Letter - to David's Family - Carmel, California - 12.7.1970

                                                                                                              Carmel, California. 27.7.1970

Dear Mum, Dad, Andrew and Julia,

     Thanks a lot for all your best wishes, I had a very nice 1/4 century starting in San Francisco with a Champagne Breakfast party, this was at the home of some friends we met through Virginia, we stayed there a couple of nights while we looked around San Francisco and on the 23rd some of their friends came over and we had a Breakie Party.

     Before I forget, the best thing to send Keith and Virginia for Christmas (and I'm not kidding) would be one of those big tins of Arnotts biscuits.  I know you can still get them cause my Dad used to get them for Office Tea Time breaks in the shop in Liverpool Street.  I think there is a $3 deposit on the tin but this is one thing Keith and Virginia have asked Dudu to send them and she always told them they could get better here, I know that would please them greatly.*  They are still great cookie eaters.**

     Virginia is a marvelous cook and she remembers everyone's likes and dislikes, I still can't get over the pavlova we had the night we arrived.  She isn't one bit as I'd imagined she'd be, she is really funny at times.  Up at the mountain cabin last weekend she gave us a very funny imitation of Keith singing 'The Letter edged in Black', when Keith had just arrived in the states.  Keith is also a dear, he makes the odd rough exclamation such as... 'GOD - HELL - I don't know... and 'Ooooohhhh  Veeerrrrginia' when Virginia says something he doesn't believe or thinks is silly.

     They both call us 'The Kids'  and treat us as though we were which is a lot of fun, Keith is a little deaf now but he hears what he wants to I think, he takes us everywhere he goes and introduces us to everyone.  His dog - (it really was for Virginia but Debbie the dog worships Keith), is very old and is a little blind but when Keith is out in his truck Debbie is put in back in a cage and she barks and barks, you can hear them coming miles off, they were never able to train her to travel quietly in the front, at one stage they discovered that if she got frightened she'd go under the seat and - silence - so Keith would drive along with a cap gun and when she barked he'd shoot the gun, it worked but must have looked a bit cruel so he stopped it and now puts up with it.  I'm running out of things to tell you about them that I think you wouldn't know.  We love them and we have great outings an times with them.

     Julia - in the U.K. the maxi and the midi were in but only worn by a few young girls.  What I thought was funny was to see a girl in a nice long coat and underneath she would have on a mini skirt and the coat would have a long slit up the back and front so she could catch the bus and trains etc.  so the idea of having a long skirt or coat to keep warm didn't really work.  I haven't seen any midi or maxi shirts here, it's really too hot though.  There are lots of dirty Hippies around, they are always hitching and they are so lazy they often sit down cross legged and read something with one arm out.  Or they even lie down with their head on their knapsack.

     We all agree and will be home waiting by the phone on Tuesday 4.8.70 at 7pm U.S.A. time, 6pm is right on Virginia and Keith's dinner time so hope that makes it okay your end, if not we'll wait till we hear from you again.

     Hope Julia enjoys the C.G. Dance.  Haven't heard from or about Dad for months, I suppose he is busy traveling around.   Have you seen Tabitha yet? We've had letters from Newport, they all think she is beaut.

     Love for now, Pennie  XX





*When David and I settled back in Australia I sent a tin (you could buy smaller tins by then) of Arnotts Biscuits to them every Christmas.

** Every second Tuesday Virginia would bake Keith's favourite cookies, she would bake 60 of them and allowed each of them two a day.  On one baking day David waked through the kitchen as these cookies were cooling and he picked up a couple as he moved on... Virginia was outraged!  This totally threw her out.

U.S.A. - Santa Cruz, California - July 1970

 Virginia wanted me to meet one of her friends, Ann Blinks.  Ann had her own sheep and spun and wove the wool.  We drove to Santa Cruz, high up in the mountains to Ann's home.  I've just done a Google search for Ann Blinks and am thrilled to find she was someone of note in the Textile world... check her out here...  Ann Blinks.

 Virginia loved to swim, so did I but I don't think I ever saw Keith in the water :-)

A later photo of Anne from the Weavers Website.

