474 3/24/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Wednesday, March 24, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Elmer has gone bowling and Jimmie is in bed so I will answer the two nice letters I had from you today. One came this morning and the other one came this afternoon telling me about my new little niece. I’m so glad it is all over and I think it is swell Glad had another girl because it will be so nice for Ruthie to have a sister and they will be close enough together to be good friends. Did Glad have a very hard time and was she in labor long? I hope Cully will get out there by Sunday as I know they will be glad to see each other. Thanks for sending me Jim’s letter. I am glad he has extra money at home that you can send him when he needs it. I suppose at first it will take quite a bit of extra money to get organized and everything. Some of Bob’s letters come right through in about two weeks but others must get held up because we have had several over a month after he has written them. It certainly will be a happy day when this war is over. When we have such pretty weather and I’ll be walking with Jimmie I will just feel so good all over and then suddenly remember the war and it takes the good feeling right out of me. Mom I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this before when you mentioned you usually were low on sugar but I am sending you my sugar book and I want you to get my five pounds of sugar on this number twelve. I absolutely don’t need it as I still have about fifteen pounds of sugar and haven’t used any of my number twelves yet so you take mine. How are you coming on canned goods. I won’t need all of those coupons either so if you can use them please tell me and I will send you my book. I am making myself a dress and want to make two or three more and when I get them all cut out and baisted and everything done to them I can by hand I am going to rent a machine from the Singer Sewing Machine Company and stitch them up. I can rent one for five dollars a month and if I could get some summer dresses made it still would make it so much cheaper than buying even one dress because clothes are so expensive now. I hope the dress I just started will turn out nicely because I like it so far. It is a light blue material and the pattern is very simple since I’m still an amateur at sewing but I am going very carefully and then Esther Dean, the girl upstairs, knows how to sew so whenever I get stuck I just call her down and she is so nice about helping me. Tonight for dinner I had fried oysters and they turned out so good and we ate too many of them. I think they taste a lot like fried clams. I don’t think I will like the meat rationing but I know we will manage o.k. on that too. I think Jean Marie is such a pretty name. What time did Glad go to the hospital. Will Glad be able to nurse the baby. I hope so because it certainly must be a lot easier than having to fix formulae all the time. By the way I wanted to be sure and ask you if it is alright if Jimmie drinks more than a quart of milk a day. He just loves it and he usually drinks over a quart and someone told me they weren’t supposed to do that. He eats so good and isn’t getting any thinner at all and do you think he will be too fat? I just read again when you took Glad to Kling’s so I know now it was Sunday before you went to church but your letter was dated the 20th and that was a Saturday but probably you just wrote the wrong date but I guess she probably had her baby at 5:40 Sunday afternoon. At that rate she did have a pretty long time of labor. I think I would kind of hate to have another baby because Jimmie was born in such a hurry I would be afraid the second one couldn’t possibly come so soon. I’ll never forget how the doctor said he hadn’t dropped far enough yet and I wouldn’t have him for another day anyway so Elmer and I went back to the island and it was all over with less than four hours later. No the green pillow isn’t worn out yet and it still looks real nice. You sent it to me for our anniversary when we were in Laurel. It seemed to bring me luck because when it came we hadn’t been able to find an apartment and were living in one room and I wished so bad I had a davenport to put the pillow on and then right away after that we found the apartment. My cold is practically gone now so doesn’t bother me and Jimmie’s is almost gone too but he puts up such a kick when I try to wipe his nose that it is almost easier to see it running in his mouth. I will be so glad when his nose stops running but it was so much better today. I have been letting him stay up until 7:30 so he can see Elmer and then as soon as we finish eating I give him a bath and put him to bed but tonight he was so sleepy I had to put him to bed at 6:30. I’ve found it works out much better to give him his bath at night because that is when he is so dirty after playing all day and I can get my work done faster that way in the morning too. He just woke up and I put him on the toilet and he went and then went right back to sleep as soon as I put him back to bed. After he is in bed at night I always feel so bad if I have scolded him for anything during the day, and I always decide the next day I won’t say a cross thing to him but then when he starts throwing his milk at me or blowing his food all over it is hard to just smile at him. I’m still waiting for my pictures but I guess all the studios are so filled up it takes a long time to get the pictures. I have talked to others who had their baby’s pictures taken the same place I took Jimmie and they haven’t received theirs either. Well Folks, I am anxious to sew a little on my dress so guess I will do that and tell me all about Glad when you write. I won’t be able to get downtown until Saturday but am going to buy the baby something then and will mail it then too. I think it is a shame you can’t see your only grandson but I sure hope you can before long. With Love, Helen The whole time I was writing this I decided I shouldn’t say anything about Jimmie being the only boy so far but I guess Glad isn’t disappointed is she. I’m sure if my first one had been a girl I would want my second one to be a little girl too. Love, Helen I just this minute read the warning on my ration book and it says it must not be transferred so I thought now I better ask you first if it is alright to send it. Could I send just the coupon. It probably would be perfectly safe to send it but you tell me what to do. I want you to have it. Love, Helen