752 2/3/1929 Sadie Erwin to Albert Erwin

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington Sunday, February 03, 1929

Albert Erwin 2206 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dear Albert, Your letter dated Jan. 30th received yesterday. Was very glad to hear from you and am sorry there was not a letter Jan. 29th waiting for you. We will try not to let it happen again. It was 15° above this morning when I got up. Our snow is still with us and it feels pretty cold. I think of you every morning when I get up to build the fires. It is cold here but a lot colder there. Then your fire does not get warm as quickly as my fire does. I build the heater fire first then build the range fire, by that time my first fire is nice and warm. I nearly froze in church today. B. O. Swain & wife were at church. Elmer Olson has been coming quite often lately too. Miss Auld told me this morning that since Mrs. Thompson was put on the board, she has been trying to run things her way and finding fault with everything anyone else has done. Lately I have felt so kindly toward everyone there that I rather hated to think I was to leave here for good. This morning after talking with Miss Auld and learning of some of their petty actions I felt I was ready to go. Mrs. Radcliff invited me to come up Tuesday evening to hear the lecture. Thursday Mrs. Smith came down and told Gladys she wants one of the girls Sunday morning to stay with the children. Helen waded thru the snow up there after Sunday school and found no one home. She felt pretty cross with the whole lot of them. George came up yesterday on the 10:10 bus. Chopped a lot of wood for me, so now we are ahead of the wood game again. He and Gladys are doing the dinner dishes. Whenever they are thru I am to make a berry pie for supper. I made a huckleberry pie for dinner. It was good. Sorry you cannot help us eat the fruit we have canned. The picture of the little boy running for groceries and get the order all fixed, pleased Jimmie very much. I had to read it several times to him. That was a big fire in Bemidji. It must be pretty hard to fight fire in such freezing weather. I did not have a chance to talk to Mr. Martel this A.M. but will deliver your message soon. Yes, Mrs. Brian does fine. She has a sweet voice and does not seem nervous at all. I mentioned Mrs. Martel so much, because everyone felt it was pretty hard to find a First Reader after we had had so much trouble keeping a First Reader. Tell Mrs. Truax we can visit later on to make up for all the letters we do not write now. I owe everyone I know a letter. Must get some answered this week. The children only went to school one day last week. I did not get much done. They heard today that last week was going to be counted their spring vacation. You are thinner than you were alright, now if you don’t feel hungry all the time you don’t need to care. When we get there we will cook your favorite dishes for you. We have not heard anything about that window the girls were supposed to have cracked. I think it was broken beforehand and they knew it or they did not want to charge them after we had taken care of the children for nothing. No, Mrs. Benson is not leaving town, only her mother’s home. Your overcoat is getting about worn out. Too bad you could not have gotten a new one on sale in January. You will have to have one next year. Zelda called on George this afternoon. Just stopped long enough to give him $5.00. He is thinking of getting a room where he can cook his meals. Well, I will go and do some baking so the children will have something for their school lunch tomorrow. Evening Mr. Smith came down this evening and wants someone to come up. Their car is in the garage so Gladys and Helen are going to walk up together. We need the quarter and we have found they make dollars if we get enough of them. It is cold out tonight. Does not show any sign of warming up. Today’s paper said it might warm up tomorrow and it might not warm up for a week. One thing, we have had no signs of frozen pipes. Stella is getting along fine with her music. I will have to figure like everything to keep her taking, but there will be some way even if I have to take her money from the bank, but will not do it unless I have to. Helen does not want to leave here very badly so is looking for an excuse to stay. Says she don’t like a city, would rather live on a ranch. I think she will like it alright after we get some kind of a home and are living there, but we will have to take them with us when we go out, we can’t expect them to be happy unless we give them some of that too. It is like Gladys says, we have all been together so much since coming West, that we feel quite contented with just ourselves when we go places. Have you heard from the folks at Waseca to know what Ruth plans to do? I wonder if she will try to keep the children with her or not. Poor little kids are left without a home unless Ruth does make one for them and I don’t think Ernest had anything to leave them. The children will mail this on their way to school in the morning. It seems as though everything goes smoother when they are in school. We have to go to bed earlier, get up earlier and have three meals a day. Saw nice Mrs. Wells today at church. Said she had been thinking about me and was coming down again soon. Of course I promised to go to see her soon too. With love from all, Sadie