Irma Jean Appleman                                                                                         
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Here are a couple of letters Mom sent from Argentina, one from toward the beginning of their stay and one from towards then end.  Both letters are two pages double-sided.  The complete texts are reprinted below—I put in a few paragraph breaks for readability but left the creative spellings.



Sunday

I'll try and write smaller to reduce the number of ounces. First of all thank you for the aniversery present. Maybe in 2 yrs we can use our nickel. Meantime the U.S. wood pulp is welcome. I've about completely given up trying to keep track of money. The U.S. exchange rate goes up and down every day it seems – so $30.00 one day may be $20.00 the next. Not so good when you are paying rent as high as ours.

We are all moved in our house now (not much to move in). So far I haven't taken any pictures of it but hope to today. The general plan is like so [drawing]

We don't have any front yard. (Many of the houses are this way) and have a small backyard. It has a lemon tree, several rose vines–bushes, 1 fusha purple & pink, columbine, hawian ginger, canna, hydrangea (2), jasmine (2), boganvilla (1), (trimmed so no flowers now) gardenia, 3 types of grapes, shasta daiseys, 2 small (2') avocadoes, 1 plumbago from neighbors year, 1 ivy thats green & white like [name] had, cactus, crown of thorns, anemones (larger more permanent type) geraniums etc etc & etc. also have a tree that I don't know about do you?

Leaf [drawing]—looks sort of mulbery-elmish—turns yellow in fall, 2 to 4 inches long, edge like so [drawing] not too fuzy underneath & shinny on top leaves come out like so from stem. Anyway the seeds are like so and come out from leaf base too—sort of a leaf like thing. Seeds are hard & have 5 rigdes on them. He Ho Ha–maybe there'll be a picture of this wonderful specimen befor long. I don't know what the flowers looked like—hope they are pretty. There are sure lots of pretty blooming trees around. There are several in our block with brite red flowers on them. Also have seen some with yellow flowers & there are several jacarandas down the streets. Also quite common are umbrella trees and bannanas (with bannanas on them!)

Anyway back to our yard—which right now is in a pretty rundown condition. It also has a shed which has storage place for our shoping carts, baby buggy (the 1st came with the place the second is borrowed) Also for bottles (which are all returnable for money—oil, wine, milk, pop etc all worth something ) outside of it is a small barbecue without a grate—Its been too hot to think about barbecuing tho. Also in the back is our clothes line and way up to the roof. (which is flat tile & so constructed that you can sunbath with no bikini if you want.) (Haven't seen any Helicopters around).

Inside our house is constructed like a prison—only so's to keep the bad guys out. The front window for instance is not just a front window. First there are the bars then, then screen then the metal shutters (which every house has) then the windows, then gause-like curtains, & then drapes! Most houses have bars and I don't think Ive seen any without the shutters. These are kept down all day to keep the heat out. Most houses are very dark inside—ours is lighter than most. Anyway to keep the burglers out we have 2 locks and a latch on the front door and 3 doors in the back (with locks). It seems nobody trusts anybody as far as going out without locking everything up. The lady accross the street says if she is going to be away more than a day or two she has some one come in and stay while she's away. One of the people at Michaels lab bought a big dog to scare bad men. Anyway we haven't had any bad-men around yet.—or even seen any signs of them. It just seems sort of funny all this locking up stuff. Oh yes we also have a hidden safe in the house!

Once you get in past all the locks etc things are quite nice. The baby's floor & the living room are hardwood in this design [drawing]  Our bedroom is wall to wall rug and the rest of the house is tile floored. The ceilings are very high and the walls cement. The living room is green and white, ours gold & white the baby's blue-grey & white. The kitchen is a darker green which is the only room not so good color wise (not light enough). Theres plenty of storage space & the lighting good (cept for the kitchen)

We have telephone, washer, refrigerator & stove & vaccum and all sorts of dusters (sticks with feathers—common around here). The stove has 3 burners and is gas. You light it with an electric deal that you push a button on and it sparks. There is no broiler (sob) and no temperature gage in the oven (hope to get one of the latter some time—meanwhile I'm guessing) The washer has two positions—wash & spin. (Not automatic—you fill it by hand—turn it to wash—make up your own time to wash then turn it to spin. Then when thats done enough you add rince water and start the wash cycle again. Right now the thing isn't working and a man is supposed to come & fix it. Also we have leaky faucets that are supposed to be fixed but the man hasn't come yet—Seems that people don't always come when they say they will—down here more so than in US.

