Woods Hole, Mass. A ugust [sic] 4th.
Dear Abby (and, of course, Charlotte):
It is embarrassing to think that I did not answer your entertaining message from N.Y. which surprised me as much as a birthday cake and party. I did not know that Freda [sic] and Ethel knew the date but they sleuthed it out of a remark that I made to Dr. Meyer - that I knew his birthday was not on the 17th because that was Bunker Hill Day;; [sic] he was 78 on the 18th, but I thought it was the 15th or the 16th.
We rejoiced in your cards and the indications that you are standing the trip properly - at least you have not fallen by the way, so far as my news goes.
I shall enclose a Fernbank News to give you all the really important information to date.
My work is going slowly - it is a slow kind and I am slow, I fear. However, I am so rejoiced that my cultures have lived through the winter, not to mention on the long trip home, that I am not fussing.
I have seen Jo and Margaret occaionally [sic]; there [sic] were down for supper one night - unfortunately while our stove was coy and supper was late and they had to go to a seminar afterwards. Tony Silva rejuvenated it (the stove) after I paid a Falmouth man $2.75 for a poor job.
Dr. Meyer is better than he has been for several years and is very perky, but alas, much more deaf. He studied the Schumann Symphonic Etudes last winter - imagine working up new music at 78 - or late 77.
Dorothy Stewart seems very busy and we do not see much of her; she and Margaret Sumwald have invested in a sailboat - Sundays are devoted to sailing.
There is no prospect of the Atlanta family coming north this summer. Margaret is in camp, the same camp as the last two years. She taught in a kindergarten several weeks this summer and now she wants to be a kindergartner.
I hope that you gain much strength this summer, and that you and Charlotte have a glorious time.
Eva send[s] love to both of you, and so do I.
Yours,
AlmaP.S. I should say that the Clapp family seems as usual. Miss Harriet was 79 a few days ago but did not do any celebrating - she was saving up for a splurge next summer. They are all going to Montague tomorrow for a few days. There is to be a gathering of the clans and Eunice is to be there with her two children - the last one they have never seen. It is hot weather for the trip to Montague and I am glad that I do not have to take it.