Peter, Marcy, Jed, and Jay

And sure enough, a month after the previous letter, by the time of this letter we had moved to Oakland.

I’ve now created a Google Map that shows places we lived. I’ll add to it as these letters go on.

In this letter, among other things, Peter describes a visit to his brothers David and Dobe (known at the time as John). The description of that visit will make more sense if you know that David and Dobe were in prison at the time, on drug charges, at FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) Lompoc, near Santa Barbara, about 2/3 of the way from Oakland to Los Angeles.

5419 Foothill Blvd.

Oakland, Cal 94601

20 March 1969

Dear Parents--

Hope the bread came through for your birthday, Dad--it was frozen for 24 hrs. after baking, and then mailed Fri. afternoon, so it should have tasted still fresh… we had also wanted to mail you a dyed-green & painted plaster-cast of Jed's hands, but the plaster set faster than Marcy had reckoned, so it was not a clear impression… we'll get another one made… Anyway, H A P P Y B I R TH D A Y !

If you liked the bread, it was because of the fantastically good leftovers here--there was that morning's leftover oatmeal in it, and leftover rice, and leftover miso-soup (miso is fermented & malted soybean paste), plus whole-wheat flour, rice flour, soya flour, yeast, wheat-bran, wheat-germ, brewer's yeast, molasses, and honey… and of course the vital ingredient, love… Marcy has baked more bread than I have, but I'm getting into it…

No, we didn't receive the Valentine package--it's probably sitting in Modesto awaiting remailing… we'll be looking forwardxx to it…

We went down to Santa Barbara over the weekend, to visit our brothers… From S. B., we hitch-hiked there and back Saturday, there and back Sunday, and back to S. F. Monday-Tuesday, for a total of about 800 miles… (Jedediah is truly a beautiful travelling companion, he's exceptionally calm and measured for an Aries child--he's very happy and has a very long attention span--he's walking all over, saying "bye-bye", and climbing stairs nowadays…)… brothers are in pretty good shape… they're studying & working, Dave is writing poetry, John is writing some short stories… they go before the parole board next month to determine the next board date… we channelled Johrei to them, which should help to xxx dispell some spiritual clouds…

I've written an I. B. M. executive, a friend of ours, about getting a recommendation, so will probably be applying for a job with I. B. M. next week (also have been studying FORTRAN book to pass tests…)

Rec'd a nice letter from P.&L., the plan to purchase a duplex sounded really good… well, as Jed says, baa-baa… love, handwritten peter, marcy, jed

handwritten p.s. marcy’s sewing a pillowcase for the pillow you gave us, and also making a rag-doll, for jed’s birthday…

I think that the mention of FORTRAN here is the earliest indication I’ve seen of Peter having any contact with computers.

Facebook post for this letter.