U.S.A. - Article I found on the Internet - July 1970

Keith and Virginia - October 1943

Henry Miller Comes to Big Sur.   Until the Nazis invaded, Henry Miller was living an idyllic life in Greece.  Returning to America, he saw himself as a refugee, arriving on the Monterey Peninsula to visit an artist friend who had a studio above Cannery Row.  After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Carmel Mayor Keith Evans resigned and joined the Army.   He and his friend Ernie Bixler, the Carmel Post Master, had just completed building a cabin on Partington Ridge, one of the first homes in that scenic area of Big Sur. When Miller heard that the Evans cabin would be vacant, he contacted the ex-mayor and his wife, Virginia, offering to rent it for ten dollars a month  During the next year, Miller was disappointed that his publishers in Occupied France could no longer send him royalty checks earned by his novels. He admitted to Keith and Virginia that he had no money for rent. The Carmel couple allowed Miller to live there throughout the war, rent free - or for an occasional dollar or two. Out of gratitude for their help, Miller practically dedicated his book about Big Sur to Evans.  In the introduction to "Big Sur, or The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch," Evans is mentioned, as are many of Keith's Big Sur friends. The book is a thoroughly entertaining account of the colorful characters Miller befriended during his years living in the Evans' Big Sur cabin, which is depicted in this accompanying cartoon of Miller's topless model being affectionately grabbed by a somewhat intoxicated Emil White. Miller's irate wife, clutching her howling daughter, is entangled in domestic tasks while a neighbor rolls on the ground howling with laughter at her frustration. Today 90-year-old Keith Evans lives above the Carmel Mission with his wife Virginia and their adoring pet dog. He is a living repository of Carmel lore, full of memories of friends like Miller and Ansel Adams.

U.S.A. - Big Sur, California - July 1970

 Our first visit to 'The Boondocks' Big Sur involved a 45 minute drive south along Highway #1, we turned off left at Big Sur and drove up and up and up and up until we came to sunshine, something you didn't very often see along this coastline because of the ever present fog.  Keith and Virginia came up here every weekend, they just loved the place.

 The Cabin Keith built.

 Keith prepares his rifle for a walk and a shoot?

 Off he goes...

 David and I walked towards the coast which was absolutely beautiful with it's foggy blanket.

 There was even a small swimming pool up here.

'Lips that touch liquor will never touch mine'  maybe this was why David's mother thought K & V were tea total!  LOL

Debbie, one very loved dog who needs de-burring when up at 'The Boondocks'

What an incredible place this was, we visited a few times but when we returned to Carmel in the 1990's Keith had sold this cabin and build a more substantial home, with a bigger pool, further down the coast.

Letter - to David's Mother - Carmel, California - 12.7.1970

                                                                                                                           Carmel, July 1970

Dear Mum,

     Just had a rather alarming letter from you:  dated April 4th, it's been to London, Vienna, back to London, back to Canberra and came to Box 1556 surface mail in a OHMS envelope from Canberra P.O.!!!  Shows great dedication on the part of the various P.O.'s but I wonder why the bank didn't forward it to Farnham Road on May 5th when it returned from Vienna - oh well they seem to be getting it right nowadays.  Also the news of Dudu, (David's Grandmother) rejecting all visitors was rather worrying, but it would seem since the arrival of the 'Live-in', plus dog, that she is better - I hope our letters and postcards do her some good.  Do make it clear to her, if our letters don't that we'll be home in three months, November at the latest.

     Tonight we go to our third concert in three days, in the Carmel Bach Festival - it's been super, Keith and Virginia are sort of life member subscribers, but had only their own tickets, so we went up to the 'Sunset Cultural Center' to see what was left and got into Saturday's Harpsichord recital, (Bach preludes, sonata and 8 Scarlatti Sonatas, the performers speciality), tonight's Concert, Bach and Mozart;  Keith and Virginia don't break their habit of weekend visit to the coast, even for the Bach Festival, so we had their tickets for yesterday's Mass in B Minor, Pennie was thrilled to bits by it and I was well pleased but I look forward to tonight most of all.

     We're going to San Francisco tomorrow, in Virginia's Falcon, to stay a couple of days with some people to whom Virginia directed us*, they've been in Carmel for a few days, came to lunch with us yesterday and invited us up to San Francisco any time, so we said this week for two days, mainly to have a first look around and to look up our friend Louis Daugherty (met in Belgrade), his wife is still in New York seeing to the landing of their VW Camper, while Louis starts his new job on time, he's a Pathologist at University of California, Medical Centre.

     Everything has arrived now.  SPER Magazine, O.B.U., towing mags, and belt to which many thanks, although I must admit Pennie has appropriated it, it fits her jeans, but not my mole-skins which are my only belted pants and have narrow straps.  The SPER mag is a beauty, their 'bi-centenary' issue and served to increase my anxiety about my destination roll which I ordered from them - it should be a biggish parcel - did it ever come?  If not I must write to them in the hope of obtaining 'the last on the shelf' - it was a limited issue, of genuine originals.

