July 27, 1957 The Week Has Been Short, The Manuscript Came Back and We Plan As We Go

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"This week has been short but it seems like a long time since we were home.

B has been working upstairs and the student boy that had helped us came back Thursday so he has been working too.  It is a lot of trouble to fix lunch for him every day but we're glad to have his help. The bath fixtures are all in but they still have two little leaks in the drain system to check.

How is your back, Mother?  Edna stooped to pull a weed and a vertebrae went out of place.  She is in a walking cast and can get around but it will still be awhile before she'll be all right.  She can't wear her clothes because of the cast so I'm making a skirt for her & am going to fix some old gathered ones over for her.

Woman's Day, Jan., 1957

I bought me a new shirtwaist pattern & am going to make up the brown stripe print you gave me when I can.  I got caught up on my ironing at last but haven't done much else.

Did I tell you my manuscript came back?  I'll send it out again when I find time.

B starts to work again on Monday--seems like a short vacation.  The kids have one more week of school.

There isn't any news so I'll just say bye for now.  B & I have to do a little planning on the upstairs.  We sort of plan as we go."

                               Lots of love,

                                      Bonnie

NOTES:  I was surprised to read that fixing lunch for an extra person was "a lot of trouble".   Our mom was always feeding guests, workers, students and anyone else who happened to be in the house at mealtimes.  My guess is that she prepared more than she needed to and treated the worker as a special guest.

As for the upstairs bedrooms, I wish I had a picture to share.  Designed roughly on the bunkhouse from the "Spin and Marty" show, the rooms had knotty pine paneling, cork tile floors and wrought-iron knobs and pulls on built-in drawers and drop-down desks.  Each room had a low double-doored storage area under the eaves that ran the entire length of the upstairs without interruption.  It was a perfect play area and I could crawl all the way through to Bob's room and spy through the crack in the doors.

If you're not familiar with "Spin and Marty",  here's a videoclip that will give you an idea of what it was like... only a minute or two will be enough.