wasn't far behind though. She had enjoyed her trip to Monterrey, Mexico so much in 1964 that when a chance came up in April to fly down with an old friend from Iowa, she didn't hesitate for a minute. It was quite a flight, for San Antonio was fogged in when her plane returned. She had an extra ride to Nuevo Laredo and a bus trip back to San Antonio. Just about then, Les was asked to go to Columbia and Peru, the same sort of mission in bolstering fire defenses against terrorist activities that took him to Venezuela in '63 and '64. This involved two months of intensive travel and hard work, but fortunately a few days here and there could be spent in tourism. For instance, there was a week at Cartagena, the famous walled city of the old Spanish Main. This was the principal target of pirates and buccaneers back in the days when galleons were carrying the treasures of Peru to Spain, and Fort San Felipe, a massive stone citadel testifies as to what defenses it needed. There was a quick trip to Barranquilla, and way up the famed Magdalena river valley. Another trip took Les up to Neiva, where bandits have menaced the countryside for many years. They still are a constant threat. The next part of the indoctrination travel was an airplane hop over to Lima, Peru, followed almost immediately by a move to the Talara oil fields in the extreme north. Years ago, Francisco Pizarro marched over this same barren coastal desert before striking up into the Andes in his conquest of Peru. After a concentrated tour of the area, the next jump was to Mollendo, the southernmost seaport. traveling by plane to Arequipa, thence by car. Arequipa was a fascinating old colonial Spanish city, and had almost recovered from the disastrous earthquake of a few years ago. Then came a chance to take a breather and use some vacation time. Immediately Les headed for Cuzco, the old Inca capital and Macchu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas that Hiram Bingham rediscovered in 1911. Enroute to Cuzco. you fly at 20,000 ft. in an unpressurized plane with the aid of oxygen tubes. The snowcapped Andes are a magnificent sight! So far every step in Peru had been an education in history. More was to come. A final swing up north by plane to Chiclaya. returning by car gave a chance to see the Chimu ruins of Chan Chan, near Trujillo. This was an adobe city covering about 9 square miles, with an estimated population of around 100,000 people. Farther south. a quick stop was made at the old Inca coastal fortress of Paramonga. This was a tightly scheduled trip. The car went right to the airport, and Les took off for the return to Bogota, where report writing plus local sightseeing for three weeks left him limp and exhausted. The plan was to return via Los Angeles and loaf a few days before taking up the routine again. Les got there all right, but fatigue plus some "walking flu" got him

