November 19, 1964

Thurs Nov 19, 1964

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hope you don’t mind this awful looking paper but the kids have used up all my white paper. They are all such artists including P. that it is impossible to keep any paper in the house.

I will be anxious to hear from you as the details and actual dates of your trip here. We decided not to say anything to the kids until we heard exact dates and also if Daddy was coming too or not. Otherwise they will drive us crazy. When we know definitely we can mark it on a calendar and they can count off the days.

I sure am glad that you are coming as Jim found out today that he will have to go to Turkey for a week or so next month. So naturally I wasn’t so thrilled to hear that but looking forward to your coming softens the blow somewhat. He is hoping that he will be here when you arrive because we had planned to meet you at the airport either at Zurich or Geneva whichever one you arrive at. It is only a couple hrs ride from here and we would love to meet your plane. I don’t know how definite your plans are – but Jim will know in a week just when he goes. His boss has to write to Mr. Hackney in Wash D.C. to get his ok that will take a week. Jim will then go to Brussels to get a briefing on his trip. He is to set up a seminar at Ankara, Turkey. It sounds so far away but he says it is only 2 hrs. from Zurich by plane.

I can see right now that all our Christmas gifts are going to arrive very late! My unexpected trip to the hospital set my shopping back a couple of weeks. Now with Jim going away that will stop me cold. I did just a little bit last Wed. but you cannot imagine how long it takes to make a purchase. First of all, all the stores are jammed – unbelievably. But everyone has to shop during the day – nothing open in the evenings and all the stores are downtown – no suburban shopping except for groceries. I bought two little cloth calendars to send to Jim’s mom – and had them gift wrapped. If you could have seen how long it took 2 girls to wrap those calendars, well they’d never make a living working piece work in a factory. It’s not that they are lazy or slow – it’s that they are so meticulous, every ribbon etc had to be just so and when they write out a sales check you’d think they were trying to win an award in penmanship - and then they carefully place the carbon just so in their box. Every store is the same!

I am hoping to hear from Don this week. It seems such a long time since we have heard. No doubt several letters will arrive at once. I am going to write to him tonight after I finish this letter. So I will say Goodnight –

Love from all the children and

Jim and Dina