A Blast From The Past or Dear Mom & Everyone

Like mother, like daughter???

I save a lot of 'junk' and so did my mom.

My sister is still finding things our mom had saved, even though she has been gone for over a year. 

When Sandy asked if I wanted a stack of letters I had written in 1970, when I lived in Colorado, I hesitatingly said yes. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. I decided to read them, hoping to find out how low the gas prices went during the 'gas wars' that year. We lived next door to a gas station and I'd notice the changing prices.

I didn't convey any of that information in my letters home, in fact they were quite boring.

What I did write about was mostly about our daughter, who was 4-1/2 months old when we moved from Wisconsin to Colorado. ....and I wrote pretty often. We lived there for 14 months.

I was not yet 19, married, and had a baby girl. My husband was in the army and stationed at Fort Carson, Co. when we moved to Colorado Springs in Jan of 1970.

What I learned was:

• Our daughter got into a lot of mischief, didn't eat much, was shy, but well behaved, and others liked her smile
• We were 'flat broke' quite often and one month we paid only a portion of our rent and had $5 for gas left (according to my google search gas prices were .36/gal during that time period)
• I often asked my mother to send me things
• Our furnished apartment included a TV, that got 3 channels. Once it broke and we were w/o one for a bit.
• I mailed a lot of photos home
• Once I said I didn't know what I'd do without my sewing machine (I sewed most of my daughters clothes)
• Our landlady once took us to look at land located in an area of a proposed planned city - Colorado City, I believe (I remember that)
• Rent for our 3rd floor attic apartment was $100. I do remember our apartment. What I don't remember is that we had another small 'bedroom' that we used for storage.
• One time the diaper pail (remember those?) sprung a leak and it leaked through to the floor below and our landlady (I remember her name) 'nearly had a heart attack'.....I suppose she thought it was a leak in the water pipes. I don't remember that.
• I purchased a black, fake fur maxi-coat with a zip off bottom for $56. I remember that coat. That was a lot of money....look at the price of gas and our rent!
• I also got a $60 watch. Those purchases must have been made after my husband made Spec 4 and got a raise.
• The army paid for us to ship 14 boxes of our belongings back home when my husband was discharged from the service. 
• At least once I took a taxi and bus to the fort for doctor appointments.
• A couple of times we took Amy along with us to a drive in movie....I never said what movie we saw though.

6 cent postage, 12 cents if I sent photos

One thing I remember is buying donuts and a newspaper from Dunkin' Donuts and eating them while I read the paper. We were between a gas station and Dunkin' Donuts. 

I remember the small guest house our landlady also rented out, where we parked our car, the laundry room in the basement, and entering the basement apartment next to it. When you entered their apartment you walked into their bathroom. I remember the weather....it could snow one day and the next it would warm up to 45 degrees and melt. I remember looking out of our window and seeing a dog dangling out of a car window by his leash, I walked down stairs and told the owners about their dog.

I remember the layout of the apartment, even the rocking chair and 'window seat' we had the TV on. 

So now I guess I have a stack of letters to leave for my daughter to go through.....and some tidbits of information for my scrapbook....if I ever get to it.