It must be getting close to Xmas. Dorothy is starting to panic about cards, and the temperature is climbing here in the Southern Hemisphere. So, I am doing my part, by writing the "Xmas letter."
The big news is that we have again extended our tour here in Australia, until August 1990, and so we are going to come back to the U.S., again, over the holidays to see our parents. We are leaving Alice on December 16th and will return on January 18th. We are going to leave the east coast in time to stop in California, first in San Francisco, then drive down the coast road to L.A., where we plan on going to Disneyland. No one is really looking forward to the trip back because it is a long tiring trip and then we have the miserable weather on the east coast, the holiday traffic and the mobs of people. So we decided the short stay in California would be a nice break before getting back on the plane for that long return trip.
Dwight has just finished year 12 here and took the matriculation exams. They (the exams) are used primarily as a means of getting into an Australian university. Although Dwight is going to come home next year to attend college, he wanted to do well on the exams to help him get accepted into college. He is also busy filling out a number of applications to colleges.
In addition to finishing school and filling out all of the forms for college, Dwight is still working every weekend as the newspaper photographer. He is assigned a whole list of things to cover and is on the go most of Saturday sometimes even into the late evenings, and part of Sunday. He has quite a few pictures in each issue of the paper and in some cases has a byline to go with the pictures.
Toby's main interest in life is ten-pin bowling. He bowls twice on the weekend and some lady has volunteered to work with him. The first time she did, he came home on cloud 9. He had bowled a 215 game. He also plays indoor cricket, sings with the junior singers, still takes guitar lessons and was captain of the school chess team this year. He will move into What is called high school here next year (starting the end of January) - into grade 8. A private school here which until now has been a boarding school for kids from stations out bush, is going to start a day school for years 7-9, beginning with the new term, and Toby is going to go there. He did not want to go to the Alice Springs High School because it has a number of problems, but he is looking forward to going to the new school, St. Phillips. The only drawback is that they require uniforms, including black tie shoes, so he may have to give up his boots, which he has worn since he was about 3. Knowing Toby, he will probably get the school to make an exception for him.
Dorothy is staying busy covering every activity in town that even remotely can be considered "community arts." She does make a guest appearance at home occasionally. There are a number of nights when she has several events to cover. One of the more impressive things she has gotten to do recently (as far as I am concerned) was to interview Alan Shepard who was in town on a fund-raising campaign for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. I am a space fanatic and when she told me she was going to get to interview Alan Shepard, I told her there was no way she was going without me. So I was able to meet him, as well. Dorothy certainly gets to cover a wide variety of events. Some of the recent events of note were: a lecture by a numerologist, a hot-air balloon ride with a bunch of aboriginal kids; a number of art exhibit openings; primary school fashion shows; and a party for an elderly Italian couple who were marking 50 years of living in Alice Springs.
By comparison, my life is fairly dull. I am still active in the Australian-American Association and, as planned, I did attend the federal conference in Canberra in October. Now, our division here is planning the 1989 Federal Conference for next October. However, instead of a dinner in a big fancy hotel, as they did in Canberra, we are planning a bush barbeque outside of town. It should be distinctly different for most of the "big~city" people. I also got roped into the preliminary planning for a huge gem and mineral show which the local Gem Club hopes to hold here in 1993. Even if I won't be here then, they need help in putting together the costing for it, so I was asked to serve on the committee. The show last year drew 5-6000 people and the budget was almost $50,000, so you can see it is going to take some organization.
I guess there is not much else to report at the moment. The only trip we have planned at the moment is the one to the U.S. that I mentioned' earlier. There is a possibility that Dorothy gets one or two air fares to a capital city (a state capital) after she has worked full time on the paper for two years (which I think is this month). If so, she or some of us may use it(them) to go to Perth some time in the future.
That is all I have. I hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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