May 2, 1952 The Plaid Wall, The Flowers, The Memories, The Mess and The Wonderful Ironer

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"Ann and I are having breakfast so I'll see if I can't get this written.  I have been painting every night after I get the children in bed which makes it pretty late when Bobby has taken a nap.  I have the walls and ceiling done in the dining room and am going to hang the paper on the one wall tonight.  I told you it was plaid, didn't I?  Last night I painted a little woodwork.  It will take the time.  B has been fixing screens.  I don't think a screen has been fixed for ten years.  He is putting new wire on everything since our landlord is paying for it and they are all in such bad shape.  Maybe we won't have to many mosquitoes this year.

Missouri Redbuds

We are having wonderful weather.  A redbud tree is in full bloom just beside our kitchen window and violets are everywhere.  We drove out to the lake the other day and Bobby and I picked flowers to our hearts content.  Made me think of all the Sundays that Daddy and I used to roam over the river banks looking for Jack-in-pulpits and blood-root and Dutchman's breeches.  That was one of the nicest things I remember about being a little girl.

How old is Jeanie?  It seems like she should be almost as old as Bob.

Have they found out about Bill Halter?  Is he in a serious condition?  It seems terrible for a young man to die and leave a family and I always think of the case we had here.  I told you about our friend who had some gall bladder operations and didn't come out of the last one.

I wish you could see Ann and Bob.  Ann is still taking off her clothes.  B went in to check her in the middle of the night and she had taken off her pajamas and thrown them out of the crib--happy as could be.  I have to pin everything that has buttons.  She works until she unbuttons things.

My poor house really needs some cleaning.  Bobby can go out to play without me but I can't let Ann out alone so I just walk out of the mess.  It might be embarrassing if someone came.

Did I ever tell you that our ironer top had some chipped places on it?  It was simply poor finishing so we wrote Sears.  The factory shipped us another one prepaid and it was worse.  So they sent us another one and it's fine.  Whirlpool makes the Sear's ironer.  It is wonderful.

I'd love to have a Deep Freeze.  I think one could save you a lot of work as well as have fresh things to eat.  That will have to wait a while though.

It's about time I got B up if he's going to school today so I'll say Bye for now."

                       Lots of love,

                                Bonnie

NOTE:   Among the letters there are several "Pretty Petals" greeting cards, each with a quotation about flowers on the back, such as this one.

In the news of May 2, 1952, baseball's Ted Williams was called for active duty in Korea.  Having already been in WWII, he was outspoken about having to go again.  For more information:
http://www.militarymuseum.org/Williams.html

In other news, Time magazine featured continuing conflict around the globe.