Another bank robbery

 Friday (February 18, 1977)

Dear Robin

I got the valentine and I don't know how they made one so "you." Grant brought me one also - a box of candy and it's almost all gone now.

We have been having lovely weather and I have been working outside until all my bones and muscles are so sore I can hardly get around. The ash trees are budding out and the peach tree is in bloom. I think it is still too early to plant a garden.

Armstrongs had a big fire at the Hildebrand place the other night. The warehouse was destroyed and the office and showrooms had smoke and water damage.

Now they are after my money. Brooks Field Bank was robbed the other day.

I don't quite go along with the way you and Sharon have figured out how to spend $50. That kind of logic can get you into financial trouble. I do believe you will be better off staying at the dorm. I know you are not very fond of dishwashing and other kinds of cleaning.

Well, I have rested enough now I'm either going to wash the car or work some more in the yard.

Love

Mother

She certainly has "quit preachin' and gone to meddlin'" in her recent letters, although I have no recollection what my roommate and I were going do with $50. Buy clothes, probably.

Armstrongs was a wholesale plumbing supply company. They had been one of my Dad's competitors.

She makes me want to get outside and work in the yard! It's too early to plant a garden here, too, especially after our big snow and ice event last week. We're still under a boil water advisory, but I forget sometimes and wash my hands with tap water. It's a sad state of affairs when you have to use hand sanitizer AFTER you wash your hands.

Be My Valentine

Friday (February 11, 1977)

Dear Robin

Happy Valentine!

Two days this week I had Lolly and she was sick so I was pretty tired and then it started raining again and I am very tired of that. It's still raining but the Rodeo Parade hasn't been called off. If I don't get some cat food today the cats will probably disown me. Maybe they will run away from home.

I finished my collage. I put all old pictures in it and it looks very interesting. I hung it where I always had my calendars.

Brandon and Valerie and Janice Marlene came to see me for a little while the other day. She is rather skinny but cute and sweet and already smiling at you. They say she never cries. Valerie liked the afghan very much.

If you do all that sewing you are going to have to work at it all the time. When will you study or don't you remember that's what you are going to college for. The trip sounds like fun but expensive. However I'll let you worry about all that. The apron strings are all loose and the nest is empty.

Lulu brought this W2 form by. She is going to A&M. She said she might go to summer school here either to SAC or UTSA. She said Tech is too far away from home.

The sky is getting lighter so I'd better get ready to go to the store before it starts raining again.

Love

Mother

I don't blame her for being cranky. Two days with a sick toddler, constant rain, and entitled cats! 

My friend "Lulu" did end up at Tech! We were roommates for a year, in a tiny apartment in the same apartment complex that the guy who shot Ronald Reagan had lived in for a short time. He had already been evicted by the time we moved in.