The water heater is different too. You have to light it with a phosphoro (Argentine match—very cute [drawing... brown, roled paper)]. It is gas and works only when you have the water on full blast it seems. But you never run out of hot water as long as it on full (or almost full). It heats it as you use it. Water here is for free—but no body seems to use it much. I haven't seen many people watering with it, and most everyone drinks something else—wine (cheap here) soda (returnable bottles— bought from a man in a horse drawn cart—that comes by) maté,café au lait etc. The water is drinkable tho. The garbage is also collected for free—every day. You put it out in a little wooden box (nothing good because it mite be stollen). I don't know how much electricity or gas is as we havent got the bill yet.

The telephone is a big waste as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't work most the time. Some days it rings all day long with nobody there or with wrong numbers. Some days you can't phone out, and nobody hardly ever can phone in. Seems that they are not making phones down here and if you have one you are lucky and don't get rid of it (there is a mile long waiting list for phones) So I guess were stuck with it and its Bill (We can un plug it when it rings too much.) It has 3 places to plug it in too. Wrong numbers are very interesting as we don't speak Spanish. (The Spanish isn't plain Spanish—but a mixture of things—lots of Italian—) they don't say buenos dias but buen dia & not adios but chow. People (lookng for work, hand outs etc) come to the door and have a rough time. We usually just say no & then run and look up what they were talking about.

Our neighbors all speak english as well as Spanish (Castellaño they call it). The one accross the street who is Swiss also speaks german and who knows what else. Every where you go there are people from all over the place. Yesterday while standing in line to get into the "supermarket" there was a lady speaking german and behind us there as a very british sounding couple. All the people in the stores seem to speak spanish only tho—(But some of them—the bread man & the milk man look very italian)

Buying things is quite interesting. Ive given up trying to keep track of money though—just get what we need & hope for the best. We go to a variety of stores to get food. Milk, eggs & butter we get from one man. Meat from the super market (not so many flys there—The local butcher has flys crawling all over the stuff) (the supermarket wraps it.) Bread I buy from the bread man who comes by in his horse drawn cart daily. Fruits & vegetables are best from the farmers market. The supermarket is a interesting place. Its awful—but has cheaper & better quality on many things. Its awful because its always so crowded you can hardly walk The first time we went I think we stood in line about 45 minutes to get out. There are 2 of them we know about and they are called Mini Max stores. Supposedly they were set up by a Rockefeller grant or something.

The farmers market moves about from day to day, and is about a block long. Very picturesque—hope to get a picture  of it some day. They bock off the street and the farmers set up their stands. They sell all sorts of things—fish, sausage, meat, fruit vegetables, duck with feet & bills on etc. Food in general is cheap. The best steak is about 30c a pound and hamburger about 15c a pound. The stuff is so lean that we need to add grease to fry it in. The fruit is a lot smaller and poorer than U.S. but still good. We had some good egg plant last night (they are long and skinny like cucumbers—good when dipped in bater & fried). The lettuce is leaf type and the tomatoes are big and good. Some things we havn't found yet are waxed paper (there's supposed to be a paper shortage) paper towels  (we use T.P. for this) & vinegar. Finally found some vanilla (imatation) extract after looking all over for it. Other extracts just aren't I guess. Also nuts are scarce—no peanut butter can I find. We got some marmalade packed in a paste board box —I guess glass is scarcer than paper.

Baby food is expensive and theres not a very big variety so I've been pureeing (sp?) babys food). This sure does take a lot of time. Dr. Spock sez get your baby used to eating lumpy food sometime between 6 & nine months.—Our poor Eric is getting used to lumpy food at 3 months. He now eats Quaker fine ground 1 minute oats without too much fuss. Thats the best we have been able to find for him. Also eats egg yolk without to much fuss when mixed with peaches. He really goes for bananas and like apple sauce too. Give him carrots the other day which he seemed to like and today hes gonna get some tomatoes. He sure does like to eat. He eats as much as Michael it seems.

