481 4/19/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Monday, April 19, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, I’ll start this letter but don’t know how far I’ll get with it because Jimmie is up so will be wanting some attention. Annie is coming today so I don’t have much to do. Yesterday was Jimmie’s birthday and he really had a party. It had been rainy and cloudy all week so he hadn’t gotten out much and yesterday was getting kind of fussy from being inside so much so I had the two kids in the building down and the two little girls who play over here all the time over for ice cream and cake. We played games like pinning the tail on the donkey and they all knew other games and I gave pennies for prizes and everyone had a good time, including Jimmie. He loves to watch the kids play, and Elmer had taken a magazine and gone into the bedroom to stay and every once in a while Jimmie would hurry in there to see Elmer for a second and stand there laughing and then turn around and crawl as fast as he could back into the living room. The house really looked like a cyclone had hit it after the kids left so now I know what I have to go through when Jimmie gets a little older and has his friends in. Two of the children here were seven and two were five. Sarah and Herb left for Colorado Saturday because Herb’s step-father had passed away. Sarah has never been out of this state and was so excited about it she could hardly stand it. She said at last she would get to see mountains and snow and a furnace. Saturday night I had Olney Dean down for dinner and it turned out real good. I had a baked chicken with dressing and strawberry shortcake and neither Olney nor Elmer disappointed me one bit in eating. Sunday morning Elmer and Olney and two other fellows from work went fishing at five fifteen in the morning. They all ate their breakfast out. Between the four of them they just caught three small ones and they gave them to Elmer so I had Olney for supper again last night. We thought we would just have a taste of fish but then Mr. Barrow, our neighbor across the hall, came over again with two nice big ones for us so we had another nice fish supper. After we ate I put Jimmie to bed and did the dishes and Olney and Elmer fixed Jimmie’s tailor tot all up good again. It needs going over so often because the screws get loose and fall off. Mom, I’m sending Jimmie’s picture today and will keep on looking for either frames or folders to put them in and when or if I do find one I’ll send it right away. Did you ever send me Jim’s letter back. If you didn’t it is perfectly all right but I can’t remember of getting it and had just been wondering about it. I am glad you liked the candy. You shouldn’t have sent Jimmie a birthday present because with all the grandchildren you have know it would keep you broke buying them things. I know he will like it anyway. Are the kids glad to back at their cabin? I hope Cully will like his work. Is the salary good? He will like being outside and it should help to keep him in condition. I was so interested in hearing about Harold Horn and think it is pretty good he had remembered about you because he wasn’t much more than a baby when we lived next door to him. His mother must have talked about you a lot and often for him to remember you and where you lived. He is a little younger than Jim isn’t he. He was such a cute boy when he was little, and it sounds like he looks like his dad if he is tall. I remember he looked just like him when he was little. His mother will be glad to hear all about you when Harold gets to California. He certainly had some experience out in the sea. Friday night Elmer and I were invited over to Collora’s for a spaghetti dinner. Mr. Collora is Elmer’s boss and both he and his wife are awfully nice. They have a little boy about five months older than Jimmie. They live just a few blocks from us so I see Jane Collora quite often. Mr. Collora is Italian and made the spaghetti and it was awfully good. They eat a lot of Italian dishes and he does most of the cooking. He said that we would all be out of here by November by the very latest but the job may be finished in September. I hope we go where they do when we move because I like them. They have started making ammonia out there now but are still making the plant larger. Ng mgv. Jimmie just typed a few words to you. Night I didn’t get to finish my letter today but will tonight now. I had a nice letter from you today with several from Jim enclosed and also a letter from Jim and one from Aunt Ruth which I am enclosing. The birthday present came today and the suits are just darling. You and the kids did too much. He needs suits so badly because he gets so dirty and needs a change several times during the day but usually doesn’t get it. That little suit with the straps to it will be so nice when the awfully hot weather is here because he will be able to wear just the pants without the shirt under it. The ankle sox are nice too and he needed them badly and I have been going to buy him some every time I go downtown but always forget or put it off. I like both