This is a postcard from Florida dated Feb 28,1978. Hilde was on a road trip with her extended family; four of her younger siblings, two step siblings, two dogs, her mother Kate and Joe All in a van. My friend Andy was living at the family’s Brookline compound with Hilde’s older sister, Therese. He can’t recollect that trip, which took place after the great Northern Blizzard of 1978, which buried the Northeast from Buffalo to Boston in over three feet of snow. I lived through that winter in a West Village SRO. 27 WEST 11TH STREET. A single room with linoleum floors warped by too many bare feet. Oh Florida.
Hilde – Dear Peter, I just tramped through the Everglades with sighting a single reptile. Palm Springs is very quaint. Florida is — Dirty, ugly ( like New Jersey ), boring, and rainy. Cold and rainy. THe Hartnett girls are having a fashionable vacation. Luxury all the way. The van unbearably smells of dogs. Winnie and Damion are restless. Mother and Joe are ____we should have known better. Pray for us. Hilde.