48, 48.1, 49. May 21, 1968 and May 23, 1968: Barbara's letters to her folks with Milton's letter to them

 48. May 21, 1968

Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barb)

Got your letter and it is seven miles to Embu. Now, who wins the milkshake?!

Yes, I did get Mrs. Hansen’s Christmas card and have mailed her a letter the same time as this one. I know I should have written sooner, but just didn’t do it.

Wish I could send you some rain. What we have had in the last two hours would really fix you up good. We have fog or rain almost every morning until noon and some showers at night.

Martin Luther King’s murder was in all the papers at the time. We listen to Voice of America, and so heard about it real quick. We get good news reports from them, also subscribe to Newsweek, so feel pretty well up on what’s happening. The newspapers here are something else We’ve been clipping some of the more interesting items.

I feel bad the pictures weren’t as pretty as the slides but guess that’s just the way it is.

We got a refund from Idaho on State Income Tax today, $40.00. It was a nice surprise, and the first time in several years that they’ve owed us!

Who is running against Roy for senator? You mentioned once that Rich was running for school board. Did he win?

Milt is working on a letter to you as part of his writing lesson. It will be along soon. He is so particular that it takes a while!

Glad to hear of Bill’s success. He must have a real knack in the drama line.

That’s about all for now. I just wanted to tell you it’s seven miles to Embu, so you could settle the bet! They have actually run a grader over the last three miles, which is the worst part of the road, so right now it is in pretty good shape. I am trying to get some pictures of it that will show how it is, but it is hard, as you can feel the bumps in the picture!

Everyone here is fine and in good spirits. Lots of love, better get two milkshakes and keep each other company! Barb.

48.1 May 23, 1968

Dear Grammy and Grandpo, (Line from Milt, his writing lesson)

We have the washing machine and Ellius likes it. 

Dad has a slingshot to shoot the stray dogs.

We are going to go fishing in the river by Ellius’ home this afternoon, and I hope we catch some fish.

Dad has taken the threads off the tractor to fix it.

Happy Birthday to Grandpo.

Love, Milton

49. May 26, 1968

Dear Mom and Dad, (Line from Barb)

Happy Birthday, Dad! I thought you’d like to get one of these fancy letters. (*pictures of animals printed all around the edge) This was all the post office in Embu had. They sure didn’t leave much room to write. I had hoped to have a tape recording ready to mail to you. We worked on it most of Saturday and today, but didn’t have much luck. Something always seemed to go wrong, so we’d have to do it all over again. It will be along “sometime”, I don’t know when. We are all sick of trying right now!

Friday night we went fishing at Ellius’ place. He has a real nice shambe (farm) about five miles from here, down the road toward Embu, and then off to the right a mile or two.

The house sits up at the top end and his land runs down a pretty steep hill to the bottom where there is a river. He has fields of corn, beans, potatoes, and coffee, all planted on the contour, a pasture with two cows staked out, a field of banana trees with sweet potatoes, beans, and cabbage growing under them, and right at the bottom, a nice pond full of tilapia, which look a lot like crappy. We caught three fish. Ellius, Frank, and Amy caught them.

Ellius has two wives and about six children. There were a lot of other kids around, and it was hard to sort them all out! He is sure proud of his place. He hires most of the work done, what his wives can’t manage, and the money he earns working for us and Miss Williams gives him the cash he needs.

His house has mud walls and a tin roof. He took us into the living room of the main building It had a dirt floor with a sisal rug and a table and chairs, a couch and one easy chair, an end table with a fancy cloth on it and a clock. The walls were papered with pictures from magazines. It was very interesting to see. There was a room opening off this one, but it was too dark to see into it. There was a small window with a wooden shutter shut tight. You could see that from the outside There were two other huts with grass roofs. I think one was the kitchen.

They gave us four sticks of sugar cane, the three fish, and four eggs before we left. We took pictures of them all, which pleased Ellius. It is strange to come back and look at our own place after a visit like that!

Hope you have a nice birthday, Dad. I imagine there will be too much (irrigating) water for much of a celebration, but hope you can at least have an extra nap! Love from us all, Barb