482 4/23/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Friday, April 23, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, It is such a hot day out I have some potatoes and eggs on cooking for potato salad for our supper tonight. Jimmie is standing beside me trying to reach the typewriter so I don’t know how far I will get. He was playing so nicely out on the back porch that I brought the typewriter in the kitchen but as soon as he saw it he hurried in too. The box of dresses came today and I am so glad to have them. I haven’t had a chance to try any of them on yet but thought if I could get my letter written to you now I could spend the evening going over those dresses. I was so glad to hear about Jim calling you up. He evidently is all through with the basic training and I hope so because it must be awfully hot to have to stand out on the field for hours and drill and I thought that K.P. duty was terrible. I was glad to get Glad’s letter and am sending the envelope back to you and maybe you can use it again by sticking the flap down someway so you won’t waste the stamp. The last bunch of pictures turned out pretty good so I am sending you a copy of them. One I liked pretty well so am going to have it enlarged for Glad so won’t send the small one because I don’t want you to see it until you see the enlargement. Those little suits you sent are just as cute as they can be on Jimmie. I thought maybe the three-year old size might be just a little large for him right now but it fits him perfectly and he looks so cute in it. He looks so cute in the green one too and wore it for quite awhile today. We went downtown and then when we came back I gave him a cookie so he didn’t stay clean very long. I am so glad to have them. Will Jim be living at the hotel the entire time he is at school. Just which ones were sent to school. Well I won’t worry about him for three and a half months now because I don’t imagine things are so very tough for him right now. It will be wonderful if he can apply for officer training. I sure hope he studies hard. If he had to study every minute to get good grades it would be worth it I think. I bet the kids will be glad when they get settled and find room for all their stuff. Did Ma Jones live up there during the winter. Glad mentioned that most of her stuff was still there. If she did live in their cabin how did that happen? Have you started your day watch yet, Mom. You folks really are doing all you can. When Pop is on duty, do you have to go without any sleep then Pop for a whole day and night. That must be plenty tough. There isn’t anything like that going on down here. Maybe there is in the cities on the coast but not around here. I almost started going to the Red Cross every Thursday and help roll bandages but it would cost me one dollar to have Mrs. Craig and I decided the people who didn’t have babies could go and I would stay home with Jimmie. The Jews are still having trouble with Mrs. Walter. They don’t have a garage apartment, though, but a regular house which is right in front of the garage apartment we had and right next door to Mrs. Walter. They are still looking for a place to move and she keeps on doing just awful things to them. One day she kept on going by Louise’s window where she was holding the baby and called it a bitch every time she went by. Louise has to call the police several times a week to come out and make Mrs. Walter stop bothering her. One day I was coming home from the store and she was standing out on her porch. I honked the horn and when she looked up I thumbed my nose at her all the way by. That was the first time in my life I had ever thumbed my nose. I could just see the muscles in her face tightening up and I couldn’t help but laugh at her too but when I got out of the car to go in the house my legs were just shaking. I hope Cully likes his work and it isn’t too hard. Yesterday I just felt like playing bridge so got up a game and Annie baked a wonderful Boston cream pie for dessert and I had cokes. Mrs. Craig came over to stay with Jimmie and during our last rubber she fell down the back steps, but thank goodness wasn’t carrying Jimmie. She skinned her knee pretty badly and wrecked her stocking so as soon as we finished the game I drove her home. You know Jimmie has never been circumcised and when he was born the doctor said he needed it but said he didn’t believe in doing it until the child was through wearing diapers because by then he might not need it. However, I have never been able to do anything with Jimmie although I have tried every time I have given him a bath. Now it seems to hurt him when he has to go. He wakes up at night crying like he hurts and has to go but can’t. Everyone who has ever changed his pants has said he needs it badly so now that it seems to bother him Elmer seems to think we should have it done. I didn’t know what to do about it so called Mrs. Herring this morning and told her about it and asked her what I should do. She certainly is nice. She said as long as Elmer wasn’t a Scientist I might just as well have it done and she would work for Jimmie. I wanted to find out what you thought about it first and maybe you will disagree with Mrs. Herring but anyway as long as I won’t have time to find out what you tell me, I do feel better having talked to Mrs. Herring and to know she will work for Jimmie when it is done. I don’t know when we will have it done. I know it isn’t much to do but he will be so sore but maybe he won’t be. I think probably it will be next Thursday morning we will have it done because