748 12/13/1928 Sadie Erwin to Albert Erwin

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington Thursday, December 13, 1928

Albert Erwin 2206 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota

My Dear Albert, After writing to you this afternoon, Gladys and I hurried down to the depot to mail it. W___ said he would mail the letter for us. Asked how you were getting on, and of course we told him fine. We are so glad to get your letters. I am sure if the letters come often to you as well as to us it will help our lonesomeness. I miss you like everything but will keep busy all the time to help make the time go more quickly. I have been working hard on Christmas gifts. Am just about finished with a pair of pillow slips for Jeannette. Have had them in the house for several years. Thought I would give them to her and save buying her something. Have crochet lace for that bath towel you won at Swager’s. Will give it to Agnes. Have a little guest towel to finish for Winifred. Made an apron for Margaret Murnane and have one to make for Muriel Swager. We had the cloth in the house so only bought the braid. It is 11 P.M. I am waiting for Stella. She is at Grasse’s. Mrs. Grasse’s mother is in the Seattle hospital. One day this week they did not expect her to live but she is better now. The girls all came home for lunch yesterday and today. This morning I went downtown for some bread and milk. George waited on me and was very lovely. Sam looks old, crabby and slow. I am trying not to dislike him but hate to see him coming my way. Today after your letter came with 30.00 I went downtown and paid Patterson in full, $15.08, Swift $2.15 and Lindquist $4.68. Have laid away 3.00 for the garage man so whenever he returns from California I will have it for him. Will add a dollar to it each month until he comes. I have better than $6.00 left. Everything paid for this month except the Star boy and the $4.00 interest at the bank, due the 26th. I feel we are coming out fine. Jensen’s bill will be large the first of the month but after that is paid I expect to save a lot towards that note. Stella just came so will get her to bed and then finish this. Did you say anything to Mrs. Truax about the $100? I mentioned it to her last week in a letter. Told her, if she still had it to loan that we would be glad to take it for 6 months as we had a note at the bank that I should like to take up, but if not, we could let it go for another 3 months. I paid the water bill yesterday, $1.75. Also asked Mr. Fountain about the assessments on our place. There are none against it. Carna has paid in full and there are no new ones. Yesterday morning I took some nails and a hammer, went out and nailed the sides of the house up, the board across the back porch and the rail on the fence, looks much better now. Saw Mr. & Mrs. Prentiss at church Wednesday. Mrs. P. wanted me to send you her regards and to wish you a Merry Christmas, Claude said to tell you he was going to send you an insurance blotter. Walter Gross said to tell you “hello” for him. Phil and Vaughn are still at the store, have not seen Bob there this week but he may be even at that. No new ones. I was going to ask you about the warmth of your room. If it is not comfortable there you can’t stand it for the real cold weather and will have to change. An electric heater would run up the bill terrible but you might get an oil heater and then never leave it on when you left the room for any length of time. That bookkeeper might have been right about you being able to get more, but you will find they will have more patience with you at first if they are not paying too much. Then the message they sent you, showed you could expect more later. You are working for God, and “God gives the increase.” Make up your mind to rise above every claim of error, learn all you can, it is really great to be able to go back after being away from such work for 7 ½ years. But you know I have always had faith in your ability. There is no limit to the good that can come to us if we keep on thinking rightly. I can see plainly that it was our own limited thinking that kept us at such a standstill all these past years. I am sure we have thrown off the shackles and are rising with more constructive thinking. Just see those Catholic boys as God’s children. I have no fear of them and our fear is the only thing that could hurt us about them. I will be writing to Earle and Agnes in a few days. Will tell him about your change and tell him about this Ed Kehoe. Strange how one is always running on to someone that knows people that we do. I am glad you have a better light in your room. What does Mrs. Truax think about it? That was nice to have your Sunday breakfast with them. You may do that often this winter. Was Speck awfully surprised when she heard you were in town? Your nose bleed is caused no doubt from the general belief of change in climate, but is only error and must go. Get whatever you need. I too hope after the New Year you can get another suit. Perhaps there will be plenty of sales then and you can get a good ready-made one reasonable. I know the one you have will not last very long, and you must take care of your personal appearance. Then later I hope to see you have another tailored suit. Albert if you got 31.75 for 5 days work last week, that is 6.35 per day or $165.10 for 26 days. If it true, you should get $38.10 for this week and that is pretty good for a start I should say. Oh, my yes, Jimmie likes his school, and he has told his teacher all about going back to Minneapolis next summer. And she said “Really”. He is learning to make Christmas trees and balls. These days there are not many little folks at school but Jimmie says he isn’t going to miss. I saw Miss Smith several times Wednesday. She feels badly about us leaving. I have promised to go to see her this coming Sunday afternoon. Mrs. Denny is still away. I presume you have seen Mrs. Ellsworth by now. Chas. Jr. might have something for George or at least be a help. George is going to watch the list of jobs at the “U” and see what Minnesota offers. If it is right for him to go, there will be something there for him. It made Gladys feel good to hear that she had such a coat for the price paid. We all were glad to hear what you said about Mpls. And her Christmas decorations. It must be a grand sight. I know the children would like seeing such a sight. I feel we are going to be very happy there when we are together again. Have a little home, live on what we make and also save at the same time. I can shop around, which will help. Tonight while waiting for Helen’s shoes at Lidrude’s, Gladys and I walked down to J__’s father’s building to find how to spell their name. “Gottavara” 3 “a” and I thought they were “e”. I suppose you will have to remember each one at the store or it won’t look right and we don’t want any hard feelings. Every time I see Mrs. Swain she is very lonely and insists on me coming up. Will try to go some day next week. Stella’s cold is better and has picked up on her eating and I think is looking better. The night you left, she coughed all night. I worked for her the next day good and then she felt better. It is 1 a.m. so I think it is time to go to bed. I will not promise to write quite such a long letter tomorrow night. I trust you continue to sleep well. It was a good thing I put that old overcoat in the trunk. So you see our need is always met. Goodnight, With love, Sadie.