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4.4.60
Good morning Darling,

It's now 7:15 - I got up bright and early to get my washing started, but was beaten out
by 5 minutes, so I'll be the first one in after breakfast. Unfortunately it's raining
lightly outside, so drying may be a problem, but I think I'll just hang things out in
the fresh air and wait!

Boy, yesterday was the most beautiful day since we've been here - so warm and
fresh and clear, no haze in the valley even. We had the expected great meal at the
Krauters - beef Roulade, potato salad, spätzle (schwäbisch noodles, which Bridge
and I made with Frau K's guidance), soup, green salad, lemon cream pudding, and
Saft (which is a combination of home made berry juice and carbonated mineral water).
Two helpings of everything of course, all delicious! Right after lunch I gathered up my
stuff and walked up the hill. We had taken most of in the bus Saturday, so there wasn't
too much to carry. About half way I just stopped and sat down on the steps for a few
minutes to enjoy the view of the town and valley, the fresh green of spring. Golly
it was really wonderful, darling, and I wish you could be here to share it with me.
It was so peaceful and glorious - we didn't see anyplace more beautiful on our whole trip
than right here in the Rems valley.

I spent most of the afternoon talking with different kids about our vacation trips;
we have a rich variety of experiences to share - I think between us we covered the
continent - Turkey and Greece and Russia, all the way to Spain, Gibralter, England.
Then about 3 MAC and I took off for a walk in the woods and fields to see the
Spring beauty and talk about their Russian trip. They really had a fascinating and
sobering experience. Their main impression (I've talked to several and they were all
very deeply impressed by what they saw and heard, by its seriousness and real danger).
seems to be that the Russian people really believe in what they're doing - they talk
constantly in terms of 7 year plans, of passing the U.S in production of this or
that item, etc. Their zeal is not unique of course - remember our own revolution
and our movement west to conquer the continent - but what is frightening
is that the people think apparently exactly alike (the party line, especially among
the young, who have been in Communist schools), dress alike, live alike, etc.
In the satellites they noticed some discontent toward the Russians, heard a few
people say confidentially that they missed the freedom they once knew. But in
Russia there's no such tradition of our "western" values, and as long as they are
materially well off they don't mind the dictatorship and they take a life of
fear and authority for granted, work eagerly for a "better, richer" Russia. Mary
Jeanette commented that many Americans are susceptible to the same sort
of materialism, lack of concern for individual values; I sure agree with her
and that to me is the greatest threat of communism - the appeal of its material
success to both underdeveloped countries and even to many people in the western
advanced nations. The human values which we cherish are very fragile, don't
find real root in most men against the appeal of a fuller stomach - people just don't
think about freedom until they've lost it! And yet somehow the ideas have
survived 2000 or more years in the minds and hearts of a few men in each generation,
so I guess there's no cause to lose hope. But I hope I can become one of the
transmitters of the meaningful parts of this tradition, one of those to keep the
old knowledge relevant to a changing world, for that is really the
historian's problem. It's just about one of the most important tasks of the 20th century
I think, though my own part in it will be unnoticeably small.