Episode 17 - SVW Tapes - 5th December, 1981

Well, hi you. I've got the day off; I'm supposed to be at work. It's Wednesday, the 5th of December, just a moment. I'm using this with a mic today because I'm sitting on my... holy mess! Just... just a moment. I'll just save it. I don't think this seems to be recording as well as it does when I don't use the mic, so I just might stop and go back just a minute... not testing, testing. Okay, like I said, I don't think it works as well with the mic; you get more interference.

Anyway, I don't know where to start, but I thought I'd get a tape off to you because I know how depressing it must all be for you after having such a big trip. It must be very deflating to come home and end up with hospital and all that sort of thing. And I should be doing 101 things. Today's Wednesday. We moved on Sunday. Well, we tried to move on Sunday. Sunday was the first time that we'd actually seen inside of the cottage, and the people had gone on Saturday night. John called around here, and there was nobody here Saturday night. So we decided that we would move in on Sunday as planned. Just a minute, the damn thing's not high enough now. I've got it sitting on top of boxes. Hold on. Here we go again. If you don't sit upright, you've got to sort of lean over because you must talk right into these mics, or they don't work too well. Anyway, where was I? Sunday. Oh yeah. Well, we were all geared to leave on Sunday, but we... Oh, Rach went off to church, and we got Maitland and Sunday school in. We came over and took a look at the place, and it really was an awful mess. It was filthy. So... and then we wondered why the kitchen looked so big. There wasn't a fridge in it. Well, that was our big problem because we had quite a lot of stuff in the freezer at the apartment. So that really did put the thing on it. So anyhow, we went back to the apartment and went and picked up Rach from church at 11 o'clock. Man, something real funny happened. So I'll dive onto that and then get back onto what's been going on.

Well, we picked Rachael up from... Rachael and Maitland up from church at 11 o'clock, and we were driving down Powers Ferry road towards the cottage. And there was a man chopping down a tree. He looked like he was having a bit of trouble. So we went back, and we sat on... we had Bob's pickup truck, so we sat in a roadway just across from there, and we decided to watch for a while. Well, in the... I said, "Oh look, John, if we sit here, that isn't for sure, that tree will land on us or something."Anyhow, we sat there for a while. Finally, John got out. This guy really was attacking this tree with last Christmas' new hatchet, you know, and out there with his electric... hacksaw or whatever it was and just going bananas. So John rushes over with a great long rope and was to lasso... at least lassoed round this... this tree, you know? And the next thing I see this guy... I mean, we couldn't hear what they're saying, but this guy went over, put his ladder up against this tree that was almost cut down, but wasn't... wouldn't move. And I thought the man's got to be crazy. And the kids and I were laughing and sitting on the truck because his two kids were out watching all this. And we were saying, "Oh well, look out kids, watch..." Eddie...? Kind of thing. I mean, the guy was loopy. So anyhow, apparently what had happened, John said, was his little wedges or whatever that you have to cut into the side of the tree were so even that the tree was sitting in a V and just kind of sitting there. Wouldn't go one way or the other. Okay, so John, he puts the rope around the tree, and John gets it and ties it around another... the rope and comes back up so that he's got a little bit of pull on the damn thing to go in the direction which the guy's got planned for it. And then the guy gets this big saw out and into this tree. Well, the next thing, down it comes! I mean, it must have been 60 feet tall. It went through the... the oh... naturally, we could see him; he was beside the road. It went down through the power lines on his side of the road and the other side of the road, and it was just like Guy Fawkes night. There was banging and crackling, and every cable in the area went! Oh, we just about died! And his kids were sitting on a little hill just across the road, and I really thought he had gone because it was real close to him. All the power poles caught fire! Oh god, it was hilarious! I thought, "Jesus, what do we do now?" Well, John just picked up his rope, and we got in the pickup truck and off we went. We didn't want to get caught there for the whole day helping them out with that. So after... there's some guys here today chopping down trees, and I was just telling the guy about it this morning. And he reckons it'll be over $2000 worth of cost, you know, to fix up Georgia Power because we went past at 5 o'clock that night on the Sunday night, and they had two great power trucks, you know, with those like fire engine type things that hang off in that the men stand up in. And they'd been working there all day. Well, I don't know how many other one-armed bandits working on those. So he'd been in for quite considerable thousands, I'd say, to pay. His Christmas is over! Anyway, so that was that little experience on Sunday.

And then we came over here, and we had no bed, you know, and this place was so filthy because we would have been quite happy to live on the floor, but the floor was filthy. And the first thing we wanted to do was tear out the carpets. We came back after all evening, and Mrs. Elson came over. I don't think she was too impressed with the place, but she immediately said that we could do, you know, anything we like. And if we wanted to pull up the carpets, that was fine. So it was the very first thing we did, ripped up all the carpet. And it was... you that had animals, and we were just worried about fleas and junk, so out that went. And unfortunately, I had thought one of the rooms was not carpeted, and I thought it would probably... that the polished floors underneath the carpet would be in better condition, which they should have been because they hadn't been walked on. But these people, whoever had been here, had been polishing... what am I talking about? Had been watering their pot plants through the... straight through the carpet. So all the beautiful polished floors, you know, very popular here, are all very badly stained. And we don't know whether the sanding will get up... down to rock bottom or not. Anyhow, at least they're clean now. The bathroom was a treat to be admired. It had mould from end to end on the... the shower head, the window ledge. And that was just like... it was about to drop off. And now, let me tell you about it. It's got a lounge and dining room. I'm sitting in the dining room right now with a Spanish arch, Harley modern. There's a Spanish arch between the two rooms, and it's got a very high stud, like about 15 feet perhaps. Gone... everything's falling over. And it's got a scotia sort of one-third of the way up the wall and the very wide skirting boards, you know, the quite fancy ones because it's pretty old. Big windows and everything. And they've gone the whole hog Spanish-wise, and they have painted all the woodwork dark chocolate brown, which is gross, over the top of, we think, four other coats of paint. So it's as thick as chocolate as well. So our first thing is to get gallons of stripper onto all that. Get it down to the bare boards. So we've got a lounge and dining. I think both rooms are about the same size. The lounge has got a fireplace and... this... they were something like 15 by 12 each. There's two big bedrooms; they're really big, they're about 15 feet each square. And one bathroom in the middle of that and just a little hallway. The four rooms like the lounge and a bedroom and the dining room bathroom and another bedroom were all sort of in a square, you know, so there's only a tiny little square of a hall just really big enough for one enormous central heating unit. And the place is real warm; it's really good. We have it on about 65, and it's real warm. Running in short shirts. So both bedrooms are really nice, but they've gone the whole hog with the Spanish, as I said, and painted everything chocolate brown. So that was pretty bad. So we're just going right through in cream or yellowy cream, and it's dirty as well.

