Remember when I told you I hoped to be able to write a book on the beauty and wonder leaves. Well here are some of the reasons –
This is from my cocktail.
Monday evening
July 12, 1965
Mostly to tell you what I accomplished today in Menlo.
My dear, dear Patricia:
When you’ll find this letter, I don’t know. I suspect it will be late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, for I have a hunch that when, with your eyes dancing, you told me I might not be early enough to get you on the phone Tuesday morning, you were in essence telling me that you planned to be away all night – Anyway – it doesn’t matter but I thought I’d let you know what I accomplished at Menlo today.
First, though I must tell you that you left me dancing on the clouds this morning when we parted company. You were so sweet to me – I did so enjoy your coming for breakfast and I hope you’ll not let many days pass before you favor me again at breakfast. Next time perhaps I’ll have cantaloupe – hopefully a good one – as a variant to strawberries.
Tonight I had dinner at Original Joe’s again. My toast: “To your Patricia, forever and ever and always – the sweetest thing that has ever come into my life.”
Also, I finished reading James Baldwin’s “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” a poignantly sad and powerful book – an excellent portrayal of the negro under segregation, with all his hopes, fears, joys, frustrations, strengths and weaknesses – and most of all, the tremendous part that the Christian religion has played in the lives and thinking of the negroes. With a southern background (Tennessee, Texas, & Arkansas) and lots of talk, mostly in fairness to the negro, some from relatives who were “nigger haters” & knowing quite a few [page 2] negroes since childhood, I was well prepared for Baldwin’s insight & penetrating analysis. I hope you’ll have time to read the book – I’ll leave it with you now that I’ve finished with it.
Well, at Palo Alto today, I found my friend of 20 years, “Sprig Theobald” (“Sprig” – a girl scout nickname that has stuck) and met her father a charming, old gentleman (77) who has been in real estate for 25 years or more. They went out to the place & looked it over thoroughly. Mr. Theobald thought it “charming” but correctly said it would be recognized as such by the right kind of person & ignored by others, - which, of course, I already knew. He thought it would be a pity to break it in selling it – that since Neva and I had gardened the 2 lots as a whole, & obviously it is a whole – it should be sold & might be more easily sold as a whole. – For the right party would want the whole. As he saw it before anything was done to clean up or tidy up and of the disarray that has developed and still was charmed, perhaps I should conclude that, with what little more I can do to it tomorrow (possibly yesterday, by the time you read this), I should decide that it would be O.K. to let you have a look at it too – perhaps as early as Wednesday before we have dinner – or whatever day you wish.
Reggie was home – unexpectedly to me, as I had him in my mind “off duty” later in the week, but I was in error. He still wants to buy the place & says the San Jose bank with which he and Carol have dealt the last few years have told him they would be willing to help them in financing a home purchase. However, [page 3] this was only general talk, though he has told them specifically about my place. So you may have a competitive bidder on the place, in which case I would decide in your favor. That will necessitate dividing the property, I think, though if any way could be figured our for me to make the necessary arrangements, I’d try awfully hard to hold it for your & still help your mom on the house at 457 Los Padres. Trouble is I’m sure I don’t have enough money all told to swing a double deal. But you’ll get a chance to react to the place & then I can it from there.
I took out of the bank all the papers in my safety deposit box & discussed the status of the property with the Theobalds. As I have made no legal move since Neva died, having been told that none was necessary since there were but the two of us, Mr. Theobald says that before making a sale I’ll have to have title legally cleared and assigned to me. The Abstract & Title Companies in California have things sewed up pretty tight in their favor. He admits, as a lawyer friend told me 15 years ago, that the entire title business is a complete racket, but there’s no escaping it. So he will proceed tomorrow & by the end of the week learn just what has to be done to gain clear possession of the title. If only the joint Tenancy by Neva & me were at issue, this would be quite simple. However, the 1st lot purchased, the one with the house on it, was bought jointly by a friend of mine & me (He is now dead, having been killed by a tractor accident). It was his intent (since he made only a couple of $10.00 payments on the lots years ago & then went off two years on a jaunt to the South Seas) to sign over his rights completely to me, but I was able today to find only a document signing over his rights in the vacant lot to me (as I made all the payments otherwise). If a comparable assignment can’t be [page 4] found for the lost with house on it, then there is a possibility that some of his heirs may strive to claim a half interest, even though they knew that he had relinquished all his claim to the entire property. Also since he signed the disclaimer that I have in 1929 and none of his relative has claimed any share in the 36 years since, Mr. Theobald thought that perhaps all right to any claims would have been lost by default and a time limit on claims. This, also, he will find out – if there still is a possibility that one of my former friends relatives could claim anything at all, then I think the proper thing to do will be to sell the vacant lot (vacant because without a house thought it’s been gardened for years) & for a while, at least just hold the other & say nothing about selling it. There’s been no fuss, so why raise any? Then a leisurely study can be made of all angles that are concerned to find out what will be the least expensive to me.
Anyway, some kind of deal can be worked out that will make it possible, I am sure, to secure the place on Los Padres Blvd (?) for your mom & probably to make the house in Menlo available to you, if you fall in love with it & think you’ll want it in a couple of years.
Well, this is food for thought until I see you Wednesday for dinner. Then we’ll have plenty to talk about. In the meanwhile, I’ll have my ear cocked Wednesday morning for your phone call.
Until then – and forever afterward
Love, as always – Carl
Dr. Carl Duncan and Patricia Whiting Collection (SJSU)
