Green letters

thought it would be so easy. I have only beer yet to try and I hope it goes as well as have coffee and wine! We finally left the place about 3am and made our way home to the Burg with the help of a German student who kept us from taking the wrong road.

Well, dear that brings you pretty well up to date on the events of the first 3 days here. As to my room, it is brand new in the addition just completed to Stanford Haus, the men's dorm. It is finished in a pleasant light gray, with blond woodwork. Here is a diagram to give you an idea of its appearance, since study dates are impossible:

[diagram of rectangular dorm room with furniture]

I'm watching the mails for your next letter, darling. Meanwhile I rest in the joy of our love.

Always yours, George

P.S. Pppfffffft!

2 January 1960

Dear Anne,

This will undoubtedly be a funny letter, aber Ich hoffe das du es genusst. This afternoon we had our traditional visit to Beutelsbach as a group - we sall alle der Kirchen und die Schulen und schliesslich der Remsdalkellerei (the wine cellar! of the Remdel valley). Also bin ich vielleicht ein wenig "zerbrochen" (smashed) oder bessen auf Deutsch "blau". Mary Jeannette are sitting here in the Ratskeeler on the Burg listening to jazz and writing to out beloveds (Even in this actually only slightly high condition, I love you very much.) Actually the group visit was wunderbar! We first saw the special spots mentioned above - two of the 3 churches are quite new + Catholische und die Neuapostolische. But the other (Lutheran) is very old (as you may remember from the pictures). It's architecture is of different periods, some of it as old as 1300 (at least) and most of it about 1500. They have a Bible written in the time of Luther and a register (of births, baptisms, marriages, etc) which is continuous from 1578! It is not a fancy church but more down to earth - no large alter, but a cross of wood with a wooden (painted also) Christ on it, with much more an expression of his agony than usually appears in the American churches. We next went to the wine cellars (which have, believe it or not, with the addition of new facilities now being completed, a capacity for 10,000,000 liters of wein - about 2,500,000 gallons!). In the old parts they use wooden barrels (large 1500 gallons each), in the new parts, large steel barrels or even cement rooms. The whol operation is fascinating and Big Business. From the Remstalkellerei we went to the grammar school (having been earlier to the kindergarten to hear the little kids sing some christmas songs). Here we sat by candlelight at beautiful tables and ate coffee and küchen (e.g. fruit cake, etc., all very good) and listened to the older children sing for us. Then a few nice speeches from the mayor etc. (who presented Herr Dr. Boerner and his new wife Nancy with a beautiful picture of the old church and nearby buildings, in expression of the fondness of Beutelsbach for both of them.) This almost brought tears to my eyes, it was so sincere and full of honest feeling.) Later we of Stanford in Germany gave to the school (and thus to Beutelsbach) a new typewriter. After the coffee and cake came the big event of the day - the wine tasting! This is why wir sind so glüchlich heute abend. We had about 1/2 glass of each kind - 4 red wines and 3 white wines, with a sort of salty bread (big pretzels) to fill in. The wines were all quite good, but had the customary effect - in moderate form fortunately. Then we had to walk from Beutelsbach to the Burg - and in the RAIN (the first really, since we've been here). We three, Mary Jeanette, Alan Sable, and I made a jolly threesome. We arrived back at the Burg at 7:30 having begun in Beutelsbach at 2 pm (begun the tour that is, not the trip back.). It was quite a day and a memorable one.

Oh, and I have left out one of the most important things. As of this afternoon, Mary Jeanette and I "have a family" (this is the wonderful idiom of the Burg for being invited to visit in a home of a German family - sort of suggests being adopted, and we hope it turns out to be much like that.) We know only that the lady's name is Lydia, and she is about 30 years old. She was one of the women who helped prepare and serve the feast and wine aat the grammar school. As we were about to leave she invited us to visit here tomorrow after church. I'll tell you all about it now.

Gee, it's sure fun to write so often. And ther's always so much to say, darling. I hope that I continue to have time to write you of all our experiences, so that you can share in the fun and the feeling.

This morning we (this word keeps popping up and it's a different "we" every time. Forgive me if I don't always say who - it takes so much space. The idea is that so far at least we seem to move about in small groups, rather than singly. Sort of for security, I guess) - this time Mary Jeanette, Dale Cook and I - took a walk through the vineyards which surround the Burg. We followed a muddy cart path part way down and around the hill, in the brisk morning (10-11am) air, enjoying the quiet, the view, the chill of the air, the earth, even the mud. It's kind of a peacedul and refreshing feeling, and especially with you sharing it in my heart.

Well, sweetheart, Ich muss jetzt zu Bett gehen. Wein makes one very sleepy and it being now 10 pm. I'll have to hurry to get enough sleep before getting up at 7:15 to eat breakfast. So good night, my dearest, and another letter soon. Ich liebe dich sehr viel!

Alle meine liebe, George.

4.1.60

Hi darling,

Note that date - auf deutsch. And I'm afraid (as you no doubt noticed in my last "outburst") that viel Deutsch will creep into my letters you. I'm really glad that you can understand it, because the change to thinking in German is really part of the experience here, even at this early stage. So please don't mind the German, and don't do anything rash like writing back in French!