Then the kitchen was just a real thrill. I mean, there was lino there that had been there probably since Bev and Jack, 20 years ago. I think it was four... four layers of something on the floor. But, of course, there were holes right through to the floor in parts, so it was quite hazardous to walk through. It was undulating so much. And they had taken with them their tacky little... or whatevers that had come off the top, probably carpet squares or something. And so there's a sort of fuzzy glue left on top of the whole lot. So up that all came last night. Hardboard linos, everything. And we're now left on the kitchen floor with sort of black glue that probably went under the original linoleum. And we're about to get that off and get back to the wood floors again. The kitchen was once again the chocolate brown and the black hole gold colour, but my tree men that are outside today... Mrs. Olson had them here like they come every year anyway and have removed four trees from around this house here. And they're still working here. They're coming back to prune all the big trees outside of the kitchen window and around the house. And branches growing looks like through the roof up by the lounge, and they're going to come and fix that up. They were all cute little guys. One just talks and looks like McCloud, the guy on television, without his horse. He's six foot six and just looks and talks like him. Anyway. Then off the kitchen, there's a little... which when Beverly and Jack lived here, you know, 18 years ago, was a screened-off porch, but it's now a little room with a sort of a low sloping roof. And that's where the back door comes in as well. The front door goes into the lounge, and the back door goes into the sort porch here. And that's upstairs. And to get into the house, there's a swooping great driveway. Oh, you know, real... but I mean, you know, it's like going up to the mansion, only it goes kind of around the house to the back door. There's... you can't drive up to the front door. And that's what I'm waiting for at the moment. I would... I did go out to work this morning, but I knew Bob didn't have much work. All I'd have been doing was a bit of training and learning and stuff. So we're just in such a sort of a state here. Southern Bell was supposed to have the telephone on on Monday, and they're no better than the post office, let me tell you! Everything was jacked up. I picked up my phone and all that. And yeah, she just... "Plug it in, madam, and it'll just be ringing like crazy on Monday." So she said, "Now there's a little note attached to the phone, and if it doesn't work at 5 o'clock on Monday, you've got to ring this number." And I thought, "Well, how the hell do you do that?"So I went down to the YMC and rang up. "Oh yes, well, very sorry, it'll be on tomorrow."While I got home here at 3 o'clock yesterday, Marsha was here, and I told her to wear very hardy clothing because life was hazardous round here. There were nails poking out the floor and goodness knows what. She bought me a little red rug which had never been used, that she doesn't need. And I said, "Well, next time she comes, I'll roll out the red carpet before her." But she was here, and she thought it was just hilarious because we had all these tree men chopping down trees. I came in on the new Prelude, of course. I meant to tell you about that. I drive up the driveway in my new car, and I see this man with the tree. Well, of course, after Sunday's experience, I was a little bit cautious about trees. So I said to him, "Oh no, I'm going to move my car." And he said, "Alright." He sort... "Alright, the tree won't be anywhere near it."Well, the tree they were pulling down wasn't that far from the car, but obviously, they were pulling it to fall in the other direction. I said, "I'm taking no chance." So I got out of the car, and I put... left it here and parked it sort of further down the drive towards the Elson's place. And then I thought, I called out to Marsha because she was at the front door and seen me, and I said, "I'm going back. I'll hold on there. I'm going back to move my car!" So I moved my car out onto the road. I just couldn't stand it. Next thing was the hell of a bang like an earthquake, and the tree's down. Sure enough, it fell exactly where they wanted it to, but I just couldn't have stood the thought of it going through my gorgeous new little car.

Anyhow, on the next thing, I'm still out talking to the tree men, and a little van pulls up, and it says Southern Bell. I said, "You don't look like a Southern belle." And he said, "No, I'm not a Southern belle," he said, "but I've got your Southern Bell telephone books." And I said, "Well, they're not much use to me because I haven't got a telephone yet." And he... "Oh well, you can read them." And I said, "Well, I just about get finished reading them before they don't hurry." Anyhow, because the books here are even bigger and fatter this year. They're... I mean, they must be three or four inches thick at least. Anyhow, so that's the pages that and the whites that, and now we have a Buckhead supplement. So that's, you know, our area here as well. And he said, "You want one or two lots?" And I said, "Oh, just take one." And then I said, "On second thoughts, I'll take two." They make good seats, you know, we haven't got any furniture. And he said, "Well, that's a jolly good idea." So he gets them out and hunts them and on and everything. And then he sets off down the driveway. Oh, that's right, we were talking to him for a while, and he said, "Oh, I've just been to one of the mansions," you know, and pointed through the trees. I don't know whether it was Elson's, but probably one next to it or something. And he said, "Do you know how many phone books they had?" And we all said no. And he said, "They had 15 yellow and 15 white!" I mean, go! He said they had two telephones by the pool. But what the hell they do with all those phone books is just beyond me. I mean, storage is just always my problem. Anyway, so then he sets off back down the drive. The next thing he comes back again. He said, "I couldn't really tell you," he said, "Southern Bell's outside your gate right now!" So I rushed out and had a look, and there's a little man up a pole. And he worked there for about an hour. And about 10 past five, he came in. He was black, so I couldn't look him... embarrassed, but he was obviously very upset and sympathetic and didn't know what to say. And he said, "I'm terribly sorry," he said, "I've worked," and he said, "there's nothing wrong at the line out here." He said, "It's an office problem at the telephone." And he said, "It should be on; you ring into the office." But he said, "The computer's broken down now, and it'll be tomorrow before we can get it on."And I said, "Oh," you know, "too bad." So I called them this morning, and still no joy. They said... I told them I was coming home, that I'd be here all day, not that... but I need to be if it's an office problem. Still, I await a ring on the telephone. Nothing's happened; it's like about 2 o'clock now.

