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by the 16-year-old daughter of Jinny & Frank/Bunky Wachodrf to her aunt

names of her siblings and their spouses removed, replaced in italics with their relationship to her

Note that her father worked for TWA

January 31, 1966

Hi, all--

    You didn't have to be so nice--sending me that lovely card! I'm sixteen now and my birthday was scrumptious. I planned the meal and didn't have to cook it! We had steak, which wasn't hard to get, as Mum just the week before had gone out and bought--you'll never guess--a half a cow! Also 40 chickens or something like that! She said she was going to just run out to the meat market quick and come right back so she wouldn't spend any money, as she was broke. Well, she was broke but the bank was broke too and the meat market had a holiday--all money and no meat left! You see, she explained--or alibied, I'm not sure which--they were having a sale and... well, it would have been lots cheaper if they just hadn't had a sale! You should have seen Dad's face when at dinner she casually remarked that she hoped the truck from the meat market wouldn't come too late next week...!!

    That's all over now, but if you ever hear one of us say, instead of "Holy cow!," "Holy Half-a-Cow!", you'll know why.

    We went to Dayton Friday. I had an orthodontist appointment and so the whole family trooped down to fit into the teeny-weeny apartment of my brother's. We had no school because it was post-exaam holiday, but that only made it worse to have to get up at the ungodly hour of six A.M. (Maybe I should say A.A.M.--it was so A.M. that it was almost P.M.!) You see, we had to catch an early flight at JFK airport in New York. Well, we caught it and in Dayton rented a gorgeous creamy-brown Catalina Pontiac and, after calling my brother's wife drove out to their place. The weekend was great. My two youngest sisters slept at some friends', so we were hardly squished at all!

    The baby, now at the ripe old age of nine months, crawls all around and gleefully gets into as much mischief as she can cook up--which is quite a lot! She also has nice long fingernails, as I can prove from the scratches on my face...and the awful part is that delighted toothless grin she sports as she skunks you. And the nut is happiest when she's talking (a girl!) or standing on her head (actually, she lies on an elevation and lets her head only stand on her head). It's rather disturbing. Mum says se reminds her of my brother when she does things like that, or grins at you, but she has his wife's features. So I guess it's even, huh?

    Well, on Sunday we traipsed out to the airport and bid tearful good-byes and got on the plane and headed for New York. An hour and 20 minutes later (approximately) we reached New York. The captain announced that the weather was kinda bad and we'd circle New York for a while and see what was up--or rather down, as we were up! 30 minutes later he said, "Well, folks, I've got a little bad news for you. JFK Airport is closed and we'll have to try Newark." Our car was at JFK! A little later he came on again and said, "Well, folks, I've got a little more bad news for you. Newark airport just closed down right underneath us. We're going back to Dayton!" The whole plane shook with laughter--everyone was great bout it. 3 hours after we'd left, we were back in Dayton.

    Well, we'd kidded everybody about, "Don't say goodbye! We'll be back!", so it was particularly funny, and naturally when we 'phoned my brother he didn't believe a word...Dad said, "Hi, I just wanted you to know we got back all right!" My brother: "Oh, you got home okay?" Dad: "I didn't say we got home, I just said we got back, back to Dayton!" Or course he didn't believe it. Dad told him that he'd believe it when a white Pontiac pulled up in front of his house!

    We drove into town and snuck up to the door and knocked. When my brother's wife answered we all hollered, "Surprise!" And was it! My brother had been in bed and when we knocked he said, "If it's a white Pontiac, don't wake me up!" It was really funny.

    Well, we got back to Newark on a special flight this morning. Dad caught the helicopter to JFK airport on a dead run--5 minutes after he got in--and got the car. On the way home we rejoiced over being out of school only to find on our arrival that everyone was out of school--and why. Smack in front of our house (which we finally reached after being stuck in a snowdrift on the next corner down--which we took because there was another car stuck on our corner) was a snowdrift 7 feet long, 4 feet high, 3 feet wide! To you Bloomer people that might sound paltry, but when a few days before there had been only one inch of snow there! About an hour go we finished digging out and discovered we really do still have a house! And now to rest!!

    That's all I guess. It should be enough. Thanx again for that gorgeous card!

Love,

your niece

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