Puerto Vallarta, February 1954 -- "we don't know if it can be any nicer"

I was four and we were living in Puerto Vallarta --then a village -- when Murray took my dictation for this letter to Noel and Dana Ragsdale. Evidently, that was old enough to try to sound like a mashup of Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. I also like the Spanglish that came from being the only Anglo kid in the neighborhood and at the local kindergarten. 

 

Dear Noel and Dana...

We  can do swimming here, and we can play all around the place. and we can play all around our house and on the beach.

And the sun is very good and it's never raining.

It is a good place and the food is very good and we don't know if it can be any nicer.

and we can ride caballos all day. And we can ride on the beach on the horses that are afraid of the ocean and there we ride. 

We like to choose which place to eat. Sometimes we eat at the Paraiso or the Rosita and the blue restaurant. 

And it's a good place and today we just watched the freighter.

And it is big enough to play and I have one pelota and Vici comes very day, and the flowers are doing very well. And I like the hominy very well. And  it's a good place and we don't know if it can be any sunnier, and if it isn't very sunnier and more sunnier we'll be happy and stay till May...