SIXTY-SIX WAS AN EVENTFUL YEAR It would be easy to summarize 1966 for us in just a few words. Everybody traveled but Ed, and even Ed didn't stay put. Late in 1965, alter several years of renting, we decided to sell the Kansas City house. It had been a wonderful house to live in, and we hated to see it go, but a property over 800 miles away can be a real financial headache to rent, maintain and manage. So a small army of workmen descended upon the place, put it in apple-pie order, and shortly after the beginning of the year a buyer turned up. As a rule we all take minor sickness more or less in stride. One kept Les at home a few weeks in February, and then, just when he was about to return to work, excruciating pain landed him in the hospital. It was a kidney stone attack, and added to fly left him in low gear for a while. Fortunately, recovery was prompt enough to permit a trip to South America in April. This was a two-week assignment in Lima, Peru as instructor at a Security and Fire Protection Seminar. It was strenuous at times, but thoroughly enjoyable, and a real opportunity to get acquainted with Francisco Pizarro's ancient City of the Kings. Afterwards came a sightseeing trip to Iquitos, up across the Andes and over into the Amazon Jungle area. The high (?) spot was falling into the Nanay River and banging up the camera a bit. That Nikon F needs shock absorbers! Last year, it was dropped on the ground at Cuzco. Some primitive Yagua Indians were seen, still hunting with blowguns and curare tipped darts, but no shrunken heads in evidence. Perhaps all the head shrinkers went to the USA to practice psychology! On the way home, a short stopover was made in Bogota, both for business and pleasure. Colombia is a nice place to be. Then back to the states, well laden with Xmas gift purchases. Les had so much baggage that it was worthwhile to go via Los Angeles to avoid an overnight stopover in Mexico City and the extra Customs involved. Early in the year, the big radio project was erection of a 50 foot antenna tower and beam antenna system. Ed and Les have a lot of monkey blood, so the actual erection went smoothly. Late in May, disaster struck. A freak wind storm hit San Antonio, the guy wires were snapped like so much string, and as Les looked out the back door in horror, the tower folded over in less than a minute, a lot of expensive junk filled the yard. Not until late November was the bulk of the damage repaired. The beam is still in pieces! May was a bad month. Les invited a chunk of money from the sale of the house in blue chip stocks. The bear market this summer left them black and blue chips! Like lots of others, we got hurt! All this time, Ed was racing down the home stretch at Texas A&M, enjoying the fringe benefits of being a senior, including interviews for a job after graduation. Polly and Dan, were planning for a bit of travel. Hopefully, Larry would drive down for Ed's graduation, then all three would go gallivanting. Dan finished school at Texas A&I the 26th. On May 28th, everybody went over to College Station. Polly and Dan continued north. Larry didn't get his leave in time. What a trip! They were away three months, covered 31 states, three Canadian provinces, and put I5,000 miles on the speedometer doing so. First they ambled leisurely up to Fort Dix, New Jersey where Larry, stationed at the Field hospital, managed to get a furlough. He made Sgt. in March, and had just re-enlisted. The bonus helped him get a new red Plymouth Fury. From there, all three continued generally north, way up to Nova Scotia. The next target area was Kansas City, via Buffalo, traveling in zig zags to visit as many people as possible. Larry wants to make Kansas City his permanent home, so there were lots of things for him to do there. Eventually his leave time grew short, so the Fury dashed back to New Jersey. The long trek continued, back in the Valiant. It was anything but a race with time. The dauntless duo meandered over the northeast, visiting and camping as they went, recrossing their trail four times. They got as far north

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 Illinoi

The 1968 Story In the 28 years that have elapsed since this series of do-it-yourself cards began, many things have happened. Wars have come and gone. We have moved around the country, living in 5 different states: New Jersey, Florida, California, Missouri and Texas. All three boys have grown up. So far, there's been a new picture every year. It seems that we look about the same every time now except for the animals, but the photograph actually is slightly different. Time leaves its marks. This year it was truly a do-it-yourself nightmare. With no neighbor handy to press the shutter, it had to be done by remote push-button. Ed had a raging toothache from an emerging wisdom tooth. Zeke, one of the white cats, couldn't be found till the picture was taken. Les and Ed had to take care of mechanical details. There were all sorts of distractions. All in all, this year's picture couldn't be considered a prize in photojournalism. Les had a lot of travel this year, starting off early in January with work to do in New Orleans and Miami, enroute to Venezuela via Aruba. A lot of territory was covered there, including a strictly tourist side trip to the little-known Gran Sabana in the southeast. Trips like this are an education in geography. It was early March before he came back to the States via Colombia and Panama. During late January, he snapped a delightful picture of a little girl washing her clothes beside a small river in eastern Venezuela. It was so nice that a long-time family friend in New Jersey painted a big 24" x 36" copy in oils from the color print. Now the painting hangs beside Les' desk, a prized decoration for his office, and the envy of all who see it. The perpetual report writing chores were hardly finished before April brought a series of technical meetings on the West Coast, and just about this time more foreign travel was scheduled. It was May before the arrangements could be completed, and then Les headed for Buenos Aires, stopping over in Lima, Peru. As he found out, that is a long, long airplane ride, but the scenery flying over the Andes was magnificent. On the return, he took pictures from the flight deck most of the way. In Argentina the meat is excellent and cheap, a regular paradise for a steak lover. Returning, Les had a short assignment in Jamaica, but it wasn't the island in the sun he hoped for. Just about then a long drought ended with plenty of rainfall. For Jamaica, you'd like less work to do, more time to do it, and beautiful weather. It didn't work out that way! Back in San Antonio, HemisFair '68 kept all of us busy. Dan and Polly got to the opening celebration in April, and in June the radio amateurs held a national convention here which kept Les on the run as a member of the host club. The hams operated a radio station at the Fair ... WSSC... and every weekend Les was there helping out. Except on the MARS military circuits, his own call WASGOQ didn't get used much, except at some sports car races where the hams provided communications. Ed came down for one of the races to help as a track official. Les covered the country by plane, bouncing back and forth, here and there during the last half of the year, on various projects. One interesting study was related to Navy's underseas program and concerned fire protection inside chambers operating at up to 700# pressure. The problem is peculiar, to put it mildly. As a senior at Texas A&l, Dan had himself a year of glory. He got into local party politics, was President of the Math Club, member Student Council, selected to the Honorary History fraternity, member of the band and of the Music fraternities. They used to call this being a BMOC (Big Man On Campus). Maybe it is described differently now, but the idea is the same. For recreation, he and Polly took a camping trip to Big Bend Park at Easter. That's a really beautiful spot. In May, sheepskin in hand and a 3.2 scholastic record to be happy about, he began work on a second BA degree, teaching History during the summer as a Graduate Assistant taking courses as he could. It kept him plenty busy, but

