April 2, 1955 William Shepard To Parents

745 Oak Ave
Panama City Fla
2 April 55

Dear Dick & Dad:

We are all settled down now. Have a nice home. Lois has told you about it I suppose. It is 3 Bedrooms=one floor, on a lot about 200 x 200. The yard is wonderful for Dave & Alan. They dont come in at all, except to eat & sleep, and they are brown as berries already.

Most the work is done around the house and Im lookig forward to fishing the next month. I dont suppose it will be quite as good as Biloxi. But the water is beautiful clear.

We bought an all fibre-glass boat because of the salt water. So we are ready to vacation. I still go to Craig for 4 weeks on 1 May. so I have 4 weeks to relax and fish.

[page 2]
Dad- please send the guns on down to me. Hope you can remove the old addresses and any reference to my overseas address, so they wont possibly be sent back by a mistake. Insure them for $200 apiece. And I am enclosing 10.00 for postage. If it isnt enough let me know. Should be about right.

Congratulations on reaching your 69th birthday with good health. Lois & I cant seem to find anything you would like so we want you to pick out your own present-that is what the other $5 is for.

We will write you later-Goodbye for now

Love
Bill

Overboard

I found this, thankfully, amusing, almost horrible, article in a newspaper search:

newspaper article
Argus and Patriot (Montpelier, Vermont) 08-07-1878, page 3.

Oscar Ebenezer Hatch and his brother Asa Lyon Hatch are the two gentlemen who were doing a spot of fishing, when this accident occurred. Oscar is my 3xgreat grandfather, and the father of Dillon Hatch.

Both of the men were in their 50s at the time. Thankfully, no one was lost or hurt, except for maybe their pride.