1968 CHRISTMAS LETTER

Hello! Hello! This is station KEARNS sending you our annual
Xmass greeting from 23 Pleasant Street, Andover. It seems
as if quite a bit has been going on during these 12 months.
Frank, now a junior in physics at Merrimack College, spent
the summer far up in Vermont on a government watershed
project--his first prolong stay away from home. He loved
the people, the landscape--real rural with herds of cattle
in the fields in which they worked. John graduated from
St. John's Prep in Danvers and went on to become a Freshman
at Merrimack. He loves it and has just been chosen book
review editor for the quarterly literary magazine--the first
freshman so appointed. He loves to write poetry, it just
seems to be a part of him. He also likes the out-of-doors,
having a job with a landscape gardener this summer and now
walking a route during the Xmas rush for the postoffice. He
took a long, interesting trip into Canada this summer going
a couple hundred miles a day on his motorcycle which he has
now sold and replaced with a Volkswagen. He has returned to
the piano in earnest and it sounds pretty good. Mary began
taking voice to bring her singing up to average and has
profited by this. Recently she was in a school musical
singing "Matchmaker". She has started modern dance and
loves it. These young people have a lot of energy.--Betsy
still plays football and loves her sports. She took the red
cross baby sitting course and has begun to sit outside the
house. Bless her, she is always a willing sitter for her
parents. She has continued piano lessons. (Forgot to
mention that Mary directed a play for young people in an
amateur theater group in which Betsy had a part. Emily
continues her learning. She decided she wanted to visit
Grandma and Grandpa Wrinkle this summer so she and Betsy
spent a few days there. Jere is a ball of fire and is the
1st grade this year. Dottie can print her name and is such a
vital person---a real interesting person to have around.
Don continues to enjoy his photography. He has worked (in
addition to his teaching) this year on a special project--
the math end of a water contamination problem. He took a
week trip into Nova Scotia with a long time friend, Ralph
Parrotta--they slept in the station wagon and just moseyed
along. Mother took her long-yearned-for trip to Missouri on
the occasion of her Uncle Francis and Aunt Anna's 50th
wedding anniversary. Saw her mother's and her dad's birth
place and visited with her cousins and their wonderful
families. Sister Zoie returned to her own home town and
home for the first time in 25 years--Uncle Francis' sister
from California and his son Frank were there so he was able
to say he that he had a coast to coast celebration. Another
big celebration this year was our beloved Grandma Spooner's
90th birthday.

That is about all the news so we will sign off with a
sincere wish for all life's blessings in the New Year for our
dear friends.