From Stuart's cousin Eldon Johnson, who continued to play for many years.

Dear Stuart:

Lieber freund! The only reason that I endeavor to type is that such as it is it is still more legible than my handwriting. I could send a voice recording on tape, but I wish to send a couple of objects for now.
Many thanks for your phone call on my birthday, at time of yours we were off on a few days holiday so missed it which I regret. I am sure your pipe organ will be functioning well and that you will be enjoying its music.

You may be interested in a report on the band and its members. You are its parent and even though some of the offspring seem somewhat wayward with wrong notes and things, the band is surviving as an entity.

Vic Rea's hands are very bad but in spite of that he can from time to time play something that one can recognise; Doug is still a dear fellow, he has had a cataract removed from one eye and can see much better and he says he is going to be on parade next Wednesday to play at Sunset Lodge. Jane is helpful to us but her fingers are getting stiff and I do believe that she rarely practises between band parades every Tuesday, but she is always on the right part. Denny Johnston is an enthusiast but old fingers are hard to train. Heather Peat who is 14 is doing well but it is hard for her to get enough time to practise. Argyll Campbell is my star, he wants to play well and he does, I have had him do solos at some of our programs, he is a delightful young person too. There is a young Mountie at Leader who is a real hot shot of a drummer and he comes up from time to time and has given us a lot of help. Olive Peat is our standby side drummer, and she is gaining confidence and is starting to hit the damn thing so we can hear it. Lee Close is doing well on the bass drum. She and I have been playing tennis as part of our physical fitness programs. We have enjoyed it and it is a good game to keep the old bodies going. She usually beats me, which I don't mind, when she wins she is Margaret Court when she loses she is Billie Jean King, but I am always Bobby Riggs. Ha-ha! Stephen Lee is taking lessons and I understand he is doing very well. Chanter, that is.

The band played at over a dozen events last summer and was invited to more, we even got paid for most of them.

I regret that I cannot play better than I do, and I wish I knew more about teaching music when there are young people like Argyll, but I want you to know that what you laid the groundwork for has given many of us much enjoyment. We didn't play well on the Goose Festival parade, but on some we really did quite well, Willie Moffat said so.

I spend quite a bit of time on archaeology, I found two sites south west of Flaxcombe one of which contained a tipi ring which had been buried by soil before the land had been broke, a young archaeologist is coming out next spring and we will excavate it. I also found a nice sandy field 15 miles west of Kindersley and I have found some 25 points including fragments of which about half are Oxbows (5000 years old), oh yes and an nice field right by Marengo. In a way, I am impatient for spring, but I have been writing up a few things. I have one in the oven on the thermal alteration of chalcedony, but I have to improve my writing style and include notes on references, and I have requests to co-author articles by two archaeologists, one on archaeological prospects of the shore of Lake Diefenbaker, and the other on bi-polar flaking techniques as applied to black pebbles and quartzite cobbles.

I spend some time on knapping and I am improving. I enclose two artifacts made of Brandon flint which is a nice material. I brought some back last spring, and Merv brought me some more last summer. I am experimenting on fluting and I will send you one some day, so far I am keeping all because I have to study the successes as well as the failures to figure things out.

Family is well, my folks are doing quite well and dad seems to be adjusting better than we expected to poor vision. Charlotte is into embroidery, Lorna is going to London in Feb. and won't be home for Christmas. Kim is finishing law this year and has a job with the attorney-general's department already. Andrea is following the latest teenage styles, says her teachers are boring, which they may be.

Things will likely be humming at your place this Christmas, isn't it funny, not so long ago we were the kids fooling around, and now you have evolved into a grandparent. But grandparents are so much younger these days, aren't they? When I was young grandparents were incredibly old.

Our fond thoughts are with you and your family, and not only at Christmas.

Yours truly,

Eldon