Visual Entertainment from Near and Far
Zimbabwe, Feb 1988
Dear
All going well. I gave my presentation this morning and it went OK. I’ve been active with the sub-group with which I work and we have the China trip finalized. We’ll be at Victoria Falls this weekend. Ruth is here but there isn’t much for spouses so I think it OK that you didn’t come.
Love, Bill
Wisconsin August, 1984
Hi
Recognize this picture? I had a good trip over and am waking up at 3 or 4 am as usual. Jean and I will go to Madison tomorrow – then I’ll go into Hosp. Sun. pm. It’s colder than I expected. How about the Twins?? 🙂
Bill should be enjoying Szarvas (Hungary) this weekend.
Love, Va.
April 1972
Dear Va
Thinking of you as we travel with Mary and David (Rome, Algiers, Tunis, Beirut). They go their own way for 2 1/2 more weeks starting Fri – and we head for a week’s work in Nairobi, planning to stop in Athens on our way home.
Loved catching up with you all during Bill’s visits. Hope everything was fine in Wis. How we enjoyed the reports of your new home – and your young folk’s worlds. Sure do miss you but you are one of our best correspondents – Gracias.
Fondly, Lowell and Mary
August, 1999
We decided Metz would be a good place to view the total eclipse of the sun in 1999. We rented a car in Paris and drove to Metz stopping on our way to see the cathedral in Reims with its stained glass windows designed by Chagall. Once in Metz, we scoped out the area and early the next morning, we headed out with the telescope, video camera and other cameras. We set up our camp in the middle of the Esplanade, a nice park right by the river. The town had organized a big festival around the eclipse and there were parades, music, etc. going on all day long.
It was cloudy. I decided I should have an umbrella just in case, so I ran to a nearby department store and managed to fight my way through the crowd. I wasn’t the only one with the idea. During the first half of the eclipse we were able to see it off and on. But about 20 minutes before total eclipse it started to rain. We could tell when the total was, though, because it was completely dark. All the flowers closed up and all the lights came on and it was really night and everybody was quiet and it was kind of eerie. Then during the second half it cleared up a bit and we were able to see more. My son kept looking at the “moon” through his glasses. When we got back to Paris our friends who had gone 25 minutes north of Paris on the train said they had seen the whole thing perfectly.
From Metz we drove into Lorraine and the Vosges area. We stopped at the Haut Konningburg castle which is a huge restored castle with a moat and drawbridge and inner yard. It sits on top of a mountain in the middle of the forest. It would be very hard to penetrate. The path up to it was steep and muddy. I commented on how “mucky” it was and my son responded, “monkeys? Where are the Monkeys??” He would not let it go and kept asking for the rest of the day.
From there we wound our way around down to La Bresse in the heart of a big ski area amid mountains and forest. Really beautiful. Our hotel was very nice with a good restaurant. We drove throughout the area and went hiking around a glacial pool where my son spent the better part of an hour throwing rocks into it and hunting for dragonflies.
June 1995
Greetings from beautiful Montana! Our family reunion was fantastic and accommodations, food, weather – perfect. We even did a float on the Madison river. The third generation put on a rodeo and Melissa took 2 “firsts”. See you around the 5th.
Bruce and June
A warrior in the truest sense, Rain in the Face counted many coups during the days of the Red Cloud Wars. He came to public note after his escape from the stockade at Fort Lincoln and united a band of hostiles that eventually helped defeat Custer on the Little Bighorn. Photograph by Frank B. Fiske, C. 1902.
November 1983
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Sept 1978
Sorry for the delay. Meet me here on Jan 15, 1979 for cocktails (gluvine) on the slopes. You know you are a creep! Why aren’t you here? The city’s nice, I live alone. It’s great. So where are you?
Your friend, Pope Paul
This postcard is from a friend of mine who was not in St Moritz at all. He was in San Francisco at the time. But I knew him when we both spent time in St Moritz. My first experience with skiing was in St Moritz. I was in boarding school and my parents were living in Africa. My school spent two weeks skiing in St Moritz every winter so I went directly from Nigeria – tropical Africa – to Switzerland with no warm, winter clothes. I layered on my blue jeans and sweatshirts and was freezing most of the time.
The flight from Lagos only left twice a week so I arrived in St Moritz a day late and missed the first day of ski lessons. On the second day I went to my ski class and everybody already knew how to stop, so I spent the whole day stopping the only way I could – on my ass. The next day we had a German teacher who didn’t speak a word of English. He was teaching us how to sideslip and traverse and sent us down the bunny slope where we were supposed to be learning how to stop sideways. I couldn’t catch on to that at all so I would just fall down in order to stop, at which point the teacher would scream at me in German. Not the greatest experience.
We stayed in a big modern tourist hotel. Some of the rooms had as many as ten or twelve people in them. I could sit at my window and watch the horse races on the frozen lake below. There was a picturesque little town where we ate Raclette and other delicious cheesy things. It is one of the few areas where they actually speak the fourth Swiss language, Romansh.
May 1986
Dear
I had my first meetings today and all went well. I am well received. Starting tomorrow I will start visiting research stations and will be traveling until Saturday.
For now, Love, Bill
1968
High Fashion Quick Change
Braniff International airline hostesses are outfitted in a couture collection by Emilio Pucci. They can make four changes in a single flight – from a plastic helmet and reversible cold weather coat – to a raspberry suit – to a serving dress called a “Puccino” – to after-dinner culottes and turtle neck blouse. If the flight seems all to short, that the whole idea.
We used to fly Braniff into Mexico City all the time. They were in operation from 1928 to 1982. In the 60’s and 70’s they painted their planes wild colors and even had one designed by Alexander Calder.
March, 1968
Dear
Here is something for your collection – a picture of the most famous place in Bethlehem.
Regards, Eli and Liz
Postcard Buzz 