As for sight seeing we haven't done any yet. Haven't even been to the river which is maybe 2 miles round trip. Michael leaves for work around 8 and gets home around 6-630. by the time we get the dishes done and baby fed its time for bed. Some times we walk to town (La Lucila) which is about 5 blocks & get an ice cream cone. We've been to Mini Max a couple of times (~ 2 miles round trip) and around our neighborhood for evening walks. I seem to spend all day cooking & washing for the baby (no machine to wash  with now). Yesterday we were going to get a crib for Eric but waited (in vain) for the plumber to come instead. Michael needs a pair of shoes too (Has only 1 pr here) but we haven't found the time to get them. The stores are open around 8:00 in the morning and close about 8: 00 in the evening with 2 to 4:30 or so closing for siesta. Saturday is a working day at the lab (mornings only I guess) and Sunday is not as closed down as we thot it would be. Some of the stores are open and people seem to do a lot of running around. (Michael is not today however as he is trying to write the paper he was supposed towritea month ago). I haven't seen any churches in our neighboood, but people walk by dressed up so there must be one somewhere  around. Did I tell you at the hotel they served fish on friday followed by a course of meat.

The weather has been quite hot and humid. We've had 3 thunder storms since we've been here. The flys are bad if you let them in, but there aren't many inside. I burn tiger coils (like the ones you sent me) to get rid of mosquitos—they really work too. We have a lantana bush that has pretty orange butterflys with silver under their wings (like in Riverside). Also lots of crickets and other singing bugs at nite. One of the more common birds Ive seen is a sparrow with a top-not. Everybody seem to have chickens and they crow early in the morning. The lady across the street has a white cat with one blue eye and one brown eye. Well I'm running out of room & babys gonna want his dinner soon so Ill say goom by for now 

from me.

PS. got letter sent to lab. Hope Spam got a suitable funeral & Yours & Morty's legs are now mended!
P.P.S. Sevens are made like so here [with cross bar]  Ones are like so [ ]  Crazy!!!



Note on arrival of Mig...






November 7, 1964
letter # 33
Dear All,

I guess its about time to write again. Sure do have a hard time finding time to do anything anymore. Eric keeps us both on the go from 8am-8pm and as soon as hes asleep it seems Miguel starts crying. Both Michael and I have sort of been getting nothing done and spend our time together yawning—and saying we're getting nothing done. The only reason theres time to write today is that the penny-pinching Applemans finaly broke down and got a maid. (3hrs, 3 days a week at 50 pesos/hr (30-35c/hr)). Now I'll only have to do laundry 4 times a week and not clean house which should leave a little free time — tho not much. Up until now Michael has been helping with the laundry etc so I'm just switching maids really. Michael says to consider it Diaper service (which is unheard of here). Well anyway now I'm IN (not the only one on the block without a maid) though to be really in like some of our neighbors I should have 2 maids full time (what they find to do is beyond me).

Sorry your cable-gram got there late. Herb P. sent them (one to you & one to Michaels folks) both at the same time. I guess Los Angeles is more efficient that Berkeley is—although prehaps their spelling is worse. We've got copies of the way they left Buenos Aires and they went off with Miguel Luis spelled the right way.  Luis is the right way—not Louis or Lewis. Michael's folks' notice didn't event say Miguel but McGill—EEK.—Did yours?  Well anyway the names are spanish as its the law here that children must have spanish names (or more specifically ones in "the Book of Approved names.") The book has some English names such as Roy—where in the past some official was bribed to put it in the book.  (Horatio and Hector are common too) (and Clotilda & of all things Irma (pronounced Ear-ma)). Besides all this—or in spite of it we picked names we liked that go with appleman (there are few that do go with appleman and fewer spanish ones (they tend to end in a vowel)). Anyway he'll be called Miguel & probably Mig for short but not Michael (one of them is enough). In a couple of years we may end up calling him bean brain like poor Eric gets called sometimes—we shall see.