T'was a wonderful day today - I got your first two letters since I left. Many people got such good results - Mary Jeannette got 3 from Tony, Mary Ann 3 from Bob, Susie Behrman a total of 6! (3 from her boyfriend Jim Stewart, former Breaker and now at U. of Texas Law School), etc. So it was very ceery just before our 10 AM class which is when the mail comes on class days (one of the German teachers commes from Stuttgart and whoever picks him up gets the mail too). And darling it was sure wonderful to hear from you - just like the other half of a conversation (which up to now was lacking, but no more!). And the CRYING TOWEL was so perfectly approp[riate?] especially since you got it by accident after leaving the airport. And I'm so glad, darling, that your letters are so full of laughter; your first letter even, seems to be pretty much so, and it doesn't sound like a front either (was it?). I'm glad there was no huge let down for you. As Susie said to me, being away doesn't really matter - you can still love each other (she and Jim were apart for fall quarter too, of course). As to your suggestion about crying - I felt most like it for some reason, just a few minutes ago (and again right now) as I finished your letters (not sadness exactly, but just a welling-up of feeling, a sort of overflowing). It's at times like these when I'm alone with you that the feelings are strongest. The feeling biggest of all is that I wish you were here to share it with me - there's so much that I know you would enjoy. This is a little different from the feeling of lacking certain senses (as at Fallen Leaf); rather it is sort of that I unconsciously think of you beside me and anticipate you reactions (excitement, joy, peacefulness, etc.). And I wish you were here to fulfill them. Does any of this somehow make a little sense? (Maybe if you read it again.). Janie B. and her "friend" Jim are surely lucky. Oh, "Campbell" says to be sure to tell you hello. -HELLO And Karen too. - HELLO, again. Say, I have a hint for you - now that I'm here, if you don't try to calculate the time differences we'll seem closer together spatially. I.e. I wake up when you do, and say goodnight when you do, etc.

As for the [symbol of circle with a dot in middle, circle on top of "t"] I have a couple of possibilities for the [circle with dot in middle] part. Perhaps the circle signifies something like a halo. Or as a wilder guess, the symbol might imply that God is at the center and circumference of life. Try these ideas on your mother and let me know. I'm pretty sure that your dad's figure [circle on top of "t" with vertical line descending from right end of the crossbar of the "t"] was a stick-figure man, with a cane ( [symbol with circle on top of "t" with vertical lines descending from both ends of the crossbar of the "t"] and two canes when things were real bad.) By the way I'm naturally concerned about what finally results at Rosie [Pabes?] and I hope you'll fill me in on whatever you feel you can. And especially if you thing there anything I can do, like writing a cheering letter from abroad, just le me know. I

asked my mom to send photoshots of my letters to them to several people, and your folks were among them. That way I hope they too can share in my experiences (and maybe even get to know me better too).

Well, punkin, maybe you'd like to know what's been going on in the last couple of days, since our marvelous visit as a group to Beutelsbach. Yesterday morning several of us went down to the old Evangelische Kirche (= Lutheran) for the service. And I was very encouraged to discover that I could follow the sermon fairly well - of course the theme was familiar. The service was very simple - hymn, Bible reading and prayer, hymn, sermon, hymn, prayer, hymn, announcements, recessional music. No choir and you put your offering in a little box by the door on the way out, so no offertory music, etc. The sermon was on "what will the new year bring?" and the basic answer, peace of soul only with Jesus Christ. Pretty direct stuff, although with some reference to national and world problems. Mary Jeanette met Lydia outside as per arrangement, and were introduced to her younger sister (about 15). But since she had to go somewhere we are to meet here again soon for a longer visit. So no family as yet. Having found out this news we caught up shortly with the other kids to walk back to the Burg. Before we got there however, we were invited in by a Herr Kreutzer to visit. His young son has a new electric train and they have several friends from former groups, among the best being Arlene Becker (!) and Phil Stotn (is that how he spells it?). Arlene has cooked pies, etc. for them and learned how to cook German food; they seem quite fond of her. They were very friendly to us (a group of about 8), serving wines and Christmas cookies, showing pictures of previous Stanford friends, etc. We had to leave after about 40 minutes in order to hurry back for lunch. We reached the Burg exactly at 12, out of breath, tired and sweaty. Poor Mary Jeanette had on heels and a tight skirt, which meant smaller steps and more of them. As a group we seem to be averaging about 2 round trips a day to Beutelsbach (mostly by the road since the Fussweg is pretty muddy). At about 40 minutes - 1 hour each way this amounts to a lot of climbing up and down the *!!*!! hill (about equal to halfway to Floating Island Lake, or into Palo Alto and back). We're all getting in shape! Yesterday afternoon we mostly played bridge and hearts and chatted a little with German kids in the Ratskellar. Too rainy to go anywhere. Then last night about 12 of us went to Beutelsback to a Kino - The Tiger son .... (someplace in India). Good practice listening to spoken German, but I could catch very little of it. Maybe later on? Today was first day of classes, mostly organizational. Both Nanney and Spindles have changed their courses to suit the German setting, and both sound good. More about that as things go on. We had chorus this afternoon about 40 came. It's going to be fun. But I wish I could read music better. So geht es in Leben.

We sweetheart, It's dinner time and I'm out of paper too. I been doin purty good so far mit da writin, ya? That's because I love you. George