1970

On Jan 11, 1970, Madeline brought infant Beverly to Grandma’s house for a four-generation photo. I helped at one of Catherine’s wedding showers. The gag gift for Catherine.

Another four-generation photo, this time at Catherine and Gayle’s wedding on Jan 31, 1970. On Mar 22, Jason and I drove to Dallas for a short visit with Catherine and Gayle. On Friday, Apr 17, 1970 AOPi had its spring formal. I went with Jason and Smoot went with Cheryl.

Photos from the 1969-70 Cactus yearbook – me in Spooks and in AOPi and from the AOPi montage.

In the summer of 1970, Jason went back to Midland. Jason told Smoot how upset I was and asked him to kind of take care of me while he was gone. (Smoot later said that he was going to visit me anyway because he enjoyed talking to me.) He came over several times and we always had a good time talking and laughing and discussing profound subjects. He offered to take me out to Midland anytime I wanted. I thought that was very sweet of him. I wanted to see Jason. I tried to repress my feelings but I couldn’t. I had to admit to myself that I wanted to see Smoot too. Slowly and gradually the friendly interest I felt for him was turning to something deeper. It was becoming romantic interest.

Smoot drove me to Midland on the weekend of July 4th. Above left, us with Jason’s younger sister, Emily. I let slip to Smoot how I was starting to feel about him. He was surprised and said we’d just have to see what happened. Our soap opera had begun! Sadly, on July 19, 1970, Grandma Ramsey died. The family gathered at 4312 for the funeral. Above right, Smoot came over to visit and got to meet Madeline, Billy and Bev who were in for the funeral.

Uncle Murray generously let Jason rent the apartment above the nursery office for cheap. In the photo above left, I’m on the porch outside the apartment. Jason returned to Austin in Aug. His older sister Marcia came too and joined us to celebrate my 20th birthday on Aug 26. Above, my 20th birthday portrait. Once I turned 20, I aged out of Rainbow.

Catherine and Gayle came to visit in early Sep 1970. I’d told Jason about my feelings for Smoot who moved into Jason’s apartment at the end of Sep. We tried a threesome but it wasn’t working well. In Oct, Jason gave me a diamond engagement ring. Right, he helped us celebrate Mother’s b’day. Smoot wasn’t around, but was on my mind.

I had my ovarian cist operation on Dec 17, 1970 then celebrated Christmas with Jason, Mother, Daddy, Catherine and Uncle Murray. I didn’t know what I was going to do about my love life. An awkward time.

1971

Unbeknownst to my parents, I didn’t enroll at UT in the spring of 1971. Smoot had started classes in the fall of 1970, but dropped out and drove to Mystic, staying there for four or five weeks before he drove back to Austin. He got a job with the Dallas Health Department and I moved to Dallas to be with him in an attempt to decide whether I wanted to be with him or Jason. While I was there we went to several museums. I came home for eight days, but went back again. On Feb 24 I finally told my parents what was actually going on. On Mar 3, I came back to Austin but got an apartment behind the nursery. Smoot came to visit me but I was also seeing Jason.

The photo above left is probably from the AOPi formal on Apr 16, 1971. Smoot was in Dallas through May and came down almost every weekend. The photos above middle are from one of these visits, me at Zilker Gardens and then a frolic in the woods of NW Austin. Smoot moved back to Austin in June. Catherine came down from Dallas for Father’s Day on Jun 20. Uncle Murray announced he and Maude were getting wed.

She and I visited the newly opened LBJ Library. In the summer of 1971 I moved into a house on 38th and had two kitties, Ritty Rat and Spotty. In a letter Smoot wrote on July 24, 1971, he said he and I had broken up the day before. That’s probably why I celebrated my 21st birthday in Aug with Jason. But I had my 21st birthday portrait taken with Smoot so we had a matching pair of photos. He had moved from the Paso House back to the Governor’s Dorm and didn’t have a roommate so he and I got together a lot in the fall. I was close to making my decision that I wanted to spend my life with him.

