May 30, 1963

Dear Grandma,

We’ll be up at the homestead in 6 more days.  Dad brought the trailer down and Mom is painting it beige, ton[e] and [repeated and] a darker brown.

Duke, Vanover’s dog got runover yesterday.  We’ve been fishing – quite a lot since school is out.  Vickie g. came down yesterday.  I went up to Huges a couple of days ago to get my Girl Scouts Handbook I’d loaned her.  On the way back I stopped at Annettes house.  We played a while then I went over to Penny’s house.  Jenny was over there too.  After a while I went over to Jenny’s house.  She was going to spend the summer at her grandma’s house in Ohio and she wanted me to meet her family first.

[This is in Cindy’s handwriting but isn’t signed – is with this other letter]

+++++++++++++++

May 31, 1963 [date on this must be wrong?]

Dear Grandma,

Bear follows me and guards me wherever I go.  Once on the way home from a friends house a big fat man stopped car and asked “Hey little girl do you want a ride?”  Bear growled very ferociously and the man quickly replied “See you’ve got your dog with you” and drove off.

We’ve been having nice weather.

I’ll write soon.  With loads of love, Cynthia (me)

There are two trucks drawn at bottom of the page full of hearts, Xs and Os

+++++++

Linda Note – 060609 – I asked Cindy if Bear came back after he was lost:

She wrote back:  Yes, he did come back. Actually, I don’t remember him being lost but the next year wherever we moved, we couldn’t keep him and mom and dad gave him away without telling me while I was at school.  I think that I’ve told you about this- how I got terribly sick with awful stomach aches and could not go to school. The thought still makes me tear up! Finally, mom took me to Dr. Simpson, who I remember as a kindly fellow. He asked to speak to me alone and asked if something bad had happened recently. I told him about having to give Bear away and he was very understanding. I must not have been able to talk to anyone about it because after sharing with him, I got better and went back to school! I think mom was afraid I was having appendicitis- I was so sick – Cindy (1955)