November 9, 1958 The Extra Things, The Killing Frost, The Nice Sounding Quilt and The Kids Got Supper

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"I'm late this week but I've done a few extra things the last two days and that always takes longer than I expect.  I went to school yesterday morning to talk to Ann's teacher awhile.  So I spent the afternoon cleaning the house up a bit.

B went to Springfield to some sort of meeting on school business and was gone all day.  A few stores are open Friday night so all of us went to the dime store and got Ann some mittens.


It rained last night and none of us woke up very early this morning.  I really had to buzz around to get some pies made because I had promised one for a luncheon the church was serving.  It was still hot when I took it down there but it was pumpkin so that was all right.

Then this afternoon I decided to get a permanent and that took the whole afternoon.  B and the kids had gotten supper & were eating when I got home. 

We had a killing frost one night but it didn't get all the flowers.  I cut all I could yesterday but it didn't get as cold last night as they expected.  It still hasn't been very cold yet.

Your wool quilt sounds nice.  I don't think I have a thing you could use.  Neckties are pretty sometimes but wool ones are few around here.

Ann is going to a birthday party after school Monday.  We all hope to go swimming Monday night.

We are all fine but there isn't much news.  Hope you both are fine."

                             Lots of love,

                                     Bonnie

NOTES:  The children's story pictured above is from an old University of Chicago publication and the content is purely coincidental, even though I'm sure Bob and I probably thought it was strictly for us!

All of the women in our family were always working on quilts of one type or another.  The wool one referred to in the letter and pictured above always seemed to me almost too heavy to be practical although it's the warmest one ever.  It is a simple, pieced quilt, made from years of leftover wool scraps and backed with flannel. 

The oldest family quilt we still have was made in the 1830's by Mom's Great Great Grandmother.  It was made with hand-loomed linen and has raw cotton batting.  It is stored carefully and never used in order to preserve it as best we can. Quilts will be a continuing theme throughout the letters for the next 2 decades.