I’m looking forward to seeing the candle. Tell all the family hello, for Tuesday evening [?]. Where’d you get your cute correspondence paper?
Dearest Patricia:
Will wonders never cease? Your letter was postmarked “June 13 PM” (yesterday) and it was delivered to me before the evening program tonight! From San Jose to Manzanita Lake via Redding in 24 hours! If mine has the same good luck in reaching you it will be delivered on Thursday. Here’s hoping.
All is going well. I was fogged by the heat in the Sacramento Valley when we came up and my first work day - which was a long one - pretty well bushed me but I was much better today and I’ve made one gain health wise that pleases me mightily. My appetite for fresh fruit is back 00 its been gone three years. I used to eat two or three pounds of fresh fruit daily then I got to the point where I’d buy some and completely forget about it because my craving was gone. The last two days my appetite has been back and I’ve eaten about 3 ½ pounds of grapes, peaches, nectarines and cherries! Somehow I expect to continue and it has helped me greatly. My interior seems to be behaving semi-normally now and I have a hunch I can abandon laxatives completely, or nearly so, in a few days. This will please John Rumsfeld and, I suspect, surprise him also.
Lassen and surroundings are as wonderful and beautiful as ever. The big Jeffrey pine trees and white firs are as beautiful in spring as I’ve ever seen them. I constantly wish hat [page 2] you and Connie could be here to share their beauties with me.
The evening Wayne Rhoten and I came in we had an absolutely gorgeous sunset. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky but the whole sky developed an intense, slightly brownish golden color. It was magnificent.
Yesterday and today we had clouds in the P.M. this P.M. they nearly covered the sky for an hour and a half and it looked as if we might be due for a thunderstorm like the one two years ago when you were here. Then the sky cleared again and we had a cloudless sky for the evening meeting and the alpen glow on Lasses and the associated peaks.
There is a nice new crop of college girls and boys working for the lodge and they seem to be doing their best to make everything agreeable to us. I like these resorts that hire college kids. There is a freshness and an aliveness about them that professional waiters, hotel clerks, etc., never have.
We tried to start folk dancing last night but the player (one of audio-visuals “best”) was out of order. The needle was bent and a new cartridge is needed. This is the machine that was given to field school “though the request for a carefully checked machine was in to A-R a week and a half before we left San Jose. We got a last minute grab with nothing checked. One of our boys straightened the needle today and so we got started tonight with a good crowd and much enthusiasm. Well, time and space are about up (it’s 11:20) so bye-bye. It doubtless will be too late tomorrow for another letter. Love - Carl
[5 X 3 postcard]
Dear Patricia:
Made the trip in fine style. Insufferably hot in south Valley. Nice here. Missed you on the Sunday phone call 4 tries. Lassen’s as beautiful as ever. I’ve got to run to meet my trail group. Carl.
Dr. Carl Duncan and Patricia Whiting Collection (SJSU)
