June 21, 1952 Avoiding the Measles, Painting the Cabinet, Wanting a Refrigerator and Disappointed in the Country

Ladies Home Journal, Dec., 1951

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"This is the best paper I can find so it'll have to do.  It is so cold that the children have winter sleepers on tonight and we'll have to have a fire tomorrow if it doesn't warm up.  We had a hard rain today too.  I wish you could have some of it.

It is so quiet with the house shut up and Toni left with the children today to go to her Dad's in southern Ill.  She hoped to avoid the measles and will stay as long as she can to keep away from them.  So far, we haven't any symptoms but it may still be awhile.  The Dr. hopes Ann won't have them at all.

I've been painting a cabinet in the kitchen and am going to paint the woodwork.  The walls are o.k. but Barbers didn't paint the woodwork when they did the walls and it is a different white and looks crazy.  Some people do things in queer ways.

Have you read what Consumers has to say about refrigerators?  They give all the information on a lot of them and rate G.E. and International Harvester as best.  Do you want one with a freezer top?  I wish I had one and the biggest one I could get.

Good Housekeeping, Aug., 1951 A femineered refrigerator!

The part of the south that we went through didn't seem to be very thickly populated.  Some of it was hilly and you just didn't see any crops but there were cotton fields (small ones) scattered along and a mule or two in most of the pastures. There weren't many tractors--not like here anyway and no huge fields of anything like these corn fields.  But they say that this is the richest farm land in the whole country so it isn't fair to compare it with the poor states.  I was disappointed in the country for it just looked like that stretch of road between St. Louis and Richland--same dirt and all.  The only thing new was the way the old houses were built with a breezeway down the middle of the house.  Jim said it separated the kitchen from the rest of the house in case a fire started in the kitchen.  It was just a long open hall right thru the middle and there were dozens of houses just alike.  The magnolia trees were nice and Eve had gardenias growing in her yard.

It's getting late so I guess I had better go to bed.  Hope you are both fine."

                    Lots of love,

                            Bonnie

NOTE:  The news of the presidential campaign was starting to heat up in the summer of 1952, and Bonnie will be commenting soon.  To see and hear a bit of candidate Estes Kefauver:  http://www.t3licensing.com/video/clip/4932557418_025.do

Time, April, 1952