Anyway, the other thing was that when we got here on the Sunday, there was no refrigerator, and so we had a real problem with that. So Mrs. Elson, you know, said, "Well, she didn't know where it had gone because there was meant to be one." She'd make a few discreet inquiries as to where it had gone. But in the meantime, she'd get us one. They had one downstairs in the basement of their house, but it didn't have a freezer, so that wasn't any good. So in the meantime, we bought all the stuff over and put it in the fridge in the summer house. And the stove in the summer house is better than this one too, I might add. But anyhow, then left everything over there. So at the moment, we're not kind of using milk or anything 'cause it's a long way over to the summer house, and it's been a bit nippy. It's warmed up again today; it's 65 today. But we have been down... I think I told you last week it was going down to... and yesterday or the day before... well, like Sunday too, it was really cold all day. Usually, if we have a cold night, it still warms up in the day, but it was real cool for two days there. But it's warmed up again now. Anyway, so all the food's over in the summer house. And Mrs. Elson called... sent Harry over on Sunday night to tell us that she had got a fridge and that it would be delivered on Wednesday. Well then, she called again to say that Sears were delivering it. So we called them this morning, and they said they'd already left, and they weren't in radio communication with their trucks. And so that they had 18 on board and probably wouldn't be here before noon. But if nobody was here, they wouldn't leave it. And with the steps at the back of the house and not being able to get to the front, I wanted to be here to make sure that they put it in. It must be a brand new one, which is very nice. We didn't want to kind of push for the big appliance type things in the house. You know, she's prepared to pay for painting and everything, but we felt that once she saw that we were prepared to work and that we were really gonna make this place look terrific, that she will naturally come across with a new stove because the old one's had it. It's a gas stove, and it's been real beat. It's awful. Monday night, I was just trying to clean the top elements. I don't think I'll even attempt to clean the inside of it; it was so bad. And there's a knock at the door; it was Georgia Power. So he said... I said, "Oh, I'm pleased to see you. Come on in," because I hadn't never used a gas stove, and the damn thing... I didn't realize there's even pilot light; there was so much fat on it, the damn things didn't go. And he came, and I had it all in pieces on top. And it was good because he showed me what I could take out and scrub and clean and everything without any danger and all that. And we had the smell of gas, which was coming out of the pilot lights, but they were so clogged up that, you know, they wouldn't light properly. So he came in, and I said to him, "Is this good, bad, or is this real dirty?" And "You've seen a few stoves?" And he says, "This is real dirty."So it was real bad news. In the end, I just poured Gumption on, which is always fun because it all bubbles up all the fat and grime. And then to save... little nuts onto that lot, I scrubbed around with a brush and then, because the kitchen floor was such a mess, we took the stove over and poured water over it so that it all ran off, you know, which was really one way of getting it... And then the floor went because we took it up, so that helped clean the top of the stove. And we at least were able to fry some chicken.

Anyhow, so that was Monday night we slept on the floor. And then last night, we managed to get some beds. This guy sells them. They're the best quality beds, but they're seconds and all that junk. They don't necessarily match. And we've got mismatched like base and mattress, you know, don't match. They all come as seconds from the factory, and of course, they're perfectly good beds. And we got a double and two singles for $300. So he just... and here they don't use the pig legs, you know, the screw-in pig legs that we have at home. They use frames. So you know, that was with the frames too. So that really is a pretty good deal. We had looked at the Red Shield, you know, the Salvation Army, that sort of thing, on beds and drawers. First, you know, everybody wants those, so they don't keep them for very long. And they wanted like about $12 for the frame and $17 to $25 for the base, and that again for the mattress. So you know, you're up to $70 bucks or something, and that's secondhand, and God knows who's slept on it and God knows what. So these are really nice brand new ones. So we've got beds now. I could sit... they're very comfortable last night. And we've got lots of plans for the house. It's all going to be... I'm going to get wicker furniture, nuts on white wicker furniture. So we're gonna look around for that and get it slowly. When the place is finished, I'm going to do the kitchen in real bright green, you know, sort of a Kelly green and white. Everything's going to be painted white again. And the children's bedroom is going to be all in rainbows. We're going to paint a rainbow across the walls. And they don't know yet, but I have found rainbow pillowcases and rainbow sheets and quilts and everything. So the whole room will be little rainbows. That way, we get around whether it'd be pink or blue and all that stuff, you know? So I think it'll look really good when... on the bathroom. Huge... yes, it's got blue and white tiles on the floor, but it's been painted blue, and it's like an iceberg. It's real cold and horrible, and it needs a lot doing to it. So we're gonna really get into that and do it now. And bit by bit, I think the place will look really good.

Now, what happened about the car? We finally picked up the car. I guess Thursday or Wednesday or Thursday or... Oh no, we spoke to you. That's right. It was on the... I mean, we made a tape that night. Oh, I don't know. It was last week, wasn't it, Wednesday anyway. So well, that was great. We had that all weekend, and it's really nice. The kids are thrilled with the... the moonlight top thing, you know, that opens... the slide opens and all that, and you press a button, and it all slides back. So on the first fine day, they wanted it up. That was only about 40 degrees, if you please, something along with the moonlight roof back, but they thought it was great. They're all shivering in the back. And the only thing I'm disappointed with at this point is the radio is no good. They charge you $300 for the radio, reckon, and you can buy pretty good radios here for much less than that. But anyway, you're sort of a bit ripped off, but they do fit better when they're bought to the make of the car. But there's a problem with stereo; it just ain't... it's not going in stereo. And it's on the FM stations. When you get an FM station, a little light goes on, you know, and it flickers if you're not quite on the station. Well, it's flickering all the time. You can't tune it in, so it's really bad news. Now, use the radio a lot in the car. So that's about the only problem at the moment. I'm going to get a burglar alarm put on it, I think. I don't know yet. The Honda people don't do it. In fact, they do sweet all once they've sold you the car. But I don't know whether you've heard them when they go off, but they make a terrific noise, and you know, if anyone was trying to steal your car in a sort of reasonably public place, I'm sure it would deter them. I think they're probably well worth the money just for the sheer sake of inconvenience, you know, and cars getting stolen are fairly popular.