Miguel isn't quite the same as Eric was—He's shorter (52 cm vs about 56 for Eric) & fatter and not so fair—his Eyes are brown hair dark and more plentiful and he turns red all over when he gets mad. Wow!—he also has short eyelashes but has dimples and, so far, better digestion (at least not so much burping up stuff) than Eric had. He crys at night like Eric did too.

Eric doesn't seem to be too jealous of Miguel yet— He stands at a respectful distance and creeps in for a closer look sometimes. Eric also uses going to look at the baby as an excuse for not coming to dinner, going to bed, etc, and baby has joined the vocabulary. With all the diapers etc we've been trying to get Eric potty trained—in fact we've been trying off and on since he was 18 mos. Dr. Spock sez start around then and that most babys are potty trained by 2 yrs if they have a mind to be. Eric doesn't. Dr S. also says potty training comes before standing up. Eric is now wee wee trained standing but he still won't sit to do a thing. Somebody was wrong some where. Anyway about 85 times a day, as Michael says, Eric shouts Bamoo and every one dashes for the bathroom where Eric wets down the floor, walls etc—but not his pants. Don't ask me what Bamoo means—it could be bathroom or potty and is very close to his word for bottle and basket. P.S. how does one go Potty without sitting Down? Any ideas?
-2-
Well woopee—it's about time Moose decided to get married. Eric & Miguel both want another aunt. Herb & Fran say they know her & shes nice— What is the name of the Brother in Law in L.A. or do you know? Forgot to ask the Petscheks. Anyway you may mail him our congratulations—after all I just wrote him about Miguel—and that is more than he usually gets from us. Next Christmas we'll write our usual 2nd letter of the year (Birthday is #1). Oh yes & what is a late stay by your standards. Now that Miguel is here we usually finish dinner anywheres from 7:30-8:30. Eric eats with us now and then takes his bath & goes to bed. Then we eat desert and do the dishes. The whole process ends around 900 or 9:30. We're becoming more argentine all the time.

The strikes are still with us. Next week the trains won't run most of the time and its been 3 weeks since we've has beef. Carne which has always meant just beef is beginning to mean Lamb & Pork to Argentines also. At least my doc didn't strike and neither did Erics. He went to the docs yesterday with Michael for a check up. Apparently he raised havoc and Michael, the doc, and his nurse spent most of their time holding him down. Eric was 90 cm. but the weight is questionable as he wiggled so (13kg+/-).

I guess the strikes are not affecting the flowershops here bouts. At least the flowers you sent arrived here in fine shape (Carnations, blue delphiniums, greens, a big blue bow and a blue vase. EVERYTHING was spelled right too. May thanks for sending them. Perty. I always have liked delphiniums. Also thanks for the safety pins. They arrived yesterday all in one piece and unoppened. (The mail strike by the way is over—did I tell you?) Eric is still running on the ones you sent befor so these will be for Miguel.

The weather here keeps getting a little bit warmer and is quite pleasent now—The flys and mosquitoes also like the warm weather and are around these days too. Our grape vine has lots of flower buds on it and it wont be long until our Tilo (Linden) blooms). (Have you heard of Tea made from Linden blosoms?). (I've heard of runny noses from them—mine).

You asked when we'd come and show off Miguel. Present plans will have us leaving here before the 13th of Jan. Thats when our visas expire and it costs several thousand pesos to have them renewed. We'll probably go to L.A. first and then to Berkeley but plans are indefinite and subject to change. Between now and then we've got lots of running around to do. We've gotten Miguels Argentine Birth Certificates but need to get him on my passport (calls for pictures) and need his Argentine I.D. Card. Also need plane reservations, to pack, to write papers letters and etc etc etc. Leaves me tired to think about it. If ever you're in the vicinity of a travel agents office would you stop in and ask them for one international certificate of health. (These are the things on which shots are recoreed— They are put out by most airline companies and carried by travel agents —at least in Seattle they were.) Anyway —Its not urgent so if its hard to come by (as it is here) dont worry or bother. If you do get one we'd like it on hand here just in case we need it (not likely). Not much else new around these parts so I'll say goombyde for now. 

from me

  MOM