Dear Mother & Daddy,
"We have been having the worst kind of weather you can imagine. It has been blue cold and snowed quite a lot but the bad part is the ice. After it snowed then it rained and all of that froze so everything looked sugar coated. Things looked beautiful but the roads and walks are awfully slick. The city sanded the streets and people put sand on walks and all of that mess is tracked into the house. Sand grinds into the floors and the rugs. It is warmer today so maybe we'll have a few nice days.
The new semester is started and I think I have a pretty good schedule. I'm taking a very interesting art course in which I'm learning to weave cloth on a floor loom. It is really fascinating.
It seems to me that a factory would be good for Richland. It would mean a lot of jobs for people. Why couldn't they use the old Miller garage where the dressing plant used to be?Who is running the store since Clair works for Kreitzer? Or is the office in Clair's store? We saw something in the Mirror about the payment of bills there.
Where is Mrs. Hillhouse going to live now?
The steel strike is certainly a mess but I blame big business and not the workers. If Ford and Kaiser could both raise wages and still make a good profit the others like General Motors could do the same.
Dr. Brubacher gave favorable comments on the chapter B handed in but he hasn't heard from the other teachers yet. I'm going to start typing today on the main draft which has to be in by Mar. 1. Our old typewriter is about worn out so B brought a new one from Hopkins for me to use.
What brand of sewing machine do you plan to get? If you get any pretty sacks you can save me enough for a housecoat and if you get any fine smooth ones save me a dress. Don't send them though because I'll make them next summer when we come home.
I'm glad you are getting better. You must be feeling good next summer because we'll have plenty of gas and can go places.
I'll just save the egg money and spend it for you but heaven only knows how long you'll have to wait for nylons. I promised the next pair to B's mother.
The Dames are having a Valentine's party Wednesday night and I wanted a new dress for it but couldn't find a bit of material that looked like anything.
I made 4 A's and two B's last semester in school.
I have to think up something for lunch so I better get busy."
Lots of love,
B & Bonnie
Ann, this is just wonderful. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is touching. My mother sewed little dresses for me from chicken feed sacks, so your story brought back that nostalgia. My daddy had a black Studebaker from the early fifties, not a bright yellow like the advertisement in your story, but a beauty nonetheless. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteHi Debbie. Thanks so much for reading the letter and for your thoughtful comments! I can't take credit for the story since my mom wrote the letters:-) It is fun to look back to the days of our young parents isn't it. I'm grateful that my mom made my clothes but I probably didn't appreciate it enough back then. Thanks again for looking at the blog and I hope you find other posts of interest. I'd love to have your daddy's Studebaker:-) My favorite letters are the ones from the 1940s.
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