October 2 1969

49 Cedar Road,
Ottawa 9

2nd. Oct. 1969

Darling Lindy,
I just came home from taking Daddy to work and then to the Market – tomatoes, cauliflowers, peaches, limes, pears, green onions and silver dollars (dried things for my Fall floral arrangement!) – and to Ogilvie’s – pattern for a dress for me – and finally to the Liquor Store – rum, rye, white wine and Scotch – and having unloaded found your Cri de Coeur in the mail! No letters for 4 days! By now you will have the one I sent on Tuesday but I thought if I rushed this you might get it before the weekend. We got your nice long letter yesterday which we enjoyed immensely and Charlie got his too and was going to write, but he got involved in Chemistry homework which wouldn’t come right and he and Daddy were puzzling away with little sums on the back of envelopes etc. for hours. [Comment on letter in Linda’s handwriting: how familiar!] Yesterday was Dress Up day at school and Charlie went looking very elegant – he has got a new pair of trousers – dark green, very tight and slim, and he wore his yellow shirt and train tie and his gold sweater. They got their pictures taken so I hope his turns out well for a change. We went on Sat. to try to get him a new jacket, but had no luck. He thinks greenish would be nice and he tried on some which were quite nice but conventional and one which looks very nice but rather way out – double breasted and fitted waist – he didn’t know if his friends would approve! Then he tried on other more conventional double-breasted in which he looked very nice but they didn’t have green so we came home. It is a pity that you aren’t here to give your valuable opinion. Their class has been very enterprising and has tentatively booked a room at the Skyline Hotel for a dinner and dance after the Graduation – cost 10 dollars – all the boys nearly fainted! That is for a couple! Charlie doesn’t know if this is for your graduating Gr. 13 too or only theirs, but anyway he will have to have something high class to wear as the girls are going formal! Which reminds me, you must begin to think about what you want to wear for graduation. Don’t spend all your money because remember it is to buy you clothes as well as odds, bobs and books – have you bought more books that you have spent 80 dollars? Maybe it would be a good idea to keep an account of the big items – not every penny as you were trying to do before, but things costing more than the odd dollar, and then you would have a record of how much you spend on certain things. Daddy will be sending you your Oct. cheque next week probably.
Fifteen dollars return for your bus fare doesn’t sound too bad, and it is lovely that you will be able to leave on Fri. afternoon and stay till Tues. morning. I have suggested to Daddy that we ask Dr. and Mrs. Shimizu to Thanksgiving Dinner and also a Swiss couple Dr. and Mrs. Jungen. They are young and if you recall we went to a party last winter to celebrate their wedding when she came over from Switzerland, and I liked her very much – he is madly quiet, but marriage may have made him more talkative. I had a call from Janet last night asking all about contact lenses and she said that she had heard from you and that she and Cathi were just green with envy because you were having such fun, and they were having such a dull time. She said that she was looking forward to seeing you next weekend, and Pat said the same about Joey. I had Pat and Edna Renault to lunch yesterday and I didn’t really get any news much as she only had a short time and Edna is such a chatterbox!

Before I forget the Moor’s address is: 62 Lorne Cres. Brantford. I don’t know if you are planning to go down to visit them before your Reading Week, but Uncle Dix did say that they could probably pick you up in Toronto so it shouldn’t cost too much! If you go down you could perhaps mention to Bruce about the Graduation weekend- Charlie says that it is on 22nd Nov. I think which is a Sat. evening, so it is probably the same set up as last year with the dance on the Friday evening. You must think whether you want me to make you a dress (dresses?) or buy because we won’t have all that much chance to choose patterns etc. and try on. I know you said that you didn’t want a long dress, but some of the short ones are very pretty and there are gorgeous materials.
I am so glad that you and your friends enjoyed the cookies and fudge – of course your appreciation will spur me onto greater efforts! Re. Jean and the Cravens visit, Mrs. C. called me to thank me (I sent a small box of cookies etc. to Jean because it was nice of them to take yours) and it turns out that Jean had positively intimidated her poor family and told them that she didn’t want to have to trail family all around and didn’t want them in her room all the time etc. She was even out when they arrived and it was then that they took your parcel around to Traill as they didn’t know quite what to do, and when they were delivering it Lorna dashed out and said that Jean was in her room now and she just been talking to her, so they left it and went round. Jean did condescend to give them a glimpse of her room but never mentioned them coming to see you and your invitation, and when they took Linda Dowell’s parcel, she just waved at them out of the window and when they called out that they had a parcel for her she just called down thank you and they hung around the porter’s lodge but she didn’t come down, so I am doubly sorry that you didn’t see them as I’m sure your welcome would have made them feel very happy after their other casual receptions. Jean is a queer one though! Is she coming home at the same time as you? How extraordinary your meeting Rosemary Don! Nice that she thought you were stuck up for a change – it was always rather the other way around at school if I remember!
I must fly as I am going to Margie Garrett’s to lunch and I want to write to Grannie, as she leaves on the eighth. I sent the t.p. stand to Granny C. a week or so ago but have heard nothing so far. We are having Fr. Graham and George Chapman to dinner tomorrow night – I know you will wish you could be with us, but I’ll try to remember if they say anything particularly funny! Mr. G.’s friend Michael went back to England on Tuesday so I thought he might be feeling dull – maybe he is glad to get rid of him for all I know!

Lots of love from us all – the groundhog has disappeared lately – just saw him once last week and Daddy hasn’t seen him at all so he didn’t do anything to him. Do hope that you get into the Mikado – it would be great fun I think.
Much love
Mummy.

I don’t know how extravagant I was, spending $80, but the Trent bookstore was in downtown Peterborough and was a wonderfully tempting place. It had vinyl records as well as all the required books, and prints and necessary stationary. I found a record of medieval music that sent me off on a new path, and over time bought prints of La Dame à la Licorne and Les Tres Riche Heures du Duc de Berry to decorate my room. I also had a big Pacific Northwest First Nations Sea Wolf, foreshadowing my future home!

It was a surprise for me now to read the last comment- by the end of September, I was already hoping to become involved in the Gilbert and Sullivan production of The Mikado! I hadn’t realized it happened so soon, but Cyn was right, it was great fun, and led to new friendships, and other music and choirs. I was so lucky to go to Trent at this time in its development.