Catherine came back to Austin to celebrate her 26^th birthday on Oct 30, 1971. The Bealls were in town too. Smoot joined me to celebrate both Catherine’s birthday and Mother’s 60th on Nov 22, 1971. Smoot and I celebrated an early Christmas with my parents. Lou joined us.

Then we flew to Mystic Conn, back when you had to go out on the tarmac. Smoot in his bell bottoms! We were with the Mitchells and Stanfords for Christmas.

We went to the Mystic Seaport, to NY and saw the Statue of Liberty and the Atlantic ocean. We visited Esli and Gayle Dalferes, Sr in Greenwich, Conn and I got to see snow.

Then we went to Washington, DC. We stayed with Suzanne and Ted and saw the Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. With Jason I got to see Midland, with Smoot, the world. The choice was becoming clear!

1972

Smoot and I returned from our trip East on Jan 9, 1972. In Mar, Daddy went to the VA hospital in Temple, I was doing student teaching under a terrible supervising teacher and I was living at Camino Real apartments with Brenda and Judy. On Mar 31, I went to Dallas to visit Catherine and Gayle and we did Easter-y things. We then went to Temple to be with Daddy for Easter on Apr 2. Smoot came to join us. I was able to switch to another supervisor, Martha Davis and in May, we had a Latin Banquet.

Catherine and Gayle came down to Austin to see Mother and Daddy installed as Asst Matron and Patron in Eastern Star on Jun 16, 1972 and to celebrate Father’s Day on June 18. Mother retired from teaching after 24 years. Daddy and I went to the ceremony later in June 1972. The Bealls and Dalfereses came back in July and we had a family dinner and a photo on the steps.

On Aug 8, 1972, Mother and I hosted a wedding shower for Joan Horton. Daddy took early retirement from the Texas State Highway Dept at the age of 63 after 31 1/2 years. The Bealls and the Rays joined in the celebration on Aug 18, 1972. On my birthday, I graduated from UT with a BA in Latin and English. There weren’t any formal graduation exercises until the next May 1973. Smoot joined me for my 22nd birthday. Above right, my 22nd birthday portrait.

After doing student teaching, I decided I didn’t want to be a teacher and decided instead to go to Library School and get a Masters in Library Science. I entered the program in the fall of 1972. We appear to have gone to Dallas twice. In a letter Lou wrote the Mitchells on Aug 24, she said we’d gone to visit my sister in their car since Smoot’s car was having transmission problems. A card Smoot sent his parents said he and I had gone to the OU game in Dallas which would have been in Oct. The photo below left is probably from the Aug visit, from our clothes.

Above, our trip to Dallas. Mother and I spent Dec 2 and 3 making Christmas cookies. On Dec 8, 1972, I received a letter saying I’d been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Mother wrote, “This group parties all the time and that is nice. Char & Smoot are planning their 2nd party – a Christmas one at his apt.” Above, John and Sandra McNeely with us; Mike Anderson, Vicki Hodlofski and Carl Prestfeldt;

We hosted the Graduate Library and Information Science Association GLISA party at Smoot’s and Will Mecredy’s apartment at 2210 Enfield Road. This was the party after which I craved the leftover Christmas cookies but found to my dismay that Mecredy had eaten all of them! Above left, Jaton West, Harvey West’s wife holding one of my Christmas cookies. Next, Angie Cantu and me. Smoot and I put up Mother and Daddy’s tree, but then Smoot went back east for Christmas with his parents and the Stanford’s in Annandale, the famous war-monger episode!

The Bealls were in Austin for Christmas, but I felt alone. I never wanted to be alone for the holidays again and I wasn’t. I gave the two photos upper right to Smoot later to show him what he’d missed by leaving for the holidays!

Holly Catherine Dalferes was born on Fri, Dec 29, 1972. We went to Dallas to meet her.