1969 Annual Report Every year, I find myself in a fresh state of amazement that this serial has lasted so long. It could almost be classed with the TV soap operas, at least in endurance. The end of thirty years of cards is now just around the corner, and rumor has it that a few people still have many of them. Some can even read the small print without a magnifying glass! But continuing the tradition isn't as easy as it once was. The first card showed Larry sharing a bushel basket with our cocker spaniel of the time. He seems to have outgrown that basket, and it's one picture I couldn't re-make! Also, so much goes on with the five parties concerned that packing the news into the space available now requires pre-conditioning courses in a sardine factory. Perhaps we live at an increasingly hectic pace. Once children grow up and scatter, the taking of complete family pictures becomes a real challenge. For the past few years, we were too widely separated. This year, it was a struggle, but we made it, just before Thanksgiving. The next day, Dan went to Houston, and Ed went to Dallas. The pictures, though, were on exposed film, and the only real problem was to select the best shot. No single picture ever flatters all five of us! As usual, Les had a lot of travel, but for a change, all of it was inside the country. Much of his time was concentrated on the fire protection of hyperbaric chambers, an activity that began early in 1967. Atmospheres such as found in diving chambers and underseas habitats present a real problem with fire, for you can't escape readily, and most fire equipment is unsuited for use under such conditions. Learning how to provide fire safety is necessary if man is to successfully conquer 'inner space' ... the vast unknown of the deep oceans. He had numerous other projects too, among them some systems analysis work for the Office of Civil Defense. A technical conference in June was held near Monterey, California. It is beautiful country, but cloudy weather spoiled some planned photography. As a result, he was horn-swoggled and bulldozed into trying to paint one of the scenes. To everybody's surprise, including his own, the result wasn't bad at all. Primitive, yes, and certainly the sort of thing that made Grandma Moses a byword among painters. After that, Les had no choice to continue, so he enrolled in an evening drawing and painting class at San Antonio College, and already has started to put his stuff on the walls. A second trial of his grandma Moses initial effort turned out pretty well. It will be quite a while, though, before he reaches the smock and beret stage. Right now, it's hard work, but it's also a lot of fun. As usual, ham radio claims its share of time. Activity on the military MARS circuits keeps Les busy several nights a week. There was one interesting weekend providing communications for some sports car races, and finally the local radio club put him to work as an officer. Since his travel schedules preclude any regular attendance at meetings, they came up with a bright idea, making him Sgt. at Arms, with practically no duties at all. The local Cornell Club too managed to catch up with him, making him President for 1969. As with the radio club, the duties were light, most of the time. In April, Les started to draw retired pay from the Air Force, with all privileges, including medical care. This is coming in handy. Just before Thanksgiving, he got to feeling quite inferior in the interior. The specialists are working on it now, and it sure is nice to be so adequately taken care of. Polly started off the year, busy, busy, busy, with her piano pupils and the vocal studio. In April, Doris came from Buffalo, and the two went off for a week in Mexico City, followed by San Antonio's Fiesta week. But all this activity began to catch up with her, and by summer the doctor was feeding her sedative pills, to make her slow down for her own health. Since Larry was due for release from the Army in late summer, she waited until the separation date was finally set, then took off for New Jersey on a vacation

san antonio dan 24, mom, dad ed & larry living out of state