14/5/91 Many thanks for your letter and John’s birthday card. Hope your problems are sorting themselves out now! Many congrats on your becoming parents for the 2nd time! We are having a great time here & after doing the tourist trip around LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Universal Studios & Disneyland, we hired a car this morning & went to Queen Mary and Spruce Goose, then drove here to Palm Springs went up in this cable car 9,000 feet for dinner & came down to fairyland it seemed. All lights & very warm. Love J P R & C

Phew! I’m exhausted just reading this one! Meticulous planning has ensured maximum use of the available holiday time 🙂

It’s ‘AIR MAIL’ postmarked ‘PM Palm Springs CA 15 May 1991’ and carries a 40 cent stamp featuring Lillian M. Gilbreth which is one of the Great Americans series of stamps.

The picture is of the Aerial Tramway, Palm Springs; the cars seem to have been updated since 1991; the spectacular views are much the same.

John, mentioned in the text, was my Dad’s childhood friend – their mothers were good friends – although he sadly died, suddenly, a few years after this card was written. The ‘problems’ mentioned refer to the UK recession of 1991 which caused many people, including us, to go into negative equity and lose their homes. Recessions/Banking Crises come round regular as clockwork it seems! The comment about being parents for the second time proved premature as we subsequently lost the baby early on in the pregnancy – it was a bad year. The friendship between the two families continues into the third generation and now spans over a hundred years!