1973

After Smoot went to Mystic for the holidays, he came back to the Enfield apartment for the spring of 1973. Above left, me outside Smoot’s apartment complex. Jason got married on Jan 6, on Jan 13 we took Mother and Daddy to see 1776 and announced our engagement and on Jan 15 Smoot told his parents. I wrote the Mitchell’s on Feb 7, 1973 and mentioned our visiting a small Episcopal Church on Bee Caves Road and being impressed by the minister, Keith Bardin. Above middle, Catherine and Gayle brought Holly to Austin on Feb 10, 1973. Above right, I’d gone to a library state convention in Ft Worth on April 5 and from there Smoot and I drove to Mobile to see Madeline, Billy and Bev. Mother and Daddy drove from Austin and joined us.

On April 28, 1973, Smoot joined me, Mother and Daddy when I was honored at UT’s Honor’s Day ceremony and the next day he went with us to my induction into Phi Beta Kappa. We continued partying with the library school group.

In the spring of 1973, I attended the UT graduation ceremony. I’d graduated the previous Aug, but no ceremonies were held then. In the summer of 1973, I rented an apartment on Norwalk and on June 20th hosted a surprised birthday party for Smoot. 1973 was special because it was the year Smoot and I married. It was also the year Mother and Daddy were installed as Worthy Matron and Patron of their Eastern Star chapter on Jun 23. To show which had priority, our wedding had to be scheduled around Mother’s OES picnic! Smoot joined me at the installation. When he arrived he was a bit worried how his long hair and beard would be accepted. A little old lady came up to him and tweaked him on the cheek and said he was cute. That took care of that worry! Rick and Lou’s son Geoffrey Paul Mitchell was born on July 2, 1973. The Mitchell’s made a trip west, stopping in Austin on the way a month before the wedding. They took us and my parents out to dinner. This was the first time the two sets of parents had met and we were a little worried but didn’t need to be. When both fathers realized they were engineers and both mothers were teachers, they were so animated in their conversation we felt forgotten at our end of the table! Strangely, we didn’t take any photos.

Eric Robinson who worked with me at Guppy World was an amateur photographer. He took photos of us to use with our engagement or wedding announcement. Then it turned out the paper didn’t print photos with announcements anymore. After our wedding invitations went out, the gifts started to come in. My OES shower was was July 27, 1973. My corsage was a decorated vegetable brush! On July 28, Jency hosted a couples shower for us.

After the old folks and kids left Jency’s party, it got a bit wild! On Aug 1, 1973, we got our marriage license, a gift from Bertha Zuch, Mother’s friend who worked at the courthouse. That evening the two sets of parents went out to dinner, our first photo of them together. Jency joined us.

Our wedding rehearsal was Aug 3 at St. Michael’s, that evening the Mitchell’s hosted the rehearsal dinner at the Holiday Inn. At noon on our wedding day, Aug 4, 1973, Mother and I hosted the bridal luncheon for the women of the wedding party at the Villa Capri. At the wedding my family gathered for photos.

The Rev. Keith Bardin performed the ceremony. We wrote our own vows.

Jency James was my maid of honor, Will Mecredy was Smoot’s best man. Madeline, Catherine, Vicki, Suzanne and Lou served in the house party.

Both sets of parents seemed pleased.

We surprised everyone by coming to the after wedding party. Newly weds usually have other things to do, but we’d already done that! After visiting with family, we got together with Jency, Vicki and Mike for a post-wedding party of our own.

For our honeymoon, we drove to San Antonio, visited with John and Sandra McNeely, and went to the zoo and the Alamo. That part of the trip was fun. For our honeymoon, we drove to San Antonio, visited with John and Sandra McNeely and then took the train to Laredo. The SA part of the trip was fun. We weren’t treated well in Laredo.

The first things we bought after we married were a china cabinet and a Dachshund puppy we named Herman, after Herman Hesse. We still had two cats, Rat and Spotty. You can see Rat under the chair in the Christmas dinner photo below. We celebrated my 23rd birthday by going out to dinner with my parents and back to their place for cake and goodies. I wore the yellow plaid gift outfit in the photo above many times in the next few years. We got together in Nov to celebrate Mother’s birthday.

