MillieAMELIE
(Bennett)

july 2

1943

jo dear;---so it's really you! what a pleasant surprise! come a year
ago last boxer day, twas you who said she was coming to see us in
calif. we were at yuba city, then.

so we waited.

then, helen s. wrote that you'd gone to cuba on some
assignment.

a couple of weeks ago we heard from john murra, too.
he assembled the questionnaires on "fear in war" for the yale
school of human relations.....

oh dear, i didn't mean to wander so.

at this moment, it seems to me that we have always lived
in this desert on the banks of the colorado river, surrounded by
oleanders, black widow spiders and"god almighty, another clerk is
going to quit, another maintenance is going to quit, how can poor
hans do ALL of the work?"

this is supposed to be the hottest spot in the usa, but
if you keep your mind off the sun, stay indoors, do not look at the
thermometer, you do not suffer.

the house is spacious and cool, (i mean spacious for
a farm security house, but cool on all counts.....

the heat is very dry heat, and at 130 degrees here,
you are not uncomfortable the way you are in s.f. at 90 degrees.

this is all by way of urging pleading, begging you to
come and see us.

we have a patio where you may sleep with five cats and a
black setter pup. or a large guestroom, to one side of the house,
where you could work, if you wanted to work.

hans is pretty much unchanged, and never you mind about me.
my disposition is definitely worse, but definitely.

if you are returning east, you can go back by the southern route,
as you must well know, a young friend of ours, waiting to be called
into the army, arrived last week from the bay area by bus, and he
said that he had a cool and comfortable trip.

we are ten miles from a border village...where they have carta
blanca and mexicali beer that is not too green. i wish i could
think of something inspirational to tell you about our life here,
something that would bring you hurtling down.

it often seems to me that we are out of touch with everything and
anything. i have drooled on in my mind, about joining the waacs,
waves, trying for a job with owi, etc. etc. etc....and then i get
scared of my bloody past, and turn over on the other side and go
back to sleep.

marion merriman (wachtel) writes us occasionally from seattle,
but we are almost completely out of touch with everybody.