     Just returned from a lovely concert - my  favourite Brandenburg Concerto (#4) plus Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto, which Dad must know almost by heart, then a Bach Cantata and Mozart no. 39 Symphony - all pretty well done, considering the fairly small and fairly young orchestra, but I thought the harpist in the Mozart concerto was lousy - we'll see what tomorrow's paper thinks.

     On the weekend we go to the mountain cabin, I'm not too clear where except that it's above Big Sur - for the Friday and Saturday nights, then on Sunday Pen and I are to come back in the Falcon, to go to meet some more friends in Carmel Valley.  Their son is our age, a little shy we're told, but very interested in travel, particularly Australia, so we should get on well.  Virginia is being absolutely wonderful, arranging ever so smoothly for us to meet, dine, talk, etc. with all sorts of nice people, while Keith unobtrusively sees to every financial and transport item.  We are getting so spoiled, you'll probably find us highly undesirable when we get back.

     We went shearing the other day - a flock of 10 belonging to a friend of Keith's in Pebble Beach - he does everybody's it seems just for the exercise and 'old times sake'  I tried my hand at a couple and managed, but look forward to further practice.  Ann Blinks will be a possible customer - she has the largest flock, of 35 or so and Virginia has been trying to make a date for us to meet her, as well as many others - I honestly hardly know what next.  We dined with the Davis', next door last night, Liz is Virginia's sister and John D. her husband was a big-gun lawyer in San Francisco, Very Social Couple until he developed depression mania.  Super to talk to though.

     Love D & P    x

* I think this was the Skylor's who were very welcoming as were all the people Virginia organized for us to meet, some of whom we are still in contact with.

U.S.A. - Carmel, California - July 1970

 Commercial Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey.

A few days after we'd arrived in Carmel, Keith took us to one of his favourite spots made famous by John Steinbeck,  Cannery Row.    We walked around and he took us to lunch at a rather nice Restaurant on the Wharf... I remember this day very clearly, we ordered sandwiches, which were delicious and as we left Keith left a $5 tip!  This was the first time we'd seen 'tipping', you didn't do it much in Australia or the UK but we'd heard that it was expected in the US.  We only had $18 left, that $5 tip was... I thought at the time... way over the top for three sandwiches!  (Actually I still do think it was over the top).

During the lunch Keith told us we wouldn't be able to get jobs because we didn't have Work Visa's and they took a long time to get.

After we'd lunched and wandered around Keith took us to his bank, he opened an account in our name and put $1,000.00 in it!  He told the Bank Manager to put more in if we'd spent that. 

Keith then took us around to his local shops and told everyone that anything we wanted was to go on his account.

Then he told us to go buy a car and get out of here and see America!

Then he gave us his Petrol (Gas) Charge Card!

Sugar Uncle or WHAT!!!  Wow!  We did not expect this in any way, we'd hit it off with both Keith and Virginia the minute we met them but this was something else...  We were very humbled.

Keith, who'd been a Jackaroo for a while, kept his hand in by helping out a few neighbours by shearing their sheep, David who'd also been a Jackaroo at 'Wollogorang' had sheared the odd sheep as well, David is the first to admit, he wasn't very good at it,  but the two of them helped Allen Griffin of Pebble Beach by shearing his sheep.   I love the photos below... lovely memories :-)

The Lone Cyprus Pine at Pebble beach above and below from Google Maps.

We arrived just in time for one of Keith and Virginia's favourite times of year... the Bach Festival and were lucky to be given tickets for a couple of events. 

Letter - to David's Mother Mary - Carmel, California - 12.7.1970

c/- Box 1556, Carmel, California. July 12th.

Dear Mum,

     It's happened - we're here, we've met Virginia, (that fairy-story being ever since I heard the name), Pennie is entirely thrilled with Keith, and after seeing some of Virginia's dress making is quite awed at her expertise.  We are getting right royal treatment, from being met at Pier 80, San Francisco, by Keith and Aileen Drury, to our very own cottage just next door but one to Keith and Virginia themselves.  It belongs to Mr McCloud, whose name attaches to a very big dress shop in town.

     We've scotched a lot of baseless assumptions or impressions for ourselves - such as the on that Keith and Virginia live in a post box, that they were tea total, health food fiends, that Virginia was the immaculately accoutred queen of local society.  It's been really exciting to discover their house, on the southern end of town, quite near the flats of the frequently dry Carmel River, and over looking a very historic Spanish Mission building dating from early 19th Century.  Keith has a big 4 wheel drive Ford Utility, like a 50% larger land rover, and Virginia has a Falcon, which we are able to use most of the time, as she only uses it about once a fortnight.