Before the holidays, I got so sick I couldn’t attend Barbara Rugeley’s wedding to Curt Clark in Norman, OK on Dec 22, 1973. By Christmas I’d recovered enough to celebrate at 5409 and have Mother and Daddy over to our apartment for dinner. We commissioned drawings of the Ramsey home in Austin and the Mitchell’s home in Mystic to give for Christmas gifts to family. The Ramsey drawing is below.

1974

In 1974, we were still living in our apartment on Norwalk. We had two large tanks that we’d built including one we called our TV tank that only had glass in the front. We also had a 6-foot swimming pool in our extra bedroom that had four baby ducks in it, and tanks for the Japanese Hooded rats we were raising. We had Herman, our two cats and me.

Catherine, Gayle and Holly came to visit in Austin the weekend of March 8, 1974.

On May 1, 1974, Russell Edward Dalferes was born to Catherine and Gayle. Madeline had moved to Dallas and took care of Holly while Catherine was in the hospital. Middle, on May 2, we dressed up to go to an Eastern Star dinner and right, dressed up for another event. On May 18, we moved to a house on South Forest in South Austin.

On Jun 26, 1974, we went to Conn to visit the Mitchells. We visited the Harkness Mansion in Waterford, CT, met Olga and Forrest & Helen Glazier. Suzanne & Theron were also there. We went to the new Mystic Aquarium, the Mystic Seaport and saw the restored Morgan, to Rhode Island to see the mansions that were beautiful, but got to my socialist heart. I found myself muttering about exploitation of the workers! On Jul 11, 1974, Madeline turned 30. Catherine threw her a surprise party with a tombstone cake!

In 1974, we went to an EH & A picnic and took a trip to Waco to see Jeff and Mary Beth Rippel and to Dallas to see the Prestfeldts. We went to a Star Trek convention while we were in Houston and to a School of Public Affairs picnic with Suzanne.

We gave a party in honor of our 1st anniversary on Sat, Aug 3, 1974. That same month, we got Maria. We also had a cat named Squeeker who might have been Ritty Rat’s offspring and a Japanese-hooded rat named Joe.

We celebrated my birthday and our ducks entertained Holly. We had a family portrait taken.

We celebrated Christmas in Dallas with the Dalfereses and Bealls and had a New Year’s party at South Forest with Suzanne and Brenda. I worked with Suzanne at the LBJ School of Public Affairs Library.

1975

On Jan 31, 1975, Uncle Murray Ramsey died at the age of 65. Some of his nieces and nephews gathered in Austin for the funeral on Feb 3. I helped prepare the meal. In Mar, Smoot and I went fishing with Daddy.

On Mar 22, 1975, during Spring Break at UT, we went to Mexico with Sally and Tom Leach and were gone a week. We drove in Tom’s VW bus and visited Parras, Saltillo and Monterrey. On May 15, 1975, Minnie Ray, Madeline and Beverly were in town and joined us to celebrate Daddy’s 66th birthday.

In 1975, I was part of a Women’s Group. Vicki Reed was in it and that’s how I met Fredi. Above, a picnic in June. Also in June 1975, we bought our first house at 2836 San Gabriel in June 1975 for $21,750. It needed a lot of work!

In July 1975 we went to Canada. We met Mom and Dad in Montreal and spent several days on the train going from Montreal to Calgary for the stampede and camping. I was medicated into a stupor to survive the long train ride.

We joined Marti, Rudy & Matt, May Louise & Leonard, Ralph, Eilene & Claudia, saw the glacier and beautiful Victoria. We took the ferry to Seattle, saw Wagner’s Ring at the Seattle Opera then took the red-eye flight back to Austin to start getting settled into our new home.

We gained a new family member when Becca Beall was born on Aug 7, 1975 in Dallas. On Aug 26, we celebrated my 25th birthday, a quarter century! Catherine and Gayle were back in Austin in Nov for Thanksgiving.

Jency had a party in Georgetown. Mom, Dad, Rick, Geoff, Ralph and my parents joined us for dinner Christmas Eve at our house on San Gabriel. On Christmas day we opened gifts and had a turkey dinner at Rick’s house.

We also celebrated at Mother and Daddy’s. On Dec 28, 1975, Geoff was baptized by Keith Bardin at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. It was an eventful year!

