Beverly Keever's letter to her parents in Khazakhstan

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-05724 to 363-05725.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-05724 to 363-05725

Title

Beverly Keever's letter to her parents in Khazakhstan

Description

Beverly Keever's letter to her parents and sister from Alma Ata, Khazakhstanduring her trip through the USSR in 1958. The letter discusses hiking, illness of Keever's travelling companions, writing AP articles, Sputnik, and visiting a collective farm

Transcript

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- Page 1
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Aug. 2. Tourist Camp
outside Alma Ata
Dear Mom and Dad, and Joan
or
You must have thought that I dropped dead
some thing. Sorry not to have written much, much
sooner. However, until now we have been so busy
you can't imagine. We were 4 days in Alam Ata,
which I guess I described to you. However, now were
at the tourist camp outside Alma Ata and a getting
8 hours of sleep a night, regular meals etc.--last
time I can remember doing that was in high school.
This is certainly not the place for any excietment--
Our
alot of the kids are going on snort hikes.
group leader, Mrs. Baldwin, was sick today and
yesterday, but I think that she will pull thro okay.
We will be here 9-11 days and then back to Moscow.
We were all pretty discouraged when we arrived
here. First we were told that there would be not
hiking with Soviet youth and second that each of
us would have to go on 2, and 5 day hikes. About 5
of the ik kids had been sick in either Tashkent or
Alma Ata and we laidxdxxx said we wouldn't do it.
So one of our guides called our project leader,
Mr. Fisher in Moscow and also bur national host,
the Committee on Youth Organizations. And now everythi
is straigtened out; the studens seem in chipper
spirits, the sun is shining after a rain last night,
and I'm looking forward to the nxt ten days to do
most of my AP work and to get in alot of sleeping
in this wonderful mountan air. This setup reminds
me alot of Yellows one and Estes Park. I'm wrting
this perched upon a rock overlooking the mountain
stream, the stately pines and the snowcapped moutains.
Really great. By the way, I have been fine --in fact
the doctor here weighed each of us yesterday and to
my chagrin, I've gate d.
In Alma Ata, we had a series of discussions
with students, visited a number of institutes and
industries. Also visited a xxklez state farm, which
is big business in anyone's languages--the farmers
work for wages instead of for a share of the crop
as they do on collective farms.
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- Page 2
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The farmers here are communters also--in the sense
that they all live in villages and then move out to
the fields in the mornings. We also visited xome
of the farmers homes--this was really a rare
experience, for seidon does one get inside a Soviet
home. Believe me, that old place we used to live in
was ten times better than anything we saw--except it
had an inside toilet and one water facet. The place
we now live in would have been to them heaven.
Most of the home s were 3 or 4 rooms--the bedsteads
were of iron; the living rooms were adeuate with
chests of drawers and sofas and tables. The kitchen
was the most inconvenient room in the house...a sink
about 1 foot long, a stove about 3 feet high, usually
painted white, a chipped cupboard about 4 feet high.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the johns.
I think that my impressions of SU are beginning
to jell...and I think that I have gotten info and
insights that will allay the fears of AP that we
see only the glorius parts of the country. Perhaps
my impressi ons can be explained by a wonderful
experience. The day we visited the observatory
outside Alma Ata we were told that Sputnik would
be flying оvегдяя the city about 2 a.m. t*** So
three of us went back up to the observatory that
night and stayed until about 4 in the morn. Everyone
saw the satellite and its rocket--except me --but they
showed us up the stony dark path with a very dim
flashlight that they had to generate by pressing a leve
by hand. Hence they may be able to launch a 2 ton
satellite but it is certainly at the expense of
any personal conveniences for the workers.
The little man is about to go down the
mountain to call Moscow again, so I guess that I
best close...only way to get letters mailed. I
do hope that you are all fine, not working too hard
Am looking forward to a stack of letters from you
when I return to Moscow.
Will be seeing you soon--hardly seems
possible that Over a mo. ago we left Qubbenc.
Love,
Bev

Date

1958, Aug. 2

Subject

Young Men's Christian associations; Reporters and reporting; Kazakh S.S.R.; Youth travel programs

Location

Alma-Ata, Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic

Coordinates

43.2515; 76.9089

Container

B156, F17

Format

personal correspondence

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Collector

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English