     Virginia's sister Liz and husband live next door, the street being Franciscan Way, incidentally and Mrs Drury about 3 - 4 blocks away, towards the main beach at the centre of town.  Also 3-4 blocks away, but nearer the water, are a family called Bell, who own a Tabitha Taxi - exactly the same as ours, about 3-4 months older, being registered VLC, ours is VYN.  I met Mrs Bell driving it in town, spoke to her, and heard all about how they got it - they paid £400, rather typical charge-the-yanks-double price, for a car in very much the same condition as ours, except for a rusted front mudguard.  They also got a meter, same as ours, and also won a set of 'Keep your feet off and sit well back" notices, on the base of the fold-away seats, also ads for handicapped children's charity, int he same position.

     Carmel is very reminiscent of Palm Beach - same sort of vegetation (including gum trees), same sort of housing - same old shacks from the earliest days, other new pretentious mansions from recent big development, even a nearby supermarket, etc complex like the Warringah Mall.  The supermarket even carries Australian (Swan) beer as well as a mass of others, Dutch, Danish, English, German, Norwegian etc etc. which is great because U.S. beer is so weak and tasteless- rather like sweetened mineral water.

     Virginia and Pennie get on terrifically, she is a very good cook and a superb dressmaker, tailor in fact, and is going to make Pennie something when they find a pattern.  She does all her work on an ancient Singer, miniature electric model, but the rest of the house if very much up to date - automatic washing machine/drying machine, electric can opener, built in vacuum cleaner system, with outlets in each room, beautiful furniture, mainly in natural woods, to go with the house which is all wood, finished by painting straight onto completely un-planed, rough-from-the -sawmill, planks they rubbing over with another bit of wood to leave the high spots bare.   The floor is rough-sawn planks, smoothed, but not leveled, so it' a bit undulating, but the whole is beautiful.   We bought a Japanese tier of baskets, in a little town we visited there, and though it could perhaps have fitted into one of their cottages, but Virginia was thrilled with it and wants to put it in the dining room.  So that was fortuitous bit of souvenir buying.  We also bought 2 pineapples, fresh from the plantation in Hawaii, and only just ripening, which Keith loved.

     We've had some fascinating chats about family skeletons, stories of doings long ago, learned a lot about D.S. Evans and his life, also Amphletts.  Keith by the way thinks he is a very conscientious correspondent, considering the number of people he is expected to write to, nine he says, and Virginia thinks we are stupendous letter - writers, having had four postcards form us since we left U.K.  By the way, did you get all yours, viz. one from each of Copenhagen, Warsaw, Leningrad, Khabarousk, Japan and Honolulu?  

     I am already established as local fix-it, Virginia's auto-record changer yesterday, with Aileen's radio-operated garage door to come (it squeaks), but chances of a paying job appear slim in the Carmel area.  However Keith is being as generous as could be possible, and talks of settling a lump sum on us, to see us through travels in the U.S., with some for spending on duty-free goods in Fiji left over if we budget right.  so we may just buy a $99 Greyhound ticket, and go travelling in the Western States for a month, trusting to Youth Hostels and Y.M. / Y.W.  C.A.'s

     Keith took us to Monterey the other day, it is full of devotedly restored historic buildings from the Spanish, Independent and early American eras, all with informative plaques on the footpath outside.  We lunched on Fisherman's Wharf, overlooking the water, today he's taking us driving up the Carmel River Valley.  Yesterday he went down to the Big Sur Cottage, Virginia wouldn't let him take us, because she wanted to be there to see our reactions when we see it!  She also told Keith and Aileen not to pump us about our U.K. to U.S.A. trip on the drive from San Francisco - she wanted to hear it first - hand.  Well thank for all the mail (3 of yours awaited us here - dated May 24th, June 2nd, June 30th) despatch of OBU, SPER, and BELT noted, but not yet received.  On that subject, DO TELL if my destination roll has reached me from SPER - if not I must blast them because I sent $10, early enough to be sure of one (one of the original early Sydney Tram ones, with all those coloured Geometrical symbols as well as place names).    I'll set your mind at rest when the belt, etc. parcel arrives here.  Haven't actually heard , except for a cryptic cable received on the ship just out of Yokohama, whether Tabitha Taxi is fully through Customs and into 5 Calvert Parade - the cable just said 'arrived safely', referring perhaps to the storm Orcades ran into, and Tabitha's physical, if not customs, well being.

