Letters from Marcy #12: 9 August 1965
I’m fascinated by Marcy’s references to contact lenses in these letters; she seems to strongly prefer them to glasses, but by the time I knew her, she almost always wore glasses. She did have a pair of hard contact lenses (when I first found out about them, I was kind of horrified by the idea of putting something in your eye), but I think she almost never wore them. So I wonder what changed in the years after these letters.
(And speaking of contacts, here’s another of those odd money references. In the previous letter, she indirectly asked her parents to pay for her contact-lens insurance; in this letter, she says she assumes they aren’t going to, and that she’s not going to either.)
Another interesting followup in this letter: discussion of Pete Kuner's visit. Not clear to me whether they had gone out at some point, or whether he was just unrequitedly interested.
monday morning
[pencil: 8/9/65]
'allo, 'allo. Trust you recieved my last letter by now,
which you claimed you didn't get.
Glad you are coming along, Daddy. What else are you allowed
to do by now? I did wish I would see that beard. oh,
well.....maybe you'll let your hair grow to a decent lenght,
anyway. Hope you still remember how to drive and such.
I assume you aren't going to pay for the contact lens
insurance. Which means they will go uninsured, as I sure as
hell can't afford it. The Dr. xx sent me the "annual service
agreement" furnished by his lab; I'll have to return x it.
No great loss; I don't intend to lose them anyway.
What did you decide xxxx about your contact-lens-vs-glasses
problem? Remember that some people can wear them with no
sensation of discomfort even in the first few minutes, and
even when you do feel it, it goes away. I'm only aware my
lenses are in most of the time by checking to see what
details I can see from how far. And I can't x even be
comportable in sunglasses as I'm x not used to having
anything sitting on my nose at all.
It's been delightfully cool here; enough to use a blanket at
night. Much rain, but quite tol'able between showers.
p.s. to above paragraph: I was reading a 10-th century
surgery text, which explores the best method of cauterizing
ingrown hairs and fistulas of the eye--one Dr. preferred
lye, another used hot lead. both complete with devices for
most efficient application. (I'm doing a paper on the
history of anatomy and this is a side-track) woosh, some of
the ideas they had about delivering babies: if it didn't
come out at the right time it was the foetus's fault, and
they considered smoking it out, starving the mother so the
baby would be hungry and come out for food, and singing it
songs about the glories of the outside world. well, we all
managed to survive to the time of population problems,
withal.
Pete Kuner was here Saturday night on his way back from St.
Louis (told you about that, I think, in last letter) and
much more tolerable than usually. Seems I ruined his life
for about 3 years until he finally got over me. Good for the
ol' ego but a bit disconcerting nonetheless. Sally went back
with him, to pick up her car xxx which was (is?) in New
York, for all sorts of unbelievably complex reasons, which I
couldn't explain even If I had time to write all ninety
pages of it.
Last night--no, night before--a bunch of us picked up add
went to the Fair--the Greene County Fair, in Xenia. It was
really fun: we looked at all the cows and bulls and calves,
and some sheep, and something called cheviots, which looked
like tremendously wooly goats and were little and kind of
ugly, but friendly as all get out. It was night, and none of
the 4-H'ers or Friendly Farmers were around to ask, so we
still don't know what they were....and we rode on the Ferris
wheel and ate cotton candy and affle tappy and such. the
excitement lasted for about an hour; then we got bored and
came back and went to a movie. Damn dirty commies--can't
even enjoy a wholesome American evening of good clean fun.
they go right back to their dirty beatnik collegre and look
at them Art films. x just a bunch of pornography if you ask
me. (the film in question was a cinemascope B-western with
Cary Grant and various baddies. I left after the first reel)
(not that it was really in question: just that we get kind
of resentful at the idiotic mockery that goes on at things
like a peace-in-Viet Nam demonstration on Hiroshima Day
(Friday) where all the local yokels can do is call us jerks
and reds and dirty and obscene--not because they care
whether we are or not, but because our politics disagrees
with their herd-following.
have to get to work. take care....
[handwritten: love]
[handwritten: Marcia]
Postmark: Aug 9, 1965, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Handwritten: “Rec’d this 8/11” and “Wrote to M 8/11 + again on 8/15.”