Dear Friends and Relatives:
This year I wasn’t going to write a Christmas letter, but there were so many I wanted to send a few lines to that perhaps I should ditto off another little greeting.
It has been another year full of challenges, trips, work, new granddaughters, satisfactions to the soul, and wrinkles to the face. During the first few months of the new year I traveled from Miami, Florida to Pomona, California, on Regional Conference for the MIA, interspersed in between was a trip to Chicago to attend two conventions, one of which left me sick at heart as to what is happening with Women’s Liberation and the attitude on most campuses toward abortion clinics, free dispensing of ‘the pill,’ and permissive attitudes toward coed living. It made me even more thankful for ‘Happy Valley’ and out standards and students here at BYU.
June Conference was the usual hectic time of preparation and presentation. I had the privilege of being assistant director to Dr. Charles Metten on ‘House Talk’ for the Salt Palace general meeting on Friday afternoon. The production went beautifully but all of us were so saddened by the accident which happened two days before production when Clair Likes of the Drama Committee fell from the scaffolding at the top of the Salt Palace. I ‘m glad to report that he is almost completely recovered. The balance of June Conference was one of the best for our Committee that we had ever engineered.
During all the above activities, along with my usual work, most of my time was spent in helping a singing group called THE COLLEGE EDITION for Europe for a USO tour of Europe from July 17 to September 25. On June 26, my oldest daughter Linda had a baby girl, who joined four brothers. We could hardly believe our ears when this good news reached us. Linda and Rich are still in Cedar Rapids where the symphony, under Rich, continues to do fantastic things musically.
On the weekend of July 8, I flew to Cedar Rapids to see our new Michelle and then on the 17th, I left with the COLLEGE EDITION for Europe. We spent eight weeks in Germany entertaining at Army and Air Force bases. In between times we visited castles, palaces and in general thoroughly enjoyed beautiful Germany. We also did several shows for the Church. While stationed in Frankfurt for a few days, the missionaries arranged for the group to sing in the main square of downtown Frankfurt. They put up Omni units with pictures of family home evenings on them and circulated among the crowd between numbers. The group sang for three hours and the missionaries received 183 referrals. This was one of the highlights of the trip for the singing group. We also went to Berlin on the troop train and from the North Sea to Munich on the South.
When our ‘tour of duty’ was finished, but gave us a two-week delay en route. We rented a VW bus and VW camper and the army loaned us sleeping bags, tents, blankets, etc., and we traveled staying in camps at night. We went South through Austria, up over the Alps to Italy, as far South as Rome, then around the Mediterranean to Pisa, over to Genoa, inland to Milan and over the Alps again in Switzerland to Bern Temple and then through France to Paris. I loved everywhere we went even though I had been twice before but am ready to go again and the group loved it also. When we got to Paris, I wondered if they would like it as well as Rome, but they summed it up by saying “Rome is magnificent, but Paris is romantic.” And they loved Paris. From there we went back to Frankfurt and flew home. It was a great experience.
Returning home on September 25 was ‘catching up’ time since school had been in session for three weeks. It now seems that I lost the summer somewhere and most of the Fall. Everything at the University and my work goes on in the same pattern as most year. Most of the time it seems I am working with one crisis after another. However, this year my job has changed some. I am still advising the Culture Office of Student Government, but they have released me half the time to work with talent. Our Program Bureau is now so involved in groups of tours that they don’t have time to work with many of the talented student who need some help to be good enough to join one of the touring groups. I now have several groups going and am working with quartets, trios, etc. It’s lots of work, especially evenings, but also very rewarding.
On November 2nd my second granddaughter of the year arrived when little Jennifer came to join Steve and Cheryl’s other two daughters. When Steve called to tell me Cheryl had the baby, he announced it with asking if I would like to audition the new Worsley Sisters trio.
About the middle of November the great changes were announced in the MIA and both the executives and board members were all released. This has made a great change in my life, and while I will miss the association with so many great people, there are many thing I won’t miss about not being on the board such as driving to Salt Lake two or three times a week, no matter what the weather, or the tremendous load of work which we continually, but willingly, carried. It was nine years of wonderful experiences but I always said that when it was time for my release, I would gladly go on to other activities. I especially hope to get to some of the writing that I have been putting off for so long while writing Parent and Youth productions, drama manuals, etc.
My other two families are doing well. Joan is teaching fourth grade in Redlands this year, and Marilyn and Chris and family are in the midst of remodeling their home to take care of their growing family. They seem to be growing only in size, not in numbers.
So now I have begun decorating my house in anticipation o part of my family being here for Christmas, and I look forward to the Holiday Season, during which I am the biggest ‘kid’ of all. I love every minute of it and hope that each of you will find much joy and happiness in once more celebrating the birth of Christ, and the gifts of love which we give to our family and friends at this time of the year.
Best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season, Love Klea