What else has been happening? I did a lot of... been doing quite a bit of work. I've made my first couple of appliances. They weren't too bad the first time, you know, from start to finish up with the wire bending and which is the stainless steel part of the retainer and pouring the acrylic. And I can pour up models too, which is good because we often sometimes get them unpoured. And also now that John's making these models for just a couple of Bob's dentists, he's doing these study molds, I'll be able to do that too because they're mostly pouring out and doing them very neatly. So I should be able to do that, and we'll be able to sit up here properly once we get organised with what... we'll do them from home. What? Because Bob's got his new car at work. He's got the Mazda sports car, which is really nice. Dropping it up and thing. And he's just thrilled to bits with that. But it came to something like $8,100, I guess, in the end. With... and he has to pay $1,000 dollars a year insurance, which is just so steep. Ours finally was $600 bucks for the year. And... anyway, I don't think we've... haven't really bought anything else or done much of... We've written to Ruth Ann and Jim and said that we decided that we will come to St Louis for Christmas. We thought, seeing we've moved in and that we moved in early, you know, we thought we may not be able to get in until the 15th, and seeing as we've got in so much earlier, we figure that we can probably afford the time. And Christmas falls on a Tuesday, which is quite a good day to go up, like the weekend before, just have the Monday off, come back Wednesday, and it should work out pretty nicely. And by then, we'll probably have had enough of us because we're working flat out every night, and we'll probably feel like getting away from it for a while. So... what else is it?

Oh, and my presents from Joan arrived, believe it or not, with your letter yesterday, which was the letter that said that Dad had had his operation and was pleased and so on and so forth. That Joan... Ruthy called around last night and brought them. Joan's present came too. But you know, she... I sort of wrote straight back to her all concerned, saying that, you know, it hadn't arrived because she said they were birthday presents. For heavens above, the last birthday's the 12th of June! She actually didn't post those till the 22nd of August, so you know, it really wasn't all that... all that long. Or it's that August, September, October, November... that's three months, and she sent them by sea. Well, it always takes that long. So that's, you know, about what I had expected. But I naturally assumed that she had posted them a lot earlier than that. Anyway.

Well, Sears have just been and finally got the great big truck down the driveway and have brought in a brand new Kenmore refrigerator. It's really nice. Mrs. Elson had said she'd get one, but I didn't really expect it to be a new one. So I think it shows her good faith in us that she's gone out and bought a brand new fridge. The bill came with it; it was $400. So that's very nice of her. So it looks like she won't mind coming up with a new stove as well when the time comes. I won't say anything right now, but I think she'll kind of perhaps volunteer. The kitchen unit and that is one of those vanity units all in one, and it's pretty short. It's all made of tin, which doesn't look as gross as it sounds, but it's all rust and... and it's never been put in properly; it just sort of sits there, and consequently, it sort of moves about. So that really... John thinks needs pulling out too. It probably wasn't all that expensive. So the guys just put in the fridge, and it fits just right. Everywhere we've lived, like at Ruth and Jimmy's and the apartment, the darned door on the fridge opened the wrong way, and it just about drove me mad. And at least this one opens the right way anyway. I said to the guy when he was bringing it in, "Which way does it open?" Because I had a choice in the kitchen; there were two places I could have put it. And anyway, it fits in really good where I wanted it. But these particular Sears models anyway, he said most of their refrigerators now, they have holes both sides so the doors can be changed. But anyway, it just... there's a little thing that can bug the heck out of you.

Oh, we got reports yesterday too when Marcia was here. It was really quite funny because the kids came home and roared in the house. Rachael tripped over the steps because there's leaves everywhere at the moment, and she was in tears and didn't know whether it was about her leg or what, but she'd lost her report. And so she was pretty upset. And Maitland had hers and he had clasped it in his little hand, and he wanted to explain about the report before he gave it to me. And Marsha was in hysterics. He was waving his arms around explaining that he didn't see what ones were, which he admitted, which was quite funny. He said that twos were fine, they were good, and threes weren't bad. They weren't bad; they really weren't bad, but they just meant that you had to work a little bit harder. And he was waving his arms around explaining all this to Marsha and I, who were in hysterics anyway. He finally lets grasp this report in hands of... too many because it was mostly twos, that there was the odd three in there. And he obviously was a bit upset about it, and he was just explaining to me that there was room for improvement. So we went over his report with him last night and to each subject. And I mean, there's about 70 things on it that have got twos or threes beside them, every little thing they possibly can do, and the way they act and everything. And I said, "Well, you know, this is a good report because there's plenty of room to improve." And so he was sort of perfectly happy with that and said he's going to try harder. And I was quite pleased because he gets on pretty well with his teacher anyway. I went into school this morning with Rach because she was upset about losing hers, and she had left it in the classroom, and it was okay. And the teacher gave it to me very happily, and she looked very glamorous today. You know these plaits they dye their hair, you know, more bleach it and make it sort of reddish? And her teacher's got about the best looking head of black hair I've seen around. It's not sort of fuzzy; she straightens it, but it always looks nice. She must spend a fortune on it. And she's very attractive. I can't remember if you met her; I think you met Maitland's one. She's extremely black, but she... when you get to know her, very, very nice. And anyhow, the teacher gave it to me. So Rachael and I went out of the room, and we opened it, and hers was all ones and a few twos. And you know, I was really that proud of her. And it had on the back, "Rachael's whole attitude has changed, and she's settled down very, very well in class." And the teacher's really thrilled with her. She got... you know, it's an extremely good report, but she's not having too much difficulty with the work, so that's the main thing.

But I meant to tell you something about... Oh yeah, I went to parent-teacher meeting with Mrs Mormon, Maitland's teacher. And I was having the discussion with her about the vowels and whether or not it's the possibility that Maitland could have trouble with the vowel sounds because of different accents and that he comes home at night, and I pronounce things differently to the way they are pronounced in the classroom. And I didn't want to say to her, "You know, because you're black," because the accents are different, but I sort of made it sound like it was Southern or American or whatever. And she said, "Oh no, no." She said, "You know, the vowels and vowels, and that's that kind of thing. And we pronounce the words exactly the same way as you do." And I couldn't believe her. I said... thought... I tell you! You know, she was convinced that we speak the same way. And I said, "Well, just a few little words, you know, that you may say different." Like, you think...? She said, "Oh no, he shouldn't have any trouble." Or then she went on to say, you know, burst into a Southern or black sort of accent about, "Oh no, there ain't no... there ain't no... there ain't no difference in the way we speak," or something, you know? And other... Oh golly, I mean, they just don't know they're doing it. They don't hear it. And just one word, for example, is 'more'. We pronounce it 'more', and she says 'moah'. "We had moah for dinner." "Moah? I want some moah." As Ruthy said, I mean, you know, it does make it a little bit difficult for the children because if he's spelling by sound, that's a totally different word. And the 'pie' and I... And well, I mentioned to her like about 'pie'. And that says things are as "cute as pah". And that's like a P-A-H. And it doesn't even sound like there's an E in the running. And she said, "Oh no, we don't say 'pah'." She said, "That's... that's a playground slang, you know, that she doesn't use." But she does, she's just about... all the black kids do.

