Letters from Mother episode 15

My Take

DiVoran Lites

September, 1983

Dear Ones, 

Well, it’s finally cool after one more very hot and humid day. Dad went to San Diego with Dave and a friend to hunt doves and pigeons. I hope they don’t meet up with rattlesnakes this time. The men hunt in a field outside the city of Mexicali. It’s only about ten miles across the border, but it’s quite a way over there from Bonita, where Dave lives. Last week when Dave hunted, he was searching through the tall grass for a dove he had shot when he almost stepped on a large rattlesnake. He shot the snake with the gun he had on hand. It turned out to be two rattlers. One had ten rattles; the other had eight.  He skinned one and left the other. He nailed the skin to a workbench and salted it, planning to give it to his hunting buddy for a snakeskin belt for his wife. I have forgotten what the belts cost in stores, but it’s a lot. 

2021:

(Authentic snakeskin is rare.  Handbags can run as high as $15,000USD, while snakeskin boots average about $2000. The delicate nature of the skin and the level of workmanship that goes into assembling an item adds to its cost.)

                                                                                 Before Dad left with Dave, I made a long list of things I wanted to do while he was away. I got quite a bit done, but not the things I planned. I started catching up on my bookwork, and five hours later, I was finished recording and keeping track of all transactions from our summer’s adventures

Tom and Betty, around the corner, brought me a slip of paper and an ad for a free painting, drawing, and sketching class at the college, so I went to Palomar at San Marcos-next town east of here. I went to class and sat in from nine to twelve. 

We did a lot of sketching of a slim young lady in a bikini. Our teacher told us to draw her in three minutes, two minutes, then thirty seconds, and next, we drew her in five minutes, and then half an hour. She held each pose as long as he said to. She took different graceful poses, almost as though she was dancing. That took some concentration and practice! 

Three or four of us were first-timers and as the 20 or so students were in various stages of learning the teacher wasn’t after perfection. I liked it very much and felt more relaxed than I had at our all-day Salton Sea workshops. We each paid fifteen dollars to the model and five dollars for the campus health insurance.  Not free as they had said, but worth it. 

Love Mother 

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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