Wednesday, October 1, 2014

November 8, 1964 The Disappointment, The Barn Roof, The Shingles and The Election

Image courtesy of www.4presidency.org


Dear Mother & Daddy,

"Needless to say, I was very disappointed that we did not get to come to Missouri this week but it was really best.  The work at the office was so piled up that B has been bringing it home every night and he thought three days out of the office would really put him in deep.  Art didn't say a thing when B told him he wasn't going to Drury but we know he was relieved.  He went to the office for an hour on Thurs. and another hour on Fri. but unless he begins to improve faster than he is now, it is going to be awhile before he can go all day.

I hope you both are much better.  I suppose Daddy was patching the barn roof but I think it would have been better to set a pan under the leak.  Did the Dr. say what causes the shingles?  Lots of people seem to have them but I really never knew much about them.  I hope you are better & that they will soon be gone.

I'm looking for Buddy, Bessie, Francis, Mike & Patty early this afternoon.  Mike is playing football here tonight so they are coming to the game.  They'll have supper with us & go home tonight.  Buddy called me twice this week.  First to see if we were going to be here & then to tell me when to expect them.

Thank goodness the election is over.  The counters are still working on our state ballot.  It was a mess.  Bed sheet ballot was a good name for it & I felt as if I'd been a poor voter after I left the booth.  I think it's time for you to write Eisenhower again, Mother, and I mean it.  If Goldwater & Burch don't give up the so-called leadership of the Republican party it will surely die & we need that party. It has so many good men like Romney or Scranton or even Rockefeller (although I never thought I'd say that). I have heard lots of people say they voted for Johnson simply because they could not accept Goldwater.  Johnson would have had a rough go against any of the other Republicans. Anyway, they'd better all get to work for the country to make up for the nasty campaign.

It is cloudy & gloomy today.  We need rain but I hope it holds off until the little boys have their football game.  They play anyway usually, but it isn't very pleasant.

I've been knitting quite a bit every evening & have the back of my sweater almost done.  It is black & white and is going to be real pretty.

I've been reading the The Rector of Justin, too.  It belongs to someone in our book club so I have until December to read it. Maybe you have read about it for it has been reviewed a lot & is the story of a man who started a private school for boys. Much of it makes me think of Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven.  I'm enjoying it.

B wants to go to the cleaners & I want him to mail this so I must stop.  Take it easy & I hope you are both fine by now.


The Taylors:  Buddy, Clyde, Lizzie, Beulah & Bonnie (Aug. 1964)

The Taylors, about 1936: Bonnie, Beulah, Buddy & Lizzie



The picture is for you to keep.  We had a smaller one made for Beulah & Buddy."

                             Lots of love,

                                   Bonnie

 NOTE:  Dean Burch was the Republican National Chairman.  For information on the election:  http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1964

The Rector of Justin was a best seller in 1964.  For an excellent resource on best selling fiction and non-fiction by decade:  http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~immer/books1960s

One LBJ ad which drew much attention:
And one of Goldwater's:

1 comment:

  1. The paragraph about the roof leak and shingles is really hilarious, and I doubt Mom thought about the connection when she wrote the letter. Your non-USA readers might not know that there apparently was a leak in the barn roof (what kind of "shingles" for roofing were up there, who knows) but that asking a doctor about shingles has to do with a disease by the same colloquial name. Shingles, a painful and mostly adult disease, is caused by the virus that causes a childhood disease known here as chicken pox (Google it). I think the virus is varicella zoster...Bob B, where are you when we need you? But the humor here has to do with the same paragraph containing both the roof and the disease.

    Bob K

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