Anyway, I think I'm about to run out of tape, so that was very exciting. It's now probably about three. I'm expecting the kids home. And still no Southern Bell because I've been... I'm sitting here surrounded by Christmas cards too, because I want to get them away. And I had hoped to put the phone number in, not that it really matters that much, but you know, I got this sort of thing... I'm here, and now I'm going... Thinking the phone is going to be on early in December. It would work out quite nicely that now, day by day, I'm getting panic-stricken. But tonight, I'm just going to have to get them all finished tonight and get them away because otherwise, they'll get coupled up in the rush at Christmas time. But... Well hi y'all, we're on side two, in case you're on the wrong side. Well, as I was saying, you know, I don't want to leave my Christmas postings too late, but it really doesn't matter anyway. But I just sort of feeling, you know, it's costing so much to send them that you kind of want to put in the latest information anyway. Not a lot you can do about it.

But this place is going to be really nice. We're really very thrilled with it. And I mean, it's just such a mess that it's my... as I said to Marsha, as she said, "What's it like?" I said, "Well, it's going to be a challenge, Marsha, a sure challenge." And you know, this is the whole thing. If we'd come in here and it'd been kind of recently redecorated, well, we'd have to live with it. But it'll be really terrific by the time we finished with it. It's going to be a real asset to the mansion, I should think, Mrs... And once the exterior's painted... it's a bit late now to paint because we're getting a few frosts, and you know, the temperatures aren't really warm enough. But we'll get it painted... we've got to do the summer house too. And she wants the summer house and the cottage done the same as the mansion, which is dark gray and light gray. Most of the mansion is in the stone. I believe the mansion is a replica of Blenheim Palace house or something or rather. Beverly knows the story; I must find out and tell you about her. But anyway, we were in the... Beverly went to a meeting at the Elsens' a couple of weeks ago, and it was really funny. She was saying that because the house after the fire has been redecorated, and Mrs. Elson's done it very modern. It's extremely modern, and it's been quite the talk of Atlanta because they're very artistic... well, you know, they're involved with the arts, and of course, all the art people have been very... it's been quite a controversy amongst the wealthy, I suppose, as to how modern she's gone. And it really is extremely modern. I think I might have told you in the grand foyer, the grand entrance, and it really is huge. I mean, I'd hate to think what the stud is. And there's a big double staircase flying up, you know, real Scarlett O'Hara stuff. They have got a bronze which must be 20 foot high. It doesn't seem that big because the room is so enormous. And it's like an Al Capone creature in a black suit and hat and works... you know, he almost just needs a machine gun. It's got an enormous mural of him and her. It doesn't actually look like them to begin unless you sort of figure that it must have been when they saw it. But sort of him and her dancing through the meadows kind of thing. It really is quite... And the kitchen is very modern and huge stud again, and it's flush, everything's sort of new and flush, you know, the old woodwork that they tend to have here in the South. And it's got, I think the background of it's like white or something, but then there's these huge like a purple circle or a red triangle. I mean just enormous. And if there's a door in between, it just... they paint through the door and all that sort of thing. You know, it's most interesting. But Beverly was sitting at this meeting looking from the lounge and go... she knows this house real well. I mean, they lived in it when it was a Southern mansion manor, you know, and it was done out in the old overstuffed couches and real cozy sort of... She said she was sitting looking at a painting, and I mean, everything in the house is worth a fortune, and they're into art in a big way, so the stuff in the house is probably worth a lot of money. And she said that she was looking at this painting, and in the painting had Clorox or like Gumption or something, and all sort of household cleaner. And that this great big oil painting... and she said, "That I could do without. That's what I want to get away from! If I had to sit in my lounge, they don't want to be able to see a painting of kitchen sort of stuff."And I said, "Well Bev, probably Mrs. Elson never sees that sort of stuff." That it was a still life of... most people would have fruit; she's got Clorox and Liquid Lux and all that sort of junk. But there's some fantastic... I can't wait to really have a good look through the house. It's got huge organ and oh, I mean, it's just out of this world.

Well, amongst all this, of course, I'm trying to do Christmas shopping. And now that we're going to St. Louis, I would have had to have sent presents up there anyway because they're bound to send us presents this way. But I'm really just stumped as to what to buy them. And I mean, you know what Americans are like. They've just got everything, and it's not only a matter of what you buy them, but you know, how much you spend. I mean, they spend so much. They're also affluent and generous or whatever, I don't know, mixture of craziness. And we had... the church, they were selling poinsettias, so I ordered a whole lot of those. And I gave Ruthie... it's her birthday on Friday, and I gave one to her. She was thrilled because that's... it's a Christmas plant, it's also her birthday plant, you know, the poinsettia being a December birthday. And so I gave her one, they gave one to Marsha and Beverly, and explained that it wasn't a start a Christmas thing or anything with them, you know, just generally because they've been so nice to us all and everything. But that we're all going to exchange presents just for the children; we're not going to get involved with the adults. But the kids, you know, God knows what I'll buy Hugh and John. But we found something for little Christopher, he's in St. Louis, which we thought might be cute. And that was... I went out to John's work the other day, and oh, I had the kids with me. They had the day off, like last Friday it was teachers' report day or whatever, or planning day. And John said to the kids, "Hey, where's the radio? Where's that radio gone? Can you find that radio?" And the kids looked around, looked around, and a few minutes later, Maitland said, "There it is!" And it was a Coke bottle. I'll tell you, I've never seen anything more like a Coke bottle in my life, and it had a little radio on it. Anyway, I thought from Georgia being, you know, Coke's capital and everything, that'll be quite a cute little present for Christopher, and he's six, so mad, just like Maitland, so I think he'd get quite a lot of fun out of that. Actually, they're quite light, and I've contemplated posting some home because they're very cute little things. I'd probably get caught for darned customs duty on the damn things. They're only about eight dollars, but you know what they're like about customs things and that's sort of something that's... well, it has got a radio on. Anyway, so that's what I got for him. And we got Maitland a new soccer ball, and I found a gorgeous thing the other day, which is like a net, and you put it over the soccer ball, and you put this spike thing on the ground, you know, and you can practice your kicks, and the ball comes back to you. Which I thought might save us a little bit. We'll be busy with painting. John might be able to be out there kicking the soccer ball constantly. That'll keep Maitland busy. And we've got a basketball goal, and Rachael started basketball, and so we're going to get her a basketball. And I bought a new net to put on, you know, a new red, white, and blue striped net to put on the... and Maitland, he said to me the other day, because he's all... about Rachael keeps telling him Father Christmas isn't true. And said he sort of not too sure. But anyway, he said to me the other day, "Do you think that Father Christmas would bring me a remote control car?" He really wants one. So I think we'll get him that. And I'm going... Rachael... a very pretty little dress. I got her some new clothes the other day, a little pinafore sort of a blue, not a dark blue, a kind of a teary blue corduroy overalls, you know, with the little crossover straps and a little pink, dusky pink shirt, and she looks real cute. But I think I'll get her a pretty dress. She really likes to have a pretty dress, probably pink, knowing Rach. And... what else? God knows what I'll get Hugh and John. That really is a very tricky question. Apart from the fact, with all these expenses lately, we're running very low on the old capital. But however, we seem to be managing pretty well. I had a little bit aside so that when the bank came through... and the bank were pretty generous with the amount of money they gave us for the car. That as long as we could meet our payments, we'll be okay. And now that we've got moving in here, we've now got no rent to pay. So we'll then have the telephone, which is something like $13 a month, and the energy, gas and electricity, which shouldn't be more than $50. And that's sort of about it, except for running the cars and so on. And I've told Bob that I'm not prepared to use the Honda to do deliveries, so I'll use the... the Subaru while we've still got it, which we still have. But I'm not going to use the Honda to do... you know, I was doing up to 500 miles a week. Well, that's just... I'm just not prepared to do that. And as his Mazda is a business car and insured for business, you know, he'll either have to let me use that, or he'll have to frankly do the deliveries himself or get somebody else. I mean, you know, just not prepared to use it. I mean, you run the risk... of 500 miles a week, you're on the road a lot more, run the risk of, you know, what? And I don't need another one. So I think he'll probably let me use... and he's looking for more business out Marietta way, rather than some of his accounts are a long way because he used to live that much further out. So hopefully, if we get more business near the office, it'll, you know, won't be so much travelling anyway.

