DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | May Tangen Christmas Letters, 1961-1974 | 1974-01-01 New Years Greetings from May Tangen

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May Tangen Christmas Letters, 1961-1974

1974-01-01 New Years Greetings from May Tangen

January 1, 1974
Happy New year to Mrs. Johnson, Miss Walcott, Mrs. Glueck and the Harkers, Myrtle and Dan, Jo, John and children, George and Mildred, and Donna: 

You don't know each other (except that Miss Walcott knows the Littletons, and Donna is a good friend of Jo and John's) -- but you are all dear and I am glad that at last I can get around to you in my round of letters on New Year's Day. I type off 7 copies of a letter, send them in a few days, then write another 7, etc., and will finally get all my correspondence done. 

The New year didn't start off very well. I spent the night eating words which had boomeranged. I left a New Year's card for my neighbor who lives on the other sider of my living-room-bedroom wall. She has been here all vacation too. Being a young lady she has had her interests and I have mine and e had hardly seen each other. She has her record player and I have mine and we hear them both. I told her -- and these were the words I had to eat -- that I enjoyed hearing her music, and I did, until 12:30 this morning. Then she let me have it! Loud, with loud drumming, all her records one after another. Which wasn't too bad as I can sleepthrough any noise if I'm sleepy enough. But she went out at about 2:30 with her company and left the music ^to run on, still loud. And that wasn't so bad until a record broke and the same phrase ran over and over and over. It was something like "stays in Chicago" or "prays in the Congo" with a steady drum beat. I had to laugh. Truthfully, I wasn't mad, but nobody could foretell when she'd come home, so I got up, turned on the heaters (electric), closed the window, put on something warm and prepared to stay up all night. 

I had a nice job waiting for me: putting the Fagernes Family Record (history of my mother's family) into enveloped and addressing them. I like to do that and it needed to be done. So your mother will be getting hers sooner now, Charles. But at about 3:15 Miss Hill came home and I thought Now she'll stop that music! But she didn't! She just took off that record and went through her whole stack again! That's when I really ate words. I thought each one was the last one, and sat there addressing envelopes. Finally I had enough of that diet and went to the kitchen and make some toast and ate that. Along about then the music stop-ped and I though NOW again. It was four o'clock and she moved to her bedroom and out her radio on , not awfully low, and went to bed with it on. She does that sometimes. That's not bad. I went to bed then, slept and meant to sleep as long as I wanted to all day. But she got up at 6 o'clock and made breakfast, the radio still on, and it was still on at 8:30 when I got up. Then the record player started again on and on. Do you know when the house got quiet again? 4:10 this afternoon! But that' not unusual and I don't mind that. It was just so funny. I'll never do that again. I had records of my own I played after I got up, and lots of things to do and hardly heard it during the day. 

I expect better from the rest of the year. I have turned in my resignation and will be a golden ager after June 1. I can hardly wait. Yes, Miss Walcott, I intend to live here, hoping to get an apartment in the college community so I can be a good neighbor and churchwoman. And do all the things I've been pro-mising myself these many years.... One thing, and I will start this early this spring, is to take a correspondence course in English literature, especially fiction. I want to take a course in cartooning, too, so as to make myself do some art. No, cartooning isn't art, but it does take drawing skill and a sense of humor, and I feel as if I need to develop both. 

I've had ten days of vacation, and will go back to work tomorrow, as we need to get our January book orders ready to go to Atlanta by the 11th. And we have to do some careful selecting -- which always takes time. We belong to the Coopera-tive College Library Center (or they belong to us and 20 other black colleges) and we meet together on the 11th to compare our purchasing policies, hoping that if we buy pretty much the same things that we can get out books at special rates and that a committee can do our selection for us. That will mean comparing our course offerings and needs. I saw all this because I am the one who is to go to Atlanta.

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January 1, 1974 Happy New year to Mrs. Johnson, Miss Walcott, Mrs. Glueck and the Harkers, Myrtle and Dan, Jo, John and children, George and Mildred, and Donna: You don't know each other (except that Miss Walcott knows the Littletons, and Donna is a good friend of Jo and John's) -- but you are all dear and I am glad that at last I can get around to you in my round of letters on New Year's Day. I type off 7 copies of a letter, send them in a few days, then write another 7, etc., and will finally get all my correspondence done. The New year didn't start off very well. I spent the night eating words which had boomeranged. I left a New Year's card for my neighbor who lives on the other sider of my living-room-bedroom wall. She has been here all vacation too. Being a young lady she has had her interests and I have mine and e had hardly seen each other. She has her record player and I have mine and we hear them both. I told her -- and these were the words I had to eat -- that I enjoyed hearing her music, and I did, until 12:30 this morning. Then she let me have it! Loud, with loud drumming, all her records one after another. Which wasn't too bad as I can sleepthrough any noise if I'm sleepy enough. But she went out at about 2:30 with her company and left the music ^to run on, still loud. And that wasn't so bad until a record broke and the same phrase ran over and over and over. It was something like "stays in Chicago" or "prays in the Congo" with a steady drum beat. I had to laugh. Truthfully, I wasn't mad, but nobody could foretell when she'd come home, so I got up, turned on the heaters (electric), closed the window, put on something warm and prepared to stay up all night. I had a nice job waiting for me: putting the Fagernes Family Record (history of my mother's family) into enveloped and addressing them. I like to do that and it needed to be done. So your mother will be getting hers sooner now, Charles. But at about 3:15 Miss Hill came home and I thought Now she'll stop that music! But she didn't! She just took off that record and went through her whole stack again! That's when I really ate words. I thought each one was the last one, and sat there addressing envelopes. Finally I had enough of that diet and went to the kitchen and make some toast and ate that. Along about then the music stop-ped and I though NOW again. It was four o'clock and she moved to her bedroom and out her radio on , not awfully low, and went to bed with it on. She does that sometimes. That's not bad. I went to bed then, slept and meant to sleep as long as I wanted to all day. But she got up at 6 o'clock and made breakfast, the radio still on, and it was still on at 8:30 when I got up. Then the record player started again on and on. Do you know when the house got quiet again? 4:10 this afternoon! But that' not unusual and I don't mind that. It was just so funny. I'll never do that again. I had records of my own I played after I got up, and lots of things to do and hardly heard it during the day. I expect better from the rest of the year. I have turned in my resignation and will be a golden ager after June 1. I can hardly wait. Yes, Miss Walcott, I intend to live here, hoping to get an apartment in the college community so I can be a good neighbor and churchwoman. And do all the things I've been pro-mising myself these many years.... One thing, and I will start this early this spring, is to take a correspondence course in English literature, especially fiction. I want to take a course in cartooning, too, so as to make myself do some art. No, cartooning isn't art, but it does take drawing skill and a sense of humor, and I feel as if I need to develop both. I've had ten days of vacation, and will go back to work tomorrow, as we need to get our January book orders ready to go to Atlanta by the 11th. And we have to do some careful selecting -- which always takes time. We belong to the Coopera-tive College Library Center (or they belong to us and 20 other black colleges) and we meet together on the 11th to compare our purchasing policies, hoping that if we buy pretty much the same things that we can get out books at special rates and that a committee can do our selection for us. That will mean comparing our course offerings and needs. I saw all this because I am the one who is to go to Atlanta.