467 3/8/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Monday, March 08, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, The letter you wrote Friday night and mailed Saturday came today so that was pretty fast time. I was glad to hear that Jimmie had called you up Friday night and told you what had happened that day. I bet you felt better after hearing from him. I hope both for Jimmie’s sake and your sake too that he will be sent someplace near me because you can be sure I will go and see him often. This afternoon I went over to see Jane Calora and her brother is here visiting her while he is on his furlough. He is just a young kid and has been in a camp in Oklahoma. He said it takes a while to get used to the army but he said he liked it. He said he didn’t get his first furlough until he had been in the army about six or eight months and then he went home to Chicago to see his folks. I just can’t believe Jim is actually in the army but I’m sure he will get along fine and it is really harder on the ones at home than it is for him because we will worry about him and feel sorry for him and he will be getting along swell. He just can’t be sent out of the country though. My Jimmie is feeling fine again. He ate good today and didn’t lose a thing and just had his one normal bowel movement. He felt fine Sunday too. I went to church yesterday and enjoyed it. I saw Mrs. Herring and she is so nice and a good practitioner I think because as soon as I called her about Jimmie he seemed to start feeling better. He has another tooth now so that makes seven and he got these last three all in the same week. I don’t know how much the call cost me but it was worth what ever it is. I know it cost 3.50 for three minutes plus a 25 percent tax. I don’t know just how many minutes we talked but I had told the operator to tell me when five minutes were up so I know we didn’t talk any longer than that. At night it costs 2.50 for three minutes plus the tax. I hope you got to see Jim Sunday. I will be anxious to hear all about it. I hope you will get to see him in his uniform before he is sent to another camp. I know that will give you a funny feeling but here I should be trying to cheer you up instead of saying things like that. Anyway I know he will make a good looking soldier. It is nice that Jimmie knows that Mr. Krugger likes him and they are in the same barracks. Will Jim have to send his civilian clothes home. I remember that old house in Sumner that looked like it was ready to fall down. I don’t see how it stayed up this long either by the way it was leaning. I bet your baked chicken was good Thursday night and I surely wish I could have been there with you. I knew you would all be together that night and thought about you all evening. I wrote to Stella the other night and told her about the circumcising party and it certainly was a big affair. All the important Jews in town were there. When they were circumcising the little thing Sarah and I stood there and could hardly keep from crying just to hear it cry. They didn’t give it a thing to deaden the pain. In the hospitals they give the babies paregoric and it puts them to sleep but all this little baby got was a piece of cloth tied up in a little ball and soaked in wine and they stuck that in its mouth as soon as it was over and then he stopped crying. He was so hungry too because he had to be on a fast all day. He had his ten o’clock feeding in the morning and then couldn’t eat until after it was over and that was after three thirty. It was christened at the same time and the godfather whose name is Israel sat on a chair fixed up like a throne and the chair was set up on a box or something high and the baby was laid on a satin pillow with a satin cover over it and all dressed up. The way the Rabbi chanted was really gloomy and all the men had to put their hats on when it started. The skin that was cut off was put in a loving cup filled with wine and that was passed around and everyone had to take a sip of it as blessings either to or from the baby. Sarah and I managed to dodge that but Esther Dean, the other girl we went with, had it pushed right in her face and couldn’t get out of it. The doctor was there which is a law because he had to witness it. Everyone was told to stand around and watch but Sarah and Esther and I stood way at the back of the room because we didn’t want to see it. After it was over we went over to look at the baby and he was bleeding so bad. Louise was lying in bed in the bedroom and was feeling so bad because she could hear her baby crying so hard. When they cut the baby her husband got so excited and nervous he covered his face with his hands and ran out of the room. Solomon is a terrible name to give a baby but they will call him Sol. They had the table laden with rich pastry some of which had been sent from Siberia by relatives living over there. These people are Siberian Jews and the real orthodox ones. They had bottles and bottles of champagne for the ladies and other stuff for the men. We couldn’t eat any of the pastry because it was way too rich but we did have a glass of champagne and I didn’t think it was as wonderful as I had always heard it was supposed to be. We didn’t stay so very long afterwards. There was another lady there from church who I had met too. She said it was supposed to be quite an honor to be invited to such an affair but by the way they thanked us for coming they acted as though they were the ones being honored. They all treated us like we were somebody wonderful. I will be sure and remember Grandma’s birthday. I am glad to know the date. I am glad they all plan to get together to celebrate her birthday. Wish I could be there too. It would be wonderful if you could come to see me in the fall. I hope you will plan on it and I will help out on the expenses on your ticket and everything. Wouldn’t it be swell if Jim were near here then so we could all get together at the same time. The reason we leave so many things when we move is that it doesn’t pay to ship most of the things we have. It would cost almost as much to have the highchair packed and shipped as I paid for it as it is just a cheap one. That is the way with everything I have. Everything is cheap so isn’t worth spending money on shipping but I still hate to part with my things even though they don’t cost much. It is things like that that make you feel at home in a room. This lace table cloth you sent me too is always in use. In the house I have it on my dining room table all the time and it looks so nice. Then I have the pictures of all of our family up so you would really recognize my place if you did walk in and didn’t know I lived here. Jim’s dresser scarf is on my buffet and it is so pretty and means so much to me. Well Folks, I’m going to try and work up enough ambition to wash my hair because it is itching like everything. I’ll be anxious to hear about Jim and will write more later. Love, Helen Hello Glad. I’m going to write to you real soon.