Oh, Beverly's been to see... I'm so mad. We've been so busy, I really don't think I'm going to get to see Annie. And she said it was fantastic; it's really tremendous. Annie and Chorus Line she went to. She said, "Oh, I think I've been locked in the closet." She's suddenly gone to the theatre. She's off to Oliver tonight. She's been to the theatre three times in about two weeks. And she... even she's been locked in the closet for too long. She's going to spread her wings and get out to the theatre more often. And she's taking this little girl, Katrina, the Rotary exchange student, with her too. I think I told you about the Rotary Exchange student, did I? She's a friend of Beverly's that they haven't seen in years, and she's been staying in Connecticut, living there. She's going home in January. Oh, that's right, we saw her on Saturday. Oh, Saturday was the soccer party, which we went to at two o'clock. And they had a cake, and it was a great big cake, and it had on it "Great Team and Great Coach" or something, and a big soccer ball. When we got home at night, Maitland said, "Oh, I wish I'd had a piece of cake with the soccer ball on." They all got trophies. Oh, he was thrilled to bits! He couldn't wait to rush in and show Beverly his trophy with his name and the team and everything. And... a little plastic, of course, gold and gold-looking like bronze, little soccer player kicking a ball. Oh, he's thrilled to bits! He's been carrying it around with him ever since. Then they got gold certificates from the Y, all signed by the coach and the boss of the Y and goodness knows what. And the photographs are just gorgeous. He looks like they've been taken in the pitch of night. In fact, they weren't. It was, you know, the evening, but it wasn't dark. But the photos are quite dark, but I guess it's to bring out the kids more. And he... those real cute... his hair looks the same color as his shirt, which I guess it is really. So I'll send you those photos as soon as I can find them. I was just sitting here doing my Christmas cards, and I was doing Robin and Peter's, and I said, "Enclosed photo." And then I thought, "Oh god, now I better go find the photo and put it in." And I hunted and hunted, probably 20 minutes looking for the photographs. Heavens knows where they are. And of course, couldn't find them, having written on the card that I wasn't enclosing them. So I may just have to put a little bit more on and say they'll be coming later when I locate them.

The first thing I did when I got in here was to clean out the pantry. There's a really nice pantry in the place, quite big, a bit like the one we had at Cromwell Street. And so I cleaned it out. And on the first night we were here, Monday night, I painted that out while John lifted the floor in the kitchen. And I just gave it a coat. We only had some flat white undercoat, but at least it was clean enough to put down lining paper, and at least I've got the food away in the... just put everything in the pantry. I won't use the other cupboards until we finished the kitchen, but at least we've got somewhere to put our food.

I'd be interested to know, you know, Tony and Elaine. I suppose they're all fit and well. And Jason's in school already, that's really good. Although only... only have a week or two, I suppose, before the summer holidays. But I'd be interested to know any of the problems that they had or the expenses in freight home of the cars and all that sort of thing, future reference or anything else that they had sort of problems with, you know, the kind of costs incurred in furniture and that sort of thing. What we're thinking now is that, especially since we've pulled up all the carpets here, and it really... of course, Ruthy's first thing was, you know, she'd just whip it over, and that's a face value thing through, you know, as long as it looks okay, doesn't have to be sort of clean or down stripping down and all that sort of such a marketing into real hard work. She said, "Oh, just paint over that brown." You know, I mean, God, it's that damp like... you couldn't paint over it again. There's that much dirt under it. But you know, that's Ruthy anyway. But since... and of course, when she saw the floor, she said, "Oh, it'll be so much easier just to put carpet straight down again." And I thought, "Sure it would," you know, but you've still got all wet dirt and gunk underneath, and I couldn't live with that. I'd rather get it all cleaned up. And because the heating's so good, you know, wood floor is really perfectly warm. You know, it's not like at home where you only heat one room at a time, and you feel a lot warmer off carpet. But it would be cheap to get carpet because the cheap junk they sell here is... you're going to do a whole house for a couple hundred bucks. But anyway, as John said, there's what they'd put down. Yeah, sure, you could do it. But what we want to do is get it down. And what we're thinking now is that we might invest in... you know, the Indian rugs and that here are expensive, but I'm sure they're a lot cheaper than at home. And of course, they're very popular here in the South. Not that I want to do this place up in that style; I want to do it up modern with the wicker and everything. But although wicker is not modern, but you know, sort of bright colours and stuff, is perhaps buy carpets that, you know, will be investments and to bring home. I think that type of thing would be of good investment, even if you wanted to keep it, it would be something well worth keeping. And so we think that rather... we'd rather live with no furniture. I mean, as long as we've got beds, and we'll get some desks for the kids, the homeware... we should be able to pick those up around the area, just the old school desks. And you know, I want to write in this too, that we can use the tables and chairs in the summer house because all the outdoor furniture, you know, they've got a mile of it in the summer house. And so we could go down and get that if we need it by the weekend if we haven't got a table. And so we thought rather than just rush out and buy sort of cheap tables and chairs, that we will hold out and buy something that may well be of investment to bring home. I can't see any point in carting just ordinary milk tables and chairs or anything back. Any beds or anything, I mean, it's just a waste of time. The costs involved in insurance and just plain freight would outweigh any... you know, it just wouldn't be worth it. But if you bought perhaps a few antiques or, you know, the real truly early American furniture, would be probably... you know, well worthwhile. So we think we'll kind of hunt around. I mean, these garage sales have fantastic things, and if we just bide our time and watch out for stuff, we'll get it as it comes along. Also, as our bank balance builds up too, we're kind of stinted right now, but we should be able to get a few hundred bucks again together fairly soon and use it for a few furnishings. And whilst Mrs. Elson is prepared to pay for all the paint and everything, we don't have any outlay there. She's got... they own a building downtown or something that has a paint shop in it or whatever. We just have to order it all through her, and it'll all be delivered. So it's not like we've got any outlay all in doing the place up. And you know, this fridge today arriving like this has shown that she's, you know, got a good attitude about it. But we just sort of felt that we wanted her to see that we were prepared to really do it nicely. She likes the little cottage; she thinks it's cute. So I think by the time we finished redecorating it inside and out, she's kind of be thrilled to bits up.

