Greetings, dear friends!

It seems quite a while since I have talked with you. How do you like my "under-study"? I hope you were better pleased with the column than was the writer himself. Now, when Chuck writes to his brother, he really lets go. I envy him his sense of humor. But I think he's a little bit scared of his new and strange public.

June 13 - Thus goes the letter-writing. But fear no evil. The long siege of housecleaning is about over. And I really am going to reform, journalistically speaking. This is our baby Dianne's birthday. Two years old. A flaxen-haired doll, tiny and winsome - with an explosive temper, her every-ready weapon against tyranny. But, win or lose, she emerges with a disarming smile that should melt a heart of stone.

Now it is June 21st. the longest day in the year (and, incidentally, Virgil's and my anniversary). But the important item on today's calendar is the news that two Saltsburgers have just been here - my dear cousins, Ina and Clyde Lemon. Since I am always hunting alibis for not writing - or not writing well - they are this week's alibi. And, what a choice, double-barrelled one! Tell you more about it next week....

Sincerely, Florence B. Taylor

June -
(With apologies to James R. Lowell)
And what is so rare as a day in June?
There may be perfect - or humid days.
Every mosquito makes sure he's in tune,
And the mother mosquito a million eggs lays.
And whether we look or whether we listen,
We hear the bugs murmur,
And our sweaty pates glisten.

Now isn't that a travesty on a lovely poem? But 94 degrees Fahrenheit makes you feel just that way. Especially if there are no screens on doors or windows. ***

Columbus, Ohio. June 25. This column is surely a motley thing. And this part is a traveller's journal. Am on my way to Austin Texas. As someone at our church remarked, "The Taylors are on the move again." But this time I am alone, and three men are "batching" at 2907 Hampshire Rd. I was laid off at the "Y" June 1st, because they needed someone with more typing and bookkeeping ability. I must confess that I wouldn't make a good bookkeeper in a thousand years. But I loved the human side of it - and carry away many sweet memories - and a barrel of human interest stories. Two days after my "abdication" notice from the "Y" my sister wrote, urging me to get a leave of absence from the "Y" and come down to Austin and help her get ready for her expansion program in her cake-baking industry. (You see, that nice write-up in the Press about her got me a job.)

My ever-generous husband and children urged me to go, knowing how much it means to Mary and me. Dr. Phillips did not approve - and got out his check-book to write out a check covering my summer's work. But he didn't tempt Virgil for one instant. Virgil said, "It's Florence's sister and they deserve to be together." Dr. Phillips spends his 7-week vacation in Jamaica. So Virgil and Charlie will be on their own.

Now enough of family history. Wish I had time to describe this charming YWCA in Columbus. It was built in 1928, and is up-to-date (compared to our ancient Y in Cleveland). I will gather some some high-lights along the way - for next week's column. Am travelling by bus.

Faithfully yours,
Florence B. Taylor

Next - 7/8/48 - Travelling to Texas
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