478 4/4/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Sunday, April 04, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, It was a hot summer day today and is still warm tonight but it seems nice to have it like this. Tonight the Deans who live upstairs and Elmer and Jimmie and I walked down to the Hollywood which is a drive-in place only a couple of blocks from here and had a couple of hamburgers and then came back here and I put Jimmie to bed and they stayed for about an hour. When we got ready to walk down there I picked Jimmie up to clean him up a little and I don’t think there was a clean spot on him so I had to put him right in the tub and give him a bath. He gets just terribly dirty and was so tired tonight because he had been outside most of the day. Elmer stayed out in the back yard with him most of the morning and Jimmie pushed his tailor tot all around the yard and he thinks he is doing something pretty smart when he does that because it looks just like he is walking. He can stand up swell now without hanging onto a thing and does it all the time but when he wants to move he gets down and crawls like everything. Last night the company had another dance out at the country club and we went with several other couples and everyone had a good time. I almost wore the new dress that I made because I finished it yesterday and it really turned out good but then I decided it might look kind of amateurish so thought I better not but I certainly am pleased with it and I learned so much on this pattern. Now I have another one to cut out but I think it will be much easier than this one so should be able to do it in a hurry. Annie, this colored woman who comes over a couple of times a week, just loves to cook so when she was here Friday she baked Jim a lot of cookies and I got them mailed Saturday. The cookies tasted so good and Jimmie and I were standing in the kitchen watching her make them and when she would take a bunch out of the oven we started in eating them and I think I could have eaten them all up right then if I didn’t get out of there. She made him two different kinds. Now that I think of it I am afraid he won’t like the one kind which was an oatmeal cookie with raisins but I’m sure he will like the other ones. They were a sweeter cookie with nuts in them. When she comes Monday I am going to have her make him an applesauce cake because that will be easy to mail. Friday before nine o’clock the door bell rang and I went to the door and there were two girls from the company and they said this was a come as you are party. They were going to pick up several other girls and we were going to have a coke but we had to go just as they caught us and we couldn’t fix up a single bit. I had a terrible old house dress on and hadn’t even combed my hair yet and I couldn’t have looked worse but I went and Annie was here that morning so stayed with Jimmie. Then we went upstairs to get Esther Dean and she was still in bed and had her hairnet on but they let her take her hairnet off and put her housecoat on over her nightgown. There were six of us in all and you never saw a worse looking bunch of girls. None of us had decent dresses on and no one had even combed their hair. The first girl who started it out had on a clean housedress but she hadn’t taken the bobbie pins out of her hair from pinning it up and she didn’t put on any makeup so looked as bad as the rest of us. It was a lot of fun and we just drove over to a drive-in place and sat in the car and drank a coke. Did you remember Grandma’s birthday? I sent her a card and wrote on it but didn’t get her a present mailed like I had planned to do but still plan on getting something right away and sending it. By the way, I sent the new baby a present Saturday so that should be there right away. I bet Glad is happy to be home. Did Cully get there alright even though his train was late. How does Glad feel? When I get downtown again which should be Tuesday I am going to ask at the post office to make sure because maybe they will tell me I can mail sugar. I don’t think I can but they will know. I certainly would like to get some of my sugar to you. I can’t even use all my canned goods coupons because I buy so very little canned foods. At first I thought I would use them anyway but it just took a lot of money and I don’t need it (the canned goods). How are you coming out on yours? If you could get some of those clothes sent to me this month it would be swell because then I would have the machine here still to fix them. I don’t want you to go to any trouble though hurrying to get them sent because I know you have so many other things to do and it really doesn’t make much difference when I get them. I am so glad this dress I just finished turned out so good because now it makes me feel more confident about starting another one. That studio where I had Jimmie’s picture taken was supposed to be reliable but they either aren’t or have just lost his pictures or something. Anyway I am going to write to them tonight just as soon as I finish your letter. If Jim was out marching all day in weather like we had here today I can easily see how he would get terribly sunburned. After he gets toughened to the sun I hope it won’t bother him. Are you still having a lot of rain there? Jimmie has always been content to play out on the back porch and he can see everything that goes on outside but now since we have been taking him out in the back yard to play he doesn’t want to stay on the porch at all. As soon as he sees me hook the screen door he starts hollering. Wouldn’t it be swell if Jim could qualify for officer’s training school. I sure hope he will be able to. I think he is really homesick don’t you? He said he wasn’t in his letter to me but the ones he writes to you sound like he really is. He certainly likes your car doesn’t he because he always tells you to be sure and have it greased and take good care of it. I had another letter from Elizabeth Close. She writes very good letters and long ones too. Well Folks, I want to write to that studio and then go to bed. I may write to Jim first though and tomorrow for sure I am going to write to Glad. With Love, Helen