Haddock and Dill: July 13, 1946 Really Not Bored, The Wonderful Time, The Third Degree, Tomato Envy and Nylons For Gasoline

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"We have been having real cool weather. Only one morning this week was real hot. The humidity was awful till it rained a little. All in all it has been very comfortable. School is coming along fine. The days actually fly by. I shouldn't say I'm bored because I'm really not. It's just that there are so many other things I'd like to be doing but my heart would have been broken if I hadn't got to go to school this summer.

We were not much surprised at Norma Jean and David. Sometime ago we were wondering if they would marry.

We had a wonderful time last Sunday. Bea and Sully live in Willimantic which is about 50 miles from here. Then we went to a state park to eat lunch. It was a beautiful place with a waterfall and a nice clear stream. The water was so shallow in most places that we all went wading instead of swimming. After dinner we drove across the state to another park on a lake and ate our supper. It was about midnight when we got home.

We left Sully and Bea at her folks place in Darien and they stayed there this week. They have to come through New Haven on their way home and are going to spend tomorrow with us.

Sully & Bea

You certainly surprised me by your trip to St. Louis. Did you go just for the visit or for a purpose? I always get suspicious when you do things like that. When is Buddy having his vacation? Do they plan to go to Richland?

Do you know of anyone with polio? I hope Beulah stays home for it certainly can cripple.

I envy you of your tomatoes. The ones we buy still don't taste like home grown ones. Prices here keep climbing. I gave .51 for a pound of hot dogs this week. That used to buy a pound of good steak. I imagine that if people at home had to buy groceries in any city for just a week they'd be wishing for some kind of OPA. The A&P is trying to hold its prices but they never have meat because they couldn't sell that at the old price. We got oleo there the other day for .23.

We got you a pt. of syrup today. That stuff is certainly scarce. B's mother wrote for some stockings the other day. A filling station has been advertising nylons for sale with 8 gals. of gasoline so we went up. Our tank was almost empty so we got her two pairs. There was no choice of color but they were stockings. If you need some and they keep selling them we'll get you some.

News is awfully scarce this week. Maybe there will be more next week."

Lots of love,

B & Bonnie

NOTE from Ann: Read Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" entry on July 13, 1946 regarding the death of the union leader, Sidney Hillman:

HYDE PARK, Friday—"It was a shock which brought with it a real sense of personal loss when I heard of the death of Sidney Hillman. He was one of our citizens who, having come here from a foreign country, had absorbed the love of freedom and an understanding of democracy, so that he brought real statesmanship to the labor movement. For the people in his own union, he always worked unselfishly, with a broad vision both of the needs of labor and of the responsibility of labor to the community as a whole as it gained power.

Mr. Hillman was a good negotiator and knew how to conciliate different factions. And his European background gave him an understanding of international problems which was valuable in labor fields and valuable in his service to the United States Government."

For the complete text: http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1946&_f=md000390

And for information about Hillman: http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/sidney-hillman

About polio in 1946: From Time, November, 1946: