March 29, 1971

Dear Mom & Dad

Well here are some more pictures.  This envelope holds the first batch of 44 snap-shots, all of which you should be getting at about the same time in several different envelopes.  This is not a letter, just comments on the pictures.  I will try to get out a long letter to you very soon.  These first pictures I would like to call:  Things I would like to show you if you were here....

 This is a new tape recorder and cassette player that I got recently.  You see I still haven't received my baggage that I sent from home, which had my stereo in it, so I had to have something to listen to music on.  If by any chance I ever do get my stereo again I can use it in conjunction with the tape-recorder.
By the way, I made a voice recording to send to you, but I made the mistake of listening to it after I was done.  If you have ever heard yourself talk on a tape-recorder, you will know what I mean.  I still haven't gotten up enough nerve to send it to you.

 This is a new coat that I bought shortly after I first arrived here, made in England, but two of the buttons came off recently, so I haven't been wearing it too much.

 This is one of the licence plates that was on my Lotus when I first picked it up.  Because it was driven from England to Germany it had these British plates on it, and they let me keep them as souvenirs.

This is one of  four drawings that I got from an artist who was selling them at the club.  This guy was over 80 years old, and these pictures were all his own work.  This particular picture is of Rotenburg, a medieval city about 15 miles from here.

 Another one of the drawings that I bought.  This was one of the first ones he did in 1929.  Of course these are lithographs, but he does all the reproductions himself from his original plates.

 My uniform with all my glorious decorations.

This is an ashtray made out of alabaster.  I got this from a guy from Italy who sells these goods at the club every now and then.  This ash tray must weigh at least 10 lbs.

 The keys to my car and the bill of sale!

 One more drawing.  this one is the last one that he ever drew.  he quit drawing because his eyes were getting real bad.  His eyes were bad when he did this one, so he took a picture of it, and then projected it on the wall of his studio and drew it from that.  this one is of a church in Worms Germany.

 Two alabaster bookends, that I got from the same guy that I got the ashtray from.

This is a parka, and cold weather gloves that were issued to me when I got here.  I've never had an opportunity to wear them yet.

That's all for this one:  Next Rotenburg, Nuremberg, and other places.