Merry Christmas from 1974

"We all want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and all of the best in 1975."

Merry Christmas to All! Thank you for the gift of your readership and for helping to keep “Stories of Vietnam” alive.

Enjoy this missive from December 1974 during your (hopefully) peaceful holiday break.

Warmly,
Kat Fitzpatrick

December 1974 | 90 A Ly Tran Quan | Saigon, South Vietnam

Dear Friends,

This Christmas Season finds the Welch family back together again after being separated for two years. We moved from Taiwan to Saigon in July, and it is happiness for all to be with Jim again.

Together in Thailand for Christmas. Where did Jimmy learn that “V is for Victory” gesture??

We all enjoy Saigon, and the children all keep busy. We all have many fond memories of our two years on beautiful Taiwan and were very fortunate to have my parents visit us there for six weeks last Spring.

Michelle is now 15 and sophomore in high school. She is taking the University of Nebraska High School Correspondence Course this year, and also spends three evenings each week taking riding lessons at the “Cercle Hippique Saigonnaise” which is a wonderful opportunity for her.

Christopher (13), Michael (12), John (10), Carla [my birth name] (8) and Jimmy (6) all attend the “Phoenix Study Group” school and all seem to be very satisfied. Approximately 250 students are in attendance this year.

No basketball in Pattaya but plenty of other fun activities for the boys.

The boys are playing basketball, and each Sunday they play a team from one of the local schools. Slowly, the school is setting up various activities—clubs and sports—as classes are held only in the morning this year.

Kimberly (4) attends Montessori School each morning and is thriving on it.

My sister Kim in her muumuu, me with a stray cat, and my brother Jimmy in army fatigues with his Christmas present of a stuffed Cobra on his head.

As Jim works six days a week, we stay relatively close to Saigon. However, we have spent afternoons cruising on the Saigon River and do go to the wonderful beach at Vung Tau whenever we can. It is about 80 miles from Saigon.

I keep busy helping with secretarial work at school, doing a little welfare work, and taking care of the needs of the family. I am also taking Taekwondo lessons twice a week – basically for the much-needed exercise.

There we many interesting boats in Thailand, including this Chinese “junk.”

We [are in] Pattaya Beach outside of Bangkok for Christmas this year [for] sixteen days in Thailand. It is reported to be a beautiful vacation spot with so much to do and see, and we are looking forward to it. Jim and I visited Bangkok last Spring and are anxious to return.

We all want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and all of the best in 1975. We will look forward to seeing many of you next Summer when we return to the States.

Best wishes,

[handwriting] J & N

Jim and Nancy and family