Oh, the thing too, it's got a big veranda on the front, you know, and it hasn't got what Maitland calls totem poles, but there are big pillars either end. But the sort with the bricks, you know, up, and then a wooden thing up to the roof. And the people that have been here... one of the chaps, the tree chopping guys, said, "You know, hippies were living here." He said, "Well, those our carpets out front?" When I said no, he said, "Oh, they're from in the house?" And I said yes. He said, "Oh, they were spring..." And they sure were. But they've been barbecuing under the eaves of the house. Of course, it's all black out there. So that all needs redecorating. But there's a fairly big porch, you know. And I can just see a couple of rocking chairs. You know how they have rocking chairs down here in the South? You see that in the movies, don't really believe that that's how they live. But you know, so well, perhaps get some rocking chairs. Although they're really nice stuff like that's pretty expensive down here. Get it all secondhand and do it up anyway.

I really must get on with something. The kids will be home any minute, and I've really... I have accomplished a bit by having the day off, but I don't feel like I've done as much as I should have done. And you know what it's like having kids underfoot; you don't really get so much done, do you?

Oh yeah, I didn't know... as you said in your letter, I didn't know that you'd had the bill from the Hialeah hospital. It was quite steep, wasn't it, $103? I'm glad the insurance paid out on that. And as I said, I hadn't had anything from the others, so I really don't know what's going on there. Perhaps it was a freebie, I don't know. But did they pay out on everything else as well? You didn't tell me that.

9 o'clock on Friday morning, and I'm so late for work now, I don't suppose it's gonna matter if I'm another few minutes while I finish this tape to you. So just a moment. The reason I'm so late, of course, is that I was doing Christmas cards until four o'clock this morning, and I thought, "I'll just let the kids and John wake up in time." And I woke up at five past eight. The kids were out in the kitchen, so we rushed around, got them off. John took them, and it's quite handy having two cars at the moment. And I just sort of got myself... got my act together. So I can get these cards posted on the way to work. Just how much tape if I got left here? There's not that much, so keep going right.

Just, I wanted to go back over your mail. And the other thing was that naturally, Southern Bell didn't fix the phone that day, but finally, we got the phone on yesterday. I had been calling them and calling them and carrying on. And finally, when I told them that a government department could do as well as this, the phone was on within half an hour. A man called John, and the phone was operating. So that sort of got them going. That must have been the big... about the biggest insult I could have made too.

Hope you've had your windscreen fixed up by now, Mum. And Dad had us up last Friday, that must have been about the 23rd of November. What's the date today? I always... at least 10 days... Oh, oh, more than that, two weeks ago, two weeks today. It doesn't sound... a very big area by the sound of it. Well, I guess it is on the foot, but it doesn't seem to be all that large. What was the real, you know, reason behind it all? I'm interested to know. How's the old boy feeling? I suppose he's still sitting up there telling everybody what to do. The... you know, it doesn't sound like the hospital's a very pleasant place to be, so perhaps they'll let him home. As long as he keeps his foot perhaps tied to the roof or something. At least he'd be happier at home, I'm sure. The drabs around... notice you've got 'drab', and then 'very drab' underlined, so it must be awful. And also, you went out and had a night with David and Dorothy. You sound like you're quite busy, especially if you've got to do the hospital cooking as well. The cheque... you got the cheque from Florida. Tony and Aileen have all arrived safely, well that's good. And I've got... oh well, I've said that about that before, getting Jason into school already. I hope they have some success finding a house. And perhaps they should do what we're doing, probably rent a place too. But it's great fun with two kids. But the children seem to be enjoying it. Each night, Rachael says, "When's this place going to be finished?" And I've got news here; it's going to take a little bit longer than that. But we have their room all planned. And I found the linen that I want yesterday for their room, and... but I asked when it would be on sale, and all the white sales start on the 26th of December. So it'll be half priced then at least. So I'm going to wait, and we'll get all our linen then. Furniture too, the sales will start the day after Christmas. So we should be back from St. Louis by the 27th, and I'll shoot down and buy a whole lot of linen and stuff because it's real cheap then.

Yes, children... Oh Christmas... God, that's the one thing we miss here. You'll have to make us one for next year. I tried making one last year, but you just can't buy the same kind of mixed fruit that you can at home. I could have bought it all individually; it's pretty expensive that way. You know, those packs of Gold Pack, I think it was, mixed fruit? I always used that. You can't buy that here. They use crystallised pineapple and a lot of cherries and that sort of thing. And so we really missed Christmas cake. I did make one for Beverly and them last year, but it really didn't taste quite like the ones I used to make at home.

And I think I told you that... or did I? That Ruthie called around and we got presents from Joan, from Peru and everything. So that was all great fun. Last night I spent doing all my cards. I've done about 150 cards, and they'll all be going off this morning, both New Zealand and America. I put in a couple of extra copies of the Christmas letter, in case you want to send it to somebody or whatever.

