Letter, Charles and Anna Mantinband to friends; 1964
Transcript
[Address extracted]
Longview, Texas
THE MANTINBAND MEGILLAH 1964
Thanksgiving Day and Hanukah have passed. It is time for another saga. We are well and continue to thrive. It is hard to realize that we have reached three-score-and-ten. Our blessings are many, and we are humble and grateful.
Retirement is not in our vocabulary. On every side there is excitement and adventure. We enjoy this vast Texas, no longer the largest stat in the Union (ask any Alaskan or Hawaiian). In the Lone Star State we have discovered an Egypt, Paris, Tokyo, Nineveh, Nazareth, Dublin, Palestine and Utopia, not to mention Odessa. As a matter of fact, we are involved in a Bar Mitzvah in this city, some four hundred miles distant.
It is a year since the tragic assassination of President Kennedy, in these parts. Memory and grief abide, but there is little evidence of contrition. The election was to our liking. Lyndon Johnson is a native Texan. Feelings in his direction are mixed. Naturally, the candidate was one personality, and the White House incumbent is another. Goldwater signs and photographs have not disappeared. There is considerable sentiment against Washington and Federal control.
Our work is satisfying. We are very near our family and see them often, in Shreveport, St. Louis and Dallas. Official business takes us on trips hither and yon – Washington, New York, and nearer areas like Hot Springs or Corpus Christi. Our vacation last summer included Colorado, California and Honolulu, all most memorable and rewarding. There followed a week at ToFTY Youth Camp. A hundred teen-agers will keep you on your toes.
On occasion we return to Mississippi, always by invitation. We no longer feel the day-by-day tensions we lived with for so long. Progress is painfully slow, with occasional bright spots. Dr. James Silver of the Ole Miss faculty, gave us favorable mention in his best-seller, "Mississippi – The Closed Society". Friendships that we cherish – which grew out of our involvement in the race question – are with Bishop Joseph Brunini of the Catholic Church, and Francis Stuart Harmon, former president of the International YMCA. The Bishop wrote from Rome about the Ecumenical Council. Harmon shared his experience in Russia and India. Dan Beittel, retired as president of Tougaloo College, remains in Mississippi to carry on the program of the American Friends Service Committee.
Much of our reading is outdoors, in shirt-sleeves, while the rest of the country shivers. We finally caught up with "The Deputy" on Broadway, but Sholem Aleichem’s "Fiddler on the Roof" is pleasure deferred.
Please come this way and share our ménage. Let us introduce you to the Texas accent. When I say "I feel first-rate" my neighbor inquires "why are you frustrated?" We own a ten-gallon hat, but never wear it at home. Once in the Florida airport, we were mistaken for a Texas tycoon, and proved easy prey for a group of pickpockets.
We send best wishes for 1965.
Charles and Anna Mantinband