1976

Feb 29, 1976, we went fishing. Mar 3, Catherine and the kids came to visit. Becca’s baptism was on May 9 in Dallas.

On May 23, 1976, we went to San Francisco to celebrate Forrest and Helen Glazier’s 50th anniversary. We also visited Barbara Rugeley and her husband at the time, Curt Clark and went to a nuclear power plant.

When we returned from CA, we went to an archeological dig. In June, we celebrated Father’s Day and Smoot’s 26th birthday. We went fishing with Fredi and Alford Bleeker, which was fun. Cleaning the fish afterwards wasn’t.

Also in Jun, we celebrated Alford’s graduation and on July 4, 1976, the Bicentennial, Fredi and Alford gave a party at their house in Austin. As I recall, it rained all day so we had to sit inside watching other people celebrate the holiday on TV. Smoot and I had a tradition of giving a party on or around our anniversary, Aug 4th. Since Fredi and I both had birthdays in Aug, and Alford and Jency had Sept birthdays, we decided to do a joint party to commemorate all those special events. It was also a going-away party for Fredi and Alford who were moving back to Houston. We had about 45 people come to the party on Aug 3, 1976.

On Aug 22, 1976, we went fishing and camping at Lake Buchanan. We borrowed Mother and Daddy’s car and boat and slept in the boat. Smoot remembers the trip and that we swam (skinny-dipping!) and had a romantic time together. We celebrated my birthday at a covered dish supper at St. Michael’s on Aug 26.

The sisters were back together in July 1976. Middle, a cute picture of Rusty and me. We went to Galveston on Sep 3, 1976, to swim and catch some rays with Fredi, Alford and Jency.

We had a studio portrait taken. Me at HRC. Catherine and Gayle came back to Austin for Christmas 1976.

We also celebrated the holidays at our house. Our pets, Ritty Rat, Siamese, Herman and Maria all curled up together on the big blue pillow.

1977

Easter was on Sun Apr 10^, 1977. We gathered for the traditional Easter photo in the front yard. And then Catherine and her family went to the Hyde Park Baptist Church and we went to St. Michael’s. Catherine and her kids and the Bealls were in town in April 1977. Fredi and Alford came back to Austin to visit May 14-16,1977.

On May 22, we went to San Antonio with Roy and Martha. On May 23 we went swimming with the Kirks. On Jun 11, Roy and Martha married. On June 12, 1977, we celebrated Mother and Daddy’s 37th anniversary. (That’s the anniversary Smoot and I will be celebrating in 2010.)

We went fishing and camping with Roy and Martha. Benjamin Carl Beall was born in Loveland, Ohio on Jun 22, 1977. Star Wars opened on May 25 in many cities but didn't come to Austin until June 24. Smoot had read about it in Newsweek and wanted to see it. We went the first weekend. It was showing at the Capital Plaza Cinema. It blew us both away. It was the first movie that when I finished watching it, I wanted to turn around and watch it again. The first year we saw it 3 or 4 times!

We went to Utah on Aug 6, 1977 for a Mitchell family reunion. We met Ann for the first time.

We drove back and stopped at Carlsbad Caverns, NM and then at a rest stop on US 290 in Texas where we ate Ann Mitchell’s favorite, cantaloupe with ice cream. The Mitchells were already in Austin. They’d gone there to visit with Rick. We went to dinner with them and my parents at Luby’s.

We celebrated my 27th birthday, Roy’s 30th and gave a combined party with Jency on Sept 17, 1977.

We took a trip to Houston with Roy and Martha to visit his mother and Fredi and Alford. Emily Joy Stanford was born on October 26, 1977. On Oct 27, 1977 we went to New Orleans with Roy and Martha to see the King Tut exhibit. A friend of Roy’s, Tom Ireland and his wife, put us up. Tom’s mother lived in an old plantation house that was more of a museum than a home. Even though she was originally from the North, she acted like the Civil War had just occurred and she was furious at the damn Yankess. It was very strange! The Tut exhibit was amazing but too crowded.

