October 28, 1984
Sunday Night
Dear Mom and Dad,
Let's see, last time I wrote I was in Jamestown. I called Olaf and Alice on Sunday to say hello and to tell them that I would be passing through late at night and wouldn't be able to stop. Alice said in her meek voice that she sure would like to meet me and Olaf said in his deep respectful voice that he's never met the 3rd generation of Bjornstads on Rudolf's side. So, I changed my plans. Instead of leaving Sunday night I left Monday afternoon. Monday morning I went to Anne's French 3 class. I could understand! They were reading a French detective thriller designed for instruction and it is about at my level so I took a copy.
Sunday afternoon I went with Anne to a kid's soccer game that she umpired/refereed. It sort of snowed and sort of rained. Good thing I had bought a good coat the day before. And a good pair of boots. Hope they will be enough for Norway!
Olaf picked me up at the bus depot Monday night at 11:30. He came in a cab as he didn't trust himself driving. For being 78 years old Olaf is in remarkable physical and mental health. He talked and smoked and drank coffee and I listened and drank milk until 1:00 at which time I had reached an extreme of fatigue and decided to head for bed. In the morning I met Alice and found her to be a beautiful kind woman. That evening we went out to dinner and she dressed up in a nice white dress and a woolen jacket with fringes that she had made herself and truly she was beautiful. And I told her so. She thanked me and said she hadn't thought of herself in that way for a long time. I said, “The body will surely die and decay but yet you are still beautiful.”
Olaf asked about computers and what the hell they were good for. I dragged him down to a nearby computer store and showed him an Apple Macintosh. I said that computers were very useful tools if you have a need but that if you didn't they were more trouble than they were worth. He had never seen a computer before and was tickled a bit. I saw a sparkle in his eye. But he lost patience quickly and asked the store salesman, “Can this teach me to play golf better?”
I spent a night and a day in Chicago to rest from the torture of the bus and got into Kent, Ohio on Friday afternoon to meet with the distributors of Ratbasic. These two guys are young (28, 32) and are just starting their business and it's going well. I'm confident they will be able to do a good job with Ratbasic.
Spent a night in Pittsburgh to rest from the torture of the bus and got into Washington, D.C. Saturday night. Ernest is much the same. Same strengths. Same weaknesses. One difference - he has an interesting woman friend. More about that later when I can get him to talk about it.
Until next week,
Love,
Jon