Speed and I met in 1948 when our family moved to Fresno and joined the First Congregational Church. We met the Leas' right away as Ernestine was a proverbial "pillar of the church" and it happened that she and my father had attended school together in Dinuba. At one time I had an old text book that had both their names in it. This was not so very rare in those days as "mobility" meant moving from one San Joaquin Valley town to another. We got to know each other better when we were in high school and both singing in the choir. We also attended Pilgrim Fellowship (the youth group for the Congregational Church). I remember that we shared a love of Saturday afternoon concerts from the Met on the radio and would sometimes drive around town listening. We must have also shared an appreciation of jazz as I have just now recalled that Speed gave me my first "long-play album" of June Christy. One memory is especially vivid and I find it inexplicable even now. We went shooting one Saturday afternoon. I suppose Speed had done that before, I don't know, but I never had. That day I shot a bird! I was horrified when I thought about it and I've never shot or aimed at anything since. I wonder, Speed, if you remember that?

I am grateful for our many years of friendship and glad that we remain in touch with each other. Happy 80th!

Love, Marilyn