Carol Rist
November 18, 1987
Dear Carl, Lisa and. Andy,
Well, here I am back to my mistake-filled typewriter written letters. As Andy learned when we talked to him on the phone, we were burglarized a week ago. It was on the Monday I spent up in Broward County at a conference on the U.S. Constitution. Dad had been home but had left at 6:30PM to go to a meeting that had to do with the East Everglades. I got home first, at about 8:00PM. I noticed that the spotlight was on outside, but then Dad could have turned on a spotlight. When I got to the back door, it was unlocked, and I was beginning to wonder, but still thought Dad could have forgotten to lock up when he left. Then I saw the screen down in the work room beside the garage, and I knew we had been burglarized. At that moment, Dad arrived home and we walked into the house together. The first thing we saw that confirmed our suspicions was empty shelves where the stereo belongs. The door from the living room to the back porch was side open. A pillow case was lying on the carpet just inside the door. Next stop, the study. The computer was gone. Next stop, our bedroom. The little l9-year-old black and white TV was gone. My jewelry box was on the floor with jewelry scattered about, but my gold chain was visible from the open top drawer. They must have dropped that and run out when I arrived home. The wooden chest made by Carl (?) from Dad’s dresser was gone. All the belongings from the safe in the closet were strewn over the closet floor, but as far as I can tell, nothing was taken. Just yesterday I realized that Dad’s new hiking boots and my after ski boots were gone. They had gone through my desk, but nothing seemed to be missing. Even though I am disgusted about the burglary, I am grateful that Dad and I got home before they had cleared out my silver, the TV in the kitchen, etc. We are now looking into burglar alarms. I hate to give in, but I guess we have no choice. Oh, yes, we actually got back some of Dad’s jewelry. A boy playing behind a 7-11 on 117th Ave, and 125th St, picked up a little box and found it full of jewelry – a tie clasp, cuff links, etc. He took it hone and showed it to his parents. His mother realized that the cuff links were really gold and looked more carefully. Then she saw that the tie clasp was a business card from ATO. She saw K.A. Rist, and looked to see if there was a K.A. Rist in the phone book. And the rest, as they say, is history. The cuff links were made from $1 gold coins and had belonged to your great grandfather Bahr.
It has been a long time since I last wrote you. Two weekends ago we took an Audubon group on the Loxahatchee River. It hers really gotten popular. The whole time we were in the river we were waiting for the people ahead of us to get over logs, etc., and hoping that the noisy, drunken group behind us wouldn’t catch up with us. The ranger at Jonathan Dickinson State Park told us that it is always that busy these days. So I guess next time we will look for another river to canoe in.
Last weekend we went to Wekiva Springs for the annual Audubon convention, You won’t believe this, but Dad has just finished out his term on the state Audubon board and asked not to be nominated for another term. So now you will have to write us more often because our main source of mail is going to dry up. We drove back Sunday morning so we could see the Dolphins play the Colts. We should have stayed at Wekiva Springs.
Carl, you ask if we are disciples of Dr. Spock. Heavens yes. Dr. Spock’s book was our Bible on child raising. We had no relatives around to give us advice on child rearing, although neighbors were helpful in Leadville. But when we had a problem we turned to Dr. Speck. Are you surprised that you are a member of the Spock generation? Do you believe that Dad and I were too permissive? The truth of the matter is that Dr. Spock told parents to be firm with their children. Did we do a good job?
Marilyn and Phil are in their new apartment on 15th Avenue, just south of the Colohatchee Park. Marilyn says that Kathy is really looking forward to having Andy with them for Thanksgiving. Andy, while you are there, maybe you could give Janet Hartman a call.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon going around South Dade with the Zoning Code Subcommittee measuring parking spaces in parking lots and then trying to get cars into and out of the spaces. We are working on a revision of the Dade parking ordinance. I rushed from that to a meeting of the Miami River Coordinating Committee. I ran out of the MRCC meeting and sped west on Flagler to meet Dad for dinner at the restaurant just east of the Dade County Auditorium. We wolfed down our dinner and made it to the concert in plenty of time. The concert was a trio – Isaac Stern on the violin, Yo Yo Ma on the cello, and Emanuel Ax on the piano. It was really outstanding.
Have a good Thanksgiving, everybody.