RURAL BRYANT, SD, PRESENTS:

to Pearl Ginther for

July 6, 1978

[From Envelope]

Ben and Norman Stadem

Highland Apts. No. 12

Lake Preston, S.D. 57249

Dear Pearl and Family--

If I hurry maybe I'll get a note ready for the mailman. We just got your note and family picture taken on Mother 's Day.

You shouldn't give away the picture you saved for yourself. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it. I must congratulate you on your camera. It takes some very good pictures.

That salmon "bake out" you described at Lorin's and Marylou's place sounds very exotic. Canned salmon is on our diets if we can afford it. An 8. oz. can of pink costs $1.00. We have to be so careful of cold or hot on account of the metabolism.

I imagine drinking luke-warm water to quench one's thirst on a hot day. I always loved ice-cold milk and it was the lst clue that I couldn't tolerate anything ice-cold. There went the ice-cubes.

Fri. 7th, 5:00 p.m. We just came back from the Apt across. It was an open house 62 yr. wedding anniversary for a couple that eloped on May 17th, 62 years ago. It must have worked out as they seem to be very much in love after 62 years. She is practically blind but her mind is very alert and he seems good for his age but more forgetful than she. It seems odd when one gets hardening of the artieries and it starts affecting the brain. One can communicate much better in their native tongue. That's why so many of the Norskies in the hospital across our apts can understand and seem to grasp much better in Norwegian, of course many are more like vegetables with no mind. That becomes a sad plight. I reckon you see plenty of those cases.

By the way, you remember, your classmate from the Academy Jennie Anderson, she married Bruce Oliver, a (Catholic). They just returned from Calif. making a 5,000 trip. He had a physical checkup when they returned. He got a clean bill of health, including no cavities. He got in their home and dropped dead from a heart attack. I guess one never knows. Some can linger on several years. Others are seemingly in robust health and are not so old either. The only sure thing is that we are all destined to leave this world, sooner or later, expected or unexpected. Living in this community is very mindful of that fact. We have a funeral every day. Likewise at Bryant. Many times one in the forenoon and another in the P.M. Sobering thought, isn't it?

Thanks again.

Much Love,

Ben & Norman