November 16, 1964

Mon. Nov 16, 1964

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today I received a letter from Jo Ann Petry telling me about their new daughter born Oct 17th. I also received a letter from Mary Ann O’Connell.

Mary Beth and Kenny really enjoy their Kdg. and have started to say lines in French to songs they sing at school.

I am sending you these pictures which Jim had developed today. As you can see we have a very lovely home and it’s in a beautiful location. I’m hoping some of the color slides Jim took come out because the black and white doesn’t do the scenery justice. All those hills are beautiful shades of green and the trees are all in the most dramatic colors of autumn – deep reds, purples and oranges. It’s almost as beautiful as a St. Louis autumn but the weather is not as nice as at home.

Jim’s new boss from Brussels sent him a letter yesterday. Jim had done some reports for him and he thanked Jim for the work and seemed to be very pleased with them. He sent him some more work to do and will probably make another trip to Bern soon. They want to start moving the office in Dec. so they can start out the first of Jan. in Brussels. Jim says it will be quite a job as they are so meticulous in everything. He says they’ll probably count every paper clip and rubber band in the place.

Some of the children at school who have been around have already told B. and Jimmy that Brussels is not as nice as Bern. They said there are no Swiss houses or mts. and it’s much dirtier. It would have to be dirtier as I am quite sure there couldn’t be any country as cleans as this one is. Jim’s new boss told him that Brussels is much bigger, much noisier, much dirtier and much less honest than Bern. But at least the opportunities for language will be improved. Here it is very frustrating because you cannot learn another language. The German and French that the people speak is not very good (so others tell me) and they really prefer to speak their Dialect anyway. Fribourg (which is about as far as Collinsville from St. Louis) is a French speaking town – no dialect – that’s why Mrs. Rushlow moved there. If the office wasn’t moving to Brussels we would move there too so the children could go to a Catholic school in French. Mrs. R. wanted to have her son board here for a yr. in school but he didn’t want to board. She said since her children are adopted she didn’t want to force it – so instead she came here to stay for the yr. Her husband is coming next month for a visit with them. She said if they are your own natural children you do what you think best but you never know what adopted children will start thinking. So she says no matter what anyone says it’s different when children are adopted and it’s very hard to make it into a natural situation. No doubt she is right.

I must see how my stew is coming along

More Tomorrow,

Love
Jim and Dina