The Bealls and the Dalferes were able to come to Austin for the holidays 1977. We had family pictures taken. Barbara and Curt came for a visit.

1978

J W Carl married again on Feb 11, 1978 in San Antonio. I went with Mother and Daddy to the ceremony. We dressed up for Easter on Mar 26, 1978. On April 26, Smoot was initiated into Phi Kappa Phi honor society. Graduate students must be in the top 10% of their class. Mother and I hosted a personal shower for Bonnie Carl on May 13.

In May we celebrate Daddy’s 69th birthday. On May 18, 1978, we flew to Mystic to visit the Mitchells. Roy and Martha joined us and we went to Boston, NY, Hartford and the Seaport.

In June, we helped Jency pack to move from Georgetown to El Paso. Bev and the Dalfereses were in town and helped celebrate Father’s Day and Smoot’s birthday early on June 17th because the next day, Sunday, we flew to Chicago to go to Uncle Forrest’s funeral.

We went to my 10th reunion from McCallum in 1978. Smoot worked with two Russians in CS and we got together with them socially. We also got together with the Prestfeldts. Right, Aragorn and Arwen.

Our 5th anniversary photo and our party on Aug 5, 1978. Jency flew in from El Paso to be with us.

Smoot gave a surprise birthday party for me on Aug 26. Jim Holmes was look-out. Right, at Roy’s party in Sept 1978.

In the fall of 1978, we went to the Renaissance Festival near Plantersville where we ordered our round table and heavy wooden chairs. We visited Jency in El Paso over Thanksgiving. We went into Mexico, saw her library and toured an Indian museum. Mother and I hosted the Hyde Park Reading Club holiday party in 1978. We’d gotten the candleholder in Mexico. We went to a Computer Sciences Dept holiday party at the Dales.

We gave a holiday party at our house. We celebrated Christmas early with the Dalfereses at 5409. We celebrated Christmas at our house on our new round table but with our old Ramsey Nursery chairs. The new chairs must have come later.

1979

On Mar 4, 1979, the family gathered at Wyatt’s cafeteria to see Pat Cate’s family who were in town for a rare visit. There were 44 people at the dutch treat dinner. Smoot was in Baltimore. Easter was April 15, 1979. Catherine drove 10 hours straight with the kids to be in Austin for the holiday.

The Dalferes clan joined us in May to celebrate Daddy’s 70th birthday. Catherine and I had made a scrapbook of photos from his life. We celebrated Mother’s Day at our place with Baskin Robbins ice cream cake and gift openings.

Randy Kirk worked on our marble painting at an outdoor show. We went camping with Ruth Miller and her boyfriend, Michael. Both were probably in Kerrville. Madeline and her kids arrived on Jun 20 and came by to see us.

Mother, Daddy and I went to New Orleans Aug 17-22, 1979. Smoot wasn’t able to come. We went to Antoine’s for dinner. This is where the waiter surprised me with a Baked Alaska with Happy Birthday on one side and Charlotte on the other. I treated the group to a ride on the Natchez steamboat. We went to Destrehan Plantation and Jackson Sq.

We celebrated my 29th birthday on Aug 26. Execucom had access to a fancy condo in Vail, Colorado which they let employees use and we did in Sep 1979. The room had a fireplace, big tub and sauna. We toured Vail Village and took the gondola ride, walked around the mountain top and went to Rocky Mountain National Park, Boulder, the Georgetown Loop train and mine tour and back to Denver.

On Sep 22, I gave Smoot a tour of my Vertical File exhibit, From the Stacks at HRC. Smoot and I gave a party on Sat, Sept 29, 1979. Above, John Eastberg and Stuart Kershner; Suzanne Bizzell and Lisa Jones.

Above left, when Ruth Miller got a job and moved out of state, she turned over to me a project she’d been working on, cataloging the book collection at the Wellspring retreat center on the Wessendorf Ranch. It’s still an Episcopal retreat center. Neither Madeline nor Catherine could come for Christmas 1979 so we had Mother and Daddy over to our house for dinner and gifts.

After Christmas, we went to Big Bend and then later to a party given by Maria Wells.