My mother passed away in March and my sister and I were clearing out my mother's home getting rid of what she had saved during her life. I found letters that I had written to her back in 1967. (and she had saved them) And considering how dry and hot it has been there in Blue Hill lately I thought some might be interested to remember what the weather was like back then . Here is part of my letter to my mother written in June 1967.
"We had half our average annual rainfall (about 5 inches) between May 26th and June 15th. The weather has been quite cool."
Last Saturday the high was 56 but today (June 26th) it did get up to 76. The forecast is for rain again today and tomorrow. The wheat is getting rusty and the weeds are taking over everything else because the farmers can't get in the fields to cultivate. The hay either hasn't been cut or is laying in the field rotting because it is too wet to go in after it. The farmers in the area are all about to have nervous breakdowns because they can't do what should be done."
It was also interesting to be reminded of this turtle story again from 1967.
"Several weeks ago I let the kids each buy a tiny baby turtle. A week later one of the turtles got lost. I think it was Murtle, Touche stayed with us another week and then he took a vacation for a week before he turned up in the bedroom closet. ( We think it was Touche we found but it may have been Murtle.) We put him back in his cage and he stayed with us except for short strolls until we got home from swimming today. He was gone, we looked for him everywhere. No luck, but since he had been gone before we were still hopeful that he might turn up. About 8 p.m. this evening the dog began having a fit outside so we went out to see what was up with him and found that he was barking at a turtle. It was about the size of a salad plate. Ted (was nearly 3 then) says it is Murtle or Touche and they have eaten a lot of grass and grown. But I have insisted that we wait and see if we find one here in the house before we start calling this one Murtle or Touche. The turtle is presently at home in the bathtub. Just wait til Norman gets home tonight and jumps in the tub for a refreshing dip and finds he is bathing with a turtle. I am afraid we will have to release the turtle soon as we can't have it in the tub forever and I don't want it running loose in the house like the other two But I did tell the kids they could keep it for a while. I don't think the Turtle will be my friend for that, the kids don't get close however, they are just a little afraid of it yet. They let the little ones walk on their hands but they don't even touch this one. "
The letter also brought back memories of my little farmer.
"Ted put in a long day in the fields too, he took his tractors and machinery outside yesterday and starting plowing up a "field". He worked until dark last night and was back at it again right after dinner today. He was in and out all day long. I had to go out several times to see his different "fields", he has a lot of crops to put in. He sure came in dirty tonight, the ground is very, very, damp, you might even say wet, but that doesn't slow down this ambitious farmer. He even plows with one hand while he is disking with another tractor in the other hand. We have explained to him that it is dangerous for a farmer to try to operate two tractors at once but he is so anxious to get the work done while he can that he just keeps going as fast as he can. I hope that he gets a good crop, that may be hard as he doesn't have a planter or any seeds to plant but so far he hasn't thought of that and I do hope that no one mentions it.'
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