Letters From New York
31 October 1966
Dear Mum,
One jump ahead of Bill to-night. I want to thank you very much for the parcel which arrived last Thursday. The children were thrilled with the things you sent. The "Fantales" and "Smarties" were very popular. I have not given Cathy & Anthony the birthday things yet. Jenny's little knits are really lovely and look so nice on her. You certainly have become very good with the knitting, the weather is quite cold now so she needs the warm things. Have had quite a hectic afternoon & evening with Halloween. The kiddies have had the time of their lives out collecting lollies and pennies for UNICEF. I ran out of sweets and pennies after about 90 minutes. I had about 80 bags of sweets & $2 or more in pennies & I could have had twice as much. Had better leave a bit of room for Bill. By the way "our car" is beaut, runs very well & Bill is doing well with the driving. Lots of love to you, look after yourself.
Joan
Will have to economise with my verbiage tonight as "the boss" has taken up more room than usual. I'm very definitely going to have to keep a diary as all through the week I think "must put that in the next letter to Mum" but comes the time and many little anecdotes have been superseded by others or there just isn't room for them all. We're beginning to get the Aust. versions of LBJ's visit, having seen the American side from TV and the press here, and it seems to bear out the earlier impression that the trip was an unqualified success and well worth the trouble. Though never very impressive to my mind, I must admit his was a good will tour that seems to have paid off and the crowds do seem to have thronged to see him. We followed the tour as best we could here on TV hoping to see some glimpses of home but the half hours were slotted at very difficult times & we saw very little. One we did take in fully was a shocking interview of Big Ed by Tanya Halesworth (in Canberra) which, if I'd been American, would've made me ashamed.
Hadn't heard of the bank robbery, but no matter. It obviously wasn't mine (RURAL, KINGSFORD) and I haven't got all that much there anyway. Am sure you & Margaret overrate me as a stash-it-away capitalist. Might add that, with the car purchase over here there isn't very much left in the coffers either. Sorry I missed rapping Vince up on the football - I thought I'd said something like "jolly good show and all that" - but it was a little bit difficult to shout all the way across the Pacific Ocean. Was quite pleased with the effort, more so since he evidently featured regularly as one of the star players. As you say, King St. will be only a memory by the time we get back but I guess this will be so of many of Sydney's sights. The car is performing well thus far (has a 100 mile trip in her yesterday) and has passed all the regulatory tests on ownership transfer with flying colours.
Have really hit it off very well - all of us - with the Bartels (word is that Greg has just earned himself another promotion) and we seem to be getting around together quite a deal. Indeed Michael & Michelle have hit it off so well that she's claimed him for a husband already. He avers, however, that Suzanne is his girl - in Australia. Joan spent the day at school last Friday - parents' day - getting the lowdown on the childrens' progress & received glowing reports on all. Anthony is the boy wonder in Art and his teacher says he should be privately taught. He seems to have settled quite OK and is performing very well all round, maths (surprisingly) being his only bugbear at present! Phillip was also commended for his art (we're supposed to have a very talented duo) and is rated very highly in the class though said by all his teachers to have a tendency to dream. Catherine has a teacher (again) who's in love with her and the feeling seems to be mutual. She, too, is very highly thought of.
Halloween tonight and they all had the time of their lives though Anthony, after an initial effront, was a little reluctant. Seems he will have to be pushed after taking a knock. Phillip has all the confidence in the world - landing home with over 5lbs. in weight of sweets, chocolates, nuts etc. Michael, too, in a limited spell, got over 2lbs. They looked marvellous (& we have photos) as Mickey Mouse (Michael); a princess (you know who); The Devil (has to be Phillip) and a skeleton (Anthony). Sure you know the tradition of trick or treat & every household was assailed by children in all sorts of outfits ringing bells & knocking on doors till 9.00pm. Have just turned the clock back an hour (having put it forward in April) & we're in pitch darkness by 5.30pm.
Posted your Xmas parcel off today with a gift for yourself and Margaret. As usual, not completely what we'd like to be able to give, but the combination of finances and postage rates restricts the enthusiasm. Good news over the weekend was that our Qld. couple here had their first son Michael James (6lb. 6oz.) a fortnight early - we're almost as tickled as they are.
Have been busily engaged promoting a Melb. Cup sweep (guess it is about due to be run as I write this - 11.00pm Monday) which proved to be very popular. You drew Bonehead and I got Gatum Gatum and Castle Command - hope they're handing out starts! I like Tobin Bronze!! Not much racy news about Town here and hope you can send me over some newspaper reports on the doings.
Had a marvellous picnic barbecue yesterday taking in some glorious autumn surroundings. Autumn is fast going & winter beginning to take over. Yesterday's temp. was down to 34° though unusual. No more paper, will conserve the thoughts till next time.
Love, Bill.