Dear Friends:
What a year this has been! For the world and for us, personally. So many changes, so much puzzlement about the future which looks so good, yet has so many potential surprises in it.
Early last spring, Karen went into “official retirement”, which means she now works three times as hard, enjoys it five times more and doesn’t get paid. She thought that she would have little to do; but that was before May 18th when we had over a foot of water inside our house as a result of a twenty-four hour flood in our part of Houston. Although the water did not stay long, it was sufficient to force us to put in new exterior dry walls and paneling, carpeting, drapes and furniture throughout the entire first floor. For several months we lived in our kitchen and a second floor bedroom. Yet, with prayer and her hard work, our abode was in order by the big date of August 12th, the day Ken married Tracey Sturek.
The newlyweds are as happy as any classic newlyweds could be. Ken is also beginning a new career with Universal Computer Management. Tracey, who is a truly wonderful daughter-in-law, is currently an office manager for an architectural firm. Once Ken completes his company training they will be moved, it appears, to the Washington, D. C. area, a place of fond memories for us; we hope it will become so for them.
Deb has gone back to school. She is seeking a Master of Library Science degree at North Texas State University in Denton while working full time as a librarian in Irving, a suburb of Dallas for our Yankee friends. She hopes to have her degree by next December. (Her Joe was awarded his MLS from Texas Women’s University in Denton this past summer; also on August 12th.)
Kip who now goes by Chris, is happily employed as a biology teacher at Oak Ridge High School in The Woodlands, TX, just north of Houston. He has decided to trade in his apartment for the thrills of renting his own house, complete with large dog (Ace) and small cat (Webster).
Karen and Pat were able to recover from the events of the spring and summer by relaxing for two magnificent weeks in October with the foliage of New England. A flight to Boston and a rental car trip along the Maine coast and overland through the Franconia Notch area, Stowe, VT and down through our beloved Hanover and Amherst to Mystic and Cohasset reminded us just how beautiful maple leaves and birch bark can be. Our Texas friends enjoyed the pictures and now understand us a little better.
Our changes have not been as dramatic, perhaps, as those now occurring in Central Europe. Perhaps the years during which all of us have prayed for peace are now bearing fruit. We truly hope so. We join you in wishing Peace on Earth for all of Good Will.
N.B. The “new mailing address” is not the result of a physical move, but rather of the devastations brought by the flood as well as other factors. For some unknown reason, neighborhood kids took to knocking over mailboxes, even brick ones such as ours. (Evidently trucks can be readily used as battering rams!) We now had our mail delivered to the postoffice on FM 1960, a process we had endured in Amherst for better reasons. Until re-reading this letter, I’d forgotten completely about this new, living condition! As to the “changes in Central Europe” … revolutions against Soviet rule had occurred in Hungary (June), in Prague (November) and in Romania (December). The Berlin Wall came down on November 9th and 10th. The Tianamen Square incident had occurred the preceding June. Yes, 1989 was a momentous year, even if none of it was part of our annual Christmas letter!