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515 Bash Court
Champaign, Illinois
October 8, 1958

Dear folks,
I am sorry you did not get our letter in time - it means I did not get the drop cake recipe. I wanted to use it this coming weekend, when we will have as house guests the Davises (Fred + Inge). There will be up to 4 meals to provide them with.

Very warm here these days. I finally got all summer clothes cleaned & put away and have almost finished the cleaning & mending of the winter clothes. I have discovered a good technique for sweaters & other washable woolens. A detergent is necessary to clean them because of the very hard water here (soap turns to horrible curds), but a strong detergent removes the natural oils more than soap; so after drying them I spray them thoroughly with a lanolin hair spray (which you probably have), & they become pliant and soft again (also, perfumed). Another trick I found recently was shoe dyeing. I had a nice pair of tan loafers (bought last fall) which over a year got quite discolored; so I got ordinary leather dye (brown) and applied it; it came out very even & well.