of the suits so much and thanks so awfully much for sending them. Tomorrow when I dress him up I’ll put the little green one on first and take his picture. I just noticed the other one which is a three year old size isn’t much bigger at all than the green one so will fit him right now too. He sure is a big boy and started walking today. He just took a few steps at a time but at least is making a little headway now. Before he starts out he begins to laugh and talk as fast as he can because he must get a little excited. Once to day I put him down and without even thinking he walked over to the studio couch and surprised himself as much as he did me. This afternoon Jane Collara and her little boy came over. His name is Jimmie too. We walked down to the drug store and had some ice cream and then came back here and sat around and talked a while. You sent Jimmie’s letter he wrote to me back in this letter that came today so forget I mentioned it. I was awfully glad to get all those letters he wrote to you. He is getting plenty of cookies and I think that is swell. It was nice of Mrs. Gross to send him some too. What Jensons is it that he mentioned breaking up. Is it Johnny Jenson? I bet it seems kind of nice to be alone for awhile now after all the confusion even though I do know you liked having the kids there it is more work and you can’t sit down and really relax. I’ll be awfully glad to get those dresses, Mom, but I don’t think I’ll have to worry about letting any of them out around the hips because I am smaller around the hips now then I have ever been but then too that seersucker one has probably shrunk up some from being washed. I have started making a blue plaid gingham dress and that is going to be all for this summer because with the ones you are sending me I will have plenty. I hope you can fix that red plaid because I have always liked it so much. That certainly was a wonderful piece of material. I guess the box of chocolates I sent to Jim missed him someway. I’m sorry it did because that box I sent him was the last one they had in the drugstore and it cost 2.50. I had intended sending you one like it but that was the last one they had. Elmer got your box in a little store out by work. Having Jim lose out on the candy makes me feel as bad as losing the 2.50 that way. Maybe he will get it yet though but after being thrown around all this time I hate to think what condition it will be in. I can’t understand why he never received it because it was the first package I sent to him. Mom, I certainly can use that yellow long dress and got so excited when you mentioned it I could hardly wait until I told you about it. I wished so awfully much I had it for the last dance but there is going to be another dance in June and it would be just perfect for then because it will be so warm out. I can fix the dress up if it needs it and have it cleaned and I know it will look nice because it hasn’t been worn very much at all. I only wore it one night which was for Eden’s wedding and if Stella ever did wear it I don’t think it was very much. When Annie comes I usually do the breakfast dishes so she can start in on the washing. Today she told me that one woman she works for never washes a dish but lets them pile up for her to do when she goes there Tuesdays and Fridays. She comes in about eight o’clock in the morning and sometimes is still working at six o’clock but usually is through around four thirty or five. She certainly is good. This morning I left Jimmie with her while I went with Irma Moore to see Jane Tourek and her new baby. I hated to leave Jimmie but she said he didn’t cry at all after I left. He sure was glad to see me though when I got back. I still have plenty of sugar. Last Thursday Annie baked him a cake in one of those long cake tins so it would be easy to mail but by Friday it already was getting a little dry around the edges and I figured by the time it reached Jim it would be really stale so I didn’t sent it and I guess I won’t send any more cakes because that doesn’t work so good. I bought him a bunch of fruit though. Oranges and apples and bananas but didn’t mail them today because Elmer went to work with both key rings. I called him up and bawled him out about it but he thought it was funny. When he came home tonight I got the keys the very first thing so I would be sure and have them tomorrow. How is your cold, Pop. I hope it is all gone by now. I’ve had a cold for almost a month now and can’t seem to get rid of it. For a while I was scared it was hay fever but I don’t think it is now because I still have some cold on my chest so guess my runny nose is still from that. I hope so because I certainly don’t want to be bothered with anything like hay fever. It’s too bad you have to walk a whole mile from the car Pop, and I hope you will be able to park close soon. Well Folks, I have to write to Jim and then I’m going to bed. Tell the girls I’m going to write to them tomorrow night and thanks, all of you, for the two darling little suits and I’ll try and get some good pictures of Jimmie in them. Goodnight again for this time. With Love, Helen