     Well, loving Carmel (went to the 'Village Theatre', i.e. cinema, for a very way out new generation movie, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), the rest of America a big gaudy and unlovely, but more of that when we've been around a bit.

     Love Dave, also Pen.

U.S.A. - Carmel, California - July 1970

 What can I say about Keith and Virginia and Carmel that won't bring tears to my eyes...

David had never met Virginia, and he'd only met Keith, his mothers oldest brother, once before when
David was about 13 years old.  So we really had no idea what to expect... except when David had written to Keith to tell him we had decided to go straight home from the U.S.S.R and Japan because our finances were running low, we'd received a letter straight back saying 'You have to come to the US... I'll make it worth your while'  which we took to mean he would help us get jobs to increase our finances (we arrived with $18 US to last 4 months)  so we could see a bit of the U.S.A.  (we didn't have work Visas)

Keith had met Virginia in San Francisco when Keith's family were living there in the 1920's. Much to his mothers distress Keith married Virginia secretly in Bathurst, N.S.W and they set up home in Carmel.

We were met dockside by Keith along with Aileen Drury who was a friend of theirs, Aileen drove us to Carmel.   David sat in the front and I sat in the back with Keith who for the whole trip spat into a hankerchief which I noticed had a red stain on it.  I thought he may have had some horrible dental work done so that was why Aileen was driving and maybe she was his girlfriend... we'd never heard of her but I was wrong on all counts.   Firstly Keith didn't like Cities, secondly he was chewing tobacco then spitting it out and thirdly they were just friends, Aileen was helping Keith and Virginia who never went to Cities!

Virginia was the most elegant person I'd ever met, she was tall, slim, beautiful, beautifully spoken... an absolute delight and we hit it off immediately.

Keith and Virginia were very set in their ways, they had separate areas of their home, separate bedrooms and bathrooms, very set times to eat, drink, cook, and so on.  Virginia hardly ever left the house, she had a 1962 Falcon that had done maybe 5,000 miles but she did go to their Big Sur hideaway most weekends.

Keith had rented a lovely little Guest Cottage belonging to a neighbour just two doors away so we had our own very comfortable home with bedroom, bathroom,  kitchen, sitting room and even a sun deck.    We had arrived in a place called Heaven :-)

The fireplace of our Cottage... look at that David is still smoking!  This fireplace had a little gas jet that you lit to help set the logs on fire, no need for kindling or newspaper.

 Our little table on the right.

 The Sun Deck, here I am sunning myself while knitting or sewing something.

Our entrance to Franciscan Way with our view and the Mission San Carlos Borromeo in the middle of this photo.

Same view from Google today.

 2969  Keith and Virginia built their home many years ago, Virginia's sister Liz and husband John lived next door.

I just found this on a Real Estate Site on Google....
Mid-Century Contemporary designed by Jon Konigshofer in 1948 with bedroom addition by Comstock and Associates in 1960. The "Keith Evans" house has dramatic views of Carmel Mission, the Santa Lucia Mts. and beyond to Carmel Valley. Considered one of the best remaining examples of Konigshofer's "Hillside House" in the incorp. Carmel area, this historically significant home is ready for loving touch.

These photos are from Google Maps, below on the right is K&V's home and on the far left was the site of our little cottage, it's now a large home.

Carmel Beach was a big disappointing.

The Drug Store... the first we'd ever seen after reading about them or seeing them on television all these years.  Keith owned this building.

Still standing today on Google Maps.

U.S.A. - San Francisco - 10.7.1970

 Sailing into San Francisco under the Golden Gate  Bridge.

 Beautiful bridge and beautiful mountains... but the Harbour isn't as beautiful as Sydney, comes about third on my list.  1. Sydney, 2. Lisbon, 3. San Franciso.

 Alcatraz.  Below today from Google.

 I can't remember this fellow's name but we did write back and forth for a few years, he went back to Japan, married and had a daughter.

Hawaii - Honolulu - 5.7.1970

 Arriving in Honolulu on board the S.S. President Cleveland.  Aloha Tower.

Below - Aloha Tower from Google Maps.

 We hired a car along with Mitzi, Nancy, Honny, Dirk and spent the day driving around the Island of Ohau.  Looking towards Diamond Head.

 Picnic stop at Sunset Beach.

 Sunset Beach today from Google.

 Machines picking Pineapples.

 Pineapple fields from Google.

 Some very naughty people stealing Pineapples.  They were and still are the sweetest and the juiciest Pineapples we've ever tasted.

 Our drive around Oahu.

From Yohohama,  Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii.