Transcription
Irene; And again, many thanks for your several contributions to my Christmas
Willard
#4
Thursday, 1-20-77.
Dear Family,-
My first Family Letter of the New Year brought you my version of our Christmas, up early to drive to Hudson for the “Christmas before breakfast” of the “mini” Shaw family with Frank and Mary in England, and then the afternoon and evening gathering at the Shaws with all the Davises present. I was most enthusiastic over the thoughtfulness and creativeness shown by both Judy and Anne in their Christmas for me, and I gave you a copy of Debbie’s perfect poem to “The Mother’s Oats Baby.” I hope that each of you has filed that poem in your Treasure Chest.
Now I have an extra good story to tell you on Bill’s and Jeanne’s Christmas for me. Each of them wrote me that my present would be late in arriving; that xxxx way back in October, they had thought of something of special interest to me, had ordered it then, and when it had not arrived in due course, Jeannie had quite an exchange of letters regarding the lost or misplaced order. Well, at last the mysterious package has arrived, and, BOY! – what a brilliant idea it was for me, so brilliant, in fact, that I have had to drop everything since its arrival in order to concentrate on it.
You all know how I have always been a “Puzzle Fan.” Not only you know it, but other members of the family have known it, and even “non-family members,” for, over many years, I have received a puzzle from this person and that, and I have always enjoyed them so, that I have kept them, resulting in a collection that fills a full drawer. Now I am going to have to start a second drawer, because Bill & Jeanne, instead of sending me one puzzle, sent me a big boxfull [sic] – 12 big puzzles in all. They arrived by insured mail yesterday noon, and what fun it was to open the box and pull out one “surprise” at a time! The first puzzle happened to be an easy one – I solved it in a few minutes – and the second and third also happened to be fairly easy. Then I came to one that took about 20 minutes and another that had me fooled for over a half hour. Before I realized it, nearly 3 hours had sped by, so at midafternoon down at Dodie’s I had dinner instead of lunch, which made it unnecessary to go out in the COLD for a supper, because with Annie’s present to me of a Sunbeam “Hot Shot” Beverage Maker I made myself two cups of Lipton’s Instant Soup, a cup of hot chocolate, and munched on Aunt Irene’s sunflower seeds. I put them in my hot soup, which softens them. I had about a 2-hr. nap upon returning from Dodie’s, then went at the box of surprises again until I had taken a try at all 12. There are four puzzles I’ll be able to solve in due time – they are the dexterity type that requires patience – and there was one numerical puzzle that pleased me no end because it was based on the principle of one of Dr. Bruno Fürst’s “memory stunts” which I learned how to perform myself. You may remember how I would have a chart of 16 squares in 4 horizontal rows and 4 vertical rows, numbered from 1 to 16. Blindfolded, I would listen to some word (a noun) being given to each of the 16 squares. Then anyone could call out a number and I would tell what the word was in that square, or they could call out words and I would give the numbers belonging to those words. Then, to climax the memory demonstration, I would have someone choose a number between 40 and 80, let us say 64 is chosen. Then, still blindfolded, as each word on the chart is called out, I tell what number to put in that square, and when all 16 squares have been given their new number, the 4 horizontal rows each add up to 64, the 4 vertical rows each total 64, and the two diagonal rows from one upper corner to the opposite lower corner also add up to 64. I think I had the most fun solving this mathematical puzzle, for it brought back to me the fun I had had many times with my “astounding” Bruno Fürst act. Bill, there is one puzzle that has me stumped. It is like that puzzle you gave me Up North from Paul Ruble. I thought I remembered the principle involved, but darned if I can make it work on this puzzle. “Never say die – up man and try.” I’ll keep at it.
SO – to Bill and Jeanne – many, many thanks for your brilliant idea, as shown by my enthusiasm and appreciation in this Family Letter.
With love to you all,
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