Following, is a letter I wrote home from college on January 7, 1969. This was my sophomore year in college. I had just traveled back to college after visiting my Uncle Ronnie with my family in Gardnerville, Nevada. The route went up Hwy 395, until I turned off and headed for.Weed, California, and up I-5 to Ashland, Oregon.
Dear Family,
I’m sitting in my room, and it’s 2:00 in the afternoon. It is now snowing very hard, 2 to 3 inches of snow on it already. It just started snowing about an hour ago.
Well I’m all registered, and I have all of the classes that I wanted. My schedule is:
- Western Civilizations — MWF at 9:00 a.m.
- Music Appreciation — MW at 10:00 a.m.
- Work in Medford — M-F 11:15-1:15
- Chemistry Lecture — MW at 2:00
- Swim Team — M-F 3:00-5:00
- Basketball — T Th at 8:00 a.m.
- Volleyball — T Th at 9:00 a.m.
- Chemistry Lab — Tues. 1:00-3:00
- World Literature — T Th at 7:00-8:30 p.m.
- Use of Library Resources — Thur. at 2:00
I hope you can understand it.
Everyone is going outside to play in the snow. A few just left to go up to the mountains, and some just left to go throw snowballs. I’ll bet Grant would like to be here now.
The swim team is leaving here Thursday at 2:00 to go down south. That should put us in San Jose around 9:00 p.m. We’re staying at the De Anza Hotel there in San Jose. I remembered that Bruce W. is going to De Anza J.C. We swim Cal State at Hayward on Friday at 3:00. We then swim University of Santa Clara on Sat. at 10:00 a.m. I think I’m driving my car, so I’ll be able to bring Jane back with me. Mr. Howard said it would be O.K. Mary Lou is expecting you to be with her in her room, too, Jane. She also is trying to find you a meal ticket. With this new snow, Jane, bring some clothes for skiing. We’ll probably go Sunday.
I went skiing on last Sat. It was a lot of fun. I really learned a lot, and improved myself quite a bit.
It was a real good ride back here to Ashland. It was such beautiful country. At one spot it was about 5,000 ft., and I came into this flat clearing. There was about 4 to 5 feet of snow all around on this really flat stretch of land. It was just all white all around, like an ocean, and it was unblemished, no footprints, or car marks, just flat beautiful snow. The roads were in perfect condition all of the way, and the sun was shinning brightly. There was very light traffic all of the way. It was really quite pleasant. It only took around six hours.
We’ve been having really hard practices, twice-a-day, ’cause Mr. Howard is trying to get us back into shape before this week-end. I’ve been really tired at first, but now I just feel run-down, so I guess I’m getting in shape. It should be fun for you guys to watch me swim the 200 yd. fly.
Well, got to go for now. I’ll see you this week-end. Good-bye for now.
Love, Brian
P.S. Now there’s about a foot of snow, and its still snowing hard. Oh, if you haven’t already done so, could you forward my letter from Mary Lou? Thank you.
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