Haddock and Dill: April 15, 1956 The 15th Anniversary, The Serious Business, The Blooming Tulips and The Japanese Shantung

Wedding Photo, April 1941

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"It is a little cloudy but warmer. We need rain very badly. Lake Bloomington is so low there is only a three months' supply of water left for Bloomington. Normal has wells but it is serious business for Bloomington.

Things are beginning to look more like spring now. Leaves are coming out and tulips are blooming. We have had one tulip but there are lots of buds.

The garage is beginning to take shape now. The framing is partly done so we can see what it is going to look like. It is going to make the house look quite a bit bigger. I hope we can match the shingles for the roof line will be like one long roof.

Yesterday was our 15th anniversary. A lot has happened in that 15 years, but we didn't do anything special. I painted all day and then we went for a ride after supper and got some ice cream. It was dark too early for us to see much but we hadn't ridden around since we moved. Some of our friends are building a new house and we wanted to see how it was coming. They are having the shell put up and will finish it themselves. They hope to move into the basement this summer and live there while they finish it up. I feel sorry for them. They'll be half crazy before they finish but their house will be nice. We are getting awfully tired of smelling paint even. I finished the hall yesterday and will soon start our bedroom.

I have a talk to give to a Lutheran women's group next week and there is a Faculty Women's style show too so I won't get much done next week. It has been so long since I've talked before a group that I'm jittery about it especially since this group is big--about 150 and I know a lot of them. It is easier to talk to people you don't know.

The following week I have another talk for a high school home ec. group. The church group offered to pay me but I said "no" so they are going to send a contribution to a little Japanese church I visited. That will be nice.

I finally got around to sending Mike and the baby something. Seems like it is so hard to get downtown to get anything. I'm so sorry Dona is so sick. I'll try to write to Bessie soon.

B is getting ready to paint the front storm door. It was so dirty it wouldn't come clean at all. He plans to paint all the white trim on the house this spring.

I'm going to sew. I'm trying to finish a dress to wear next week. It is a piece of Japanese shantung.

Ann enjoyed your letter. I hardly got to see it when she discovered it.

We're going to transfer our church membership to the University Christian Church tomorrow. I've got to get some things pressed to wear so I'd better get at it."