Well, it's Ruthy's birthday today, so we called her up last night when we got the new phone on. Wished her happy birthday, and she's got Jimmy's daughter and son-in-law there. And Elodie had just thrown down the stairs naked, laughing her head off, and wet all the way down the carpet. So things were running madly around there. Anyway, Daphne, Jimmy's daughter that lives in Lynchburg, Virginia, she's apparently pushed her grades up at school, and she now has a chance of entering Emory University. So she's down here to look into that. She's quite keen to go to medical school. I don't know whether she'd probably live on campus, which I'd say be a great relief to Ruthie. I don't think she'd want her to be living there, quite honestly.

What else did I have to tell you about? Oh, I'm going to the dentist on Monday to get my top crowns done. And the car's going well. The weather's beautiful today, although they say it... suffered about 60 again to 65 today, it's going to be, but it'll be cool for the weekend, they say. The Iranian situation doesn't seem to have changed much. And in New Zealand, disaster too. We've heard... Beverly was talking to somebody in New Zealand the other day. They had a call from Tower, I think. And she was told that Lady Robb was on board. And that name seemed familiar, but... who was she? And you know, send us some information about the whole thing. That's been such a shock to us all here. And... of course, it hit the news for a few days, but then we haven't heard what the little box had to reveal. But as I said, it hit the news for the first couple of days, but after that, it naturally... the Iranian situation took precedence once again. Everybody... it's on the top of everybody's tongues here. They had polls on the radio and goodness knows what, whether or not to attack and whatever. And then of course, yesterday we had the guy that had been interviewed, he... one of the hostages, and he apparently wants the Shah sent back so that they can be released. Which didn't sound too bright because I didn't think that Carter is likely to do that now. They're calling him 'Cold-handed Carter'. Kennedy, every time he opens his mouth, seems to lose another thousand or two votes. He's really being very silly. The biggest scandal is that the Shah apparently had made a comment that he made less mistakes in 37 years on the throne than Kennedy... John Kennedy did in three years as president. Teddy, of course, reacted to that with very adverse statements and got himself pretty unpopular. He reacted like a little schoolboy.

Oh, I don't know whether I told you that we've got our Christmas tree all set up. It looked really cute. It's a six-foot high Christmas tree, and we've got all sorts of things underneath it, and it's got candy canes all over and coloured lights, and we bought a few decorations, and we've got our Christmas stockings up. And it really looks very cute. The kids think it's lovely. So we've got it in the dining room with our furniture from the camper on the floor, making it into a little couch, etc. So we're, you know, really getting quite comfortable now. We've got all the floors scrubbed out and clean at least, and this weekend, we'll get a lot done towards getting the place tidied up and being able to live in. Having the fridge, of course, makes a big difference. At least we can eat and have clean food and so on. I've noticed there's a few roaches here. I imagine the place is alive with them, but I haven't really seen any more than I used to see at Ruthy's house, which, of course, was down in the woods. This one's got a lot of trees around it, but it's not so woodsy, you know, it's on a much higher elevation. We actually overlook the tennis court, and it's a very pleasant pleasant outlook. The tennis court, by the way, it's got one of those ball machines. So if one goes down there and hasn't got a partner, you can at least have a hit around with the old machine.

Anyway, our telephone number, of course, is area code 404, 231-4192. And of course, it's a direct line to this house. So... and I don't know what the story is, but they have these modular connections now, which you just, you know, go down to the telephone centers, pick up your phones, and plug them into the wall. And I decided just to get one. It's a push-button one, and because I thought we don't really need two phones. And at the time I got it, I didn't even know how big the cottage was. Well, it's actually a lot larger than I had anticipated that it would be. But when we got here, we found that there were two telephones from the old system still plugged into the house, and nobody had taken them with them. So we now have three telephones: yellow one in the kitchen, and we have this white one here in the dining room, and a black one in one of the bedrooms. And there's modular connections all over the house. So we're very, very well off for telephones.

Well, the kids are practicing for a Christmas pageant at church. It'll be on Sunday the 16th of December, and they're all in it. The choir, of course, will be leading it, but Maitland's little class is in it too. And sometime between now and the 16th, which is God knows, that's only a week away, have to make little shepherd costumes out of stripes and things. And I don't know, I haven't even read the instructions properly here, but I'll have to get my A into G and get some material and throw them together there. And you want them sort of hand-stitched around and just in a, you know, plain shape, so that shouldn't be any big deal.

I really don't think there's anything else that I had to tell you. I just hope that Dad's foot makes rapid recovery now with the plastic surgery. Hopefully, that will heal... the whole purpose of the thing is that that will heal quicker than it would have done normally. So what is it now? We've got still a couple of weeks to Christmas. I just hope like hell that he's home for Christmas because it would be so nice for him to be at home, and I'm sure you'd all feel a whole lot happier if he was out of there and back in his little house. I guess the weather's pretty nice there now, although I gather that the weather was pretty bad during the time of the accident. I heard one report that they hadn't been able to get planes out of Christchurch or something because of bad weather, so I guess you must have had a little bit of that kind of early December cold weather before the summer kind of thing. The temperatures here are getting down now, but it's still very nice sunny weather during the day and so on.

Anyhow, I must fly, and I'll just post this on the way to work along with the Christmas cards and then get out and do my deliveries for the day. And hope that you're all fit and well, enjoying life, looking forward to Christmas. At least, Mum, you don't have a lot of Christmas shopping to do, so I hope that that's been a little bit of a help because it must be exhausting going to... how far is the hospital from home, etc. You know? And I guess the carless day is a little bit of a concession for Christmas. We don't even think about things like that here. I really can't imagine what we'd do without a car because, you know, we travel so far to work and back. It's about 12-15 miles, I guess, from here to work and back, and you know, that's quite common for people to travel that far here, as you know. So... I just don't know what they do if they get as short of gas as you are at home anyway. They must get on... You'll take care, and I'll get another tape off to you before Christmas, so we'll see you later on.

...is blaming for his ouster, of course, us. And the first of a series of memoirs to be published, the Shah says that... that a U.S. Air Force General, Robert Huyser, made an unannounced trip to Iran last January and persuaded the Iranian military to stand idly by while the Shah was overthrown. The name of the memoir is titled 'How the Americans Overthrew Me'. You... you still here? Oh, you folks out in Cobb County get a kick out of this since liquor is not for sale in Cobb County on Sunday? Updated form of bootlegging going…