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Leonard Kephart to Laura Kephart, February 11, 1951, page 1

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  • February 11, 1951 Dear Mama, Your letter of January 26 was here when I returned this week from a four week trip to Central America. I seem always to be just returning or just leaving on a trip these days. That’s nothing new but the places that I go to are new and pretty far away. This time I went with four other people to Nicaragua with short stops in Guatemala, Honduras and ,Kl [sic] Sal- vador. Its interesting to see new countries but I’m bound to admit that I can feel the time approaching when I just wont like to travel so much. I feel selfish about it when there are so many people who would give their oye [sic] teeth to take these rides around the globe but I cant very well transfer my tickets to them and say “go ahead”. So one of these days I’ll bid the World Bank farewell and settle down to a quiet life. I dont know where that will be but as long as Barbara and Buddy are located here in Washington I expect it will be not far from here. Pauline and George keep me pretty well about “granny” which is one reason that I’ve not been a better correspondent. The chief reason howev [sic] is just plain laziness and I’m ashamed of it. There is time, usually, while on trips to sit down and write some letters but I just dont do it. In my own defense I’m bound to say that the facilities for letter-writing in some of these places are not very good. Foreign hotels often do not furnish stationary and very few indeed furnish a place to write. So it often means scribbling on any piece of paper that I can find, sitting in a chair or on the side of a bed and writing on my knee under the light of one poor little dim electric light that was made about 1905. Likewise th [sic] mosquitos or other bugs are probably flying in my face, the perspiration is dripping down my hands and my pen has run dry with no ink within 100 miles. On the fairly infrequent occassions [sic] when I am in a comfortable spot I’m inclined to just lie back and rest. In any case I dont get many letters written. The Bank is not a hard taskmaster and does not require as many field reports as the Department of Agriculture used to but there still is a certain amout [sic] routine writing that I have to do and that seems to exhaust my energy in that direction. Of course I expect every- one at home to write and am always disappointed when no mail arrives but I expect they feel the same way about it and do not write. So it all means that field trips are times when you just about out yourself off from home. And that’s one reason why I will someday quit. George has told me that he or pauline keep in pretty close touch with Boonville but I dont know very much about the situation there. He said that you have been well this winter or at least had not had a recur- rance of your trouble of last year. I was glad and relieved to hear that. On the other hand I can well understand that you like to hear from all of us just as I like to hear from my children. Jane is a fine cor- respondent but Barbara and Buddy seldom write. They just have too much else on their minds. Its not because they dont think of the “old folks” but they are like their father and just dont get at it. So I certainly cant complain. There really isnt a mystery about any of us. Its just that we all have
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