December 18, 1968 314 N. Fremont Street River Falls, Wisconsin 54022  

Dear Ones All:  

On December 23, 1967, our first grandchild Erik Scott Webb arrived, too late of course for our last letter.  We arrived in New Mexico to greet him on Christmas Day.  Our Christmas lunch was spent near Albuquerque, in a filling station parking lot, eating cheese, crackers and a bottle of pop.  We didn’t want to go far off the Interstate to find a place to eat, and the roads were bad from there on.  Strange to say the only bad driving we had came in New Mexico and that weird death-trap they call the Kansas Turnpike.  Merry helped prepare us an evening meal of hamburger, which tasted like steak by that time. Other news of our children is that Merry was in grad school at Madison, Wisconsin.  Jon was in grad school in Utah.  They both are with the bureau of Indian Affairs.  Bessie Yazzle who stays with them helped Erik and even learned to make his nose go “beep” when she pressed it. Doug is pre-enrolled in Theological Seminary and is working part time in a training school for delinquent boys. Bruce is in speech therapy and worked this summer in an institution for the emotionally disturbed.  To sum it up, all our kids became institutional cases at the same time!  

During the summer Betty attended a ceramics workshop and continued her second year of grad work at Minnesota.  Between the two of us we have finished or have in progress 16 years of college work.  Our kids are catching up though, for they have a total of 13.  Will taught in grad school during the summer session.  All his work is grad work now.  

We bought 10 acres we are calling either “The Oaks” or “Red Cedars“ or “Back Acres”--depending.  It is mostly wood-lot but we still planted over 100 exotic trees which were not present.  We moved some of the younger ones, especially from the area we envision as a building site.  We also planted seeds of mountain wildflowers, so we are anxious to see what happens.  It is a rough wooded paradise to us. The 4-wheel drive Bronco takes us over the pathways we have made.

For Xmas we will be in Milwaukee, Chicago, Kankakee, New Mexico and Arizona, if everything goes well.  

Ring out.  

                    With Love                         Will and Betty Harris  

             Ring out the old, ring in the new,                       Ring happy bells, across the snow:                       The year is going, let him go;              Ring out the false, ring in the true.  

             Ring in the valiant man and free,                       The larger heart, the kindlier hand ;                       Ring out the darkness of the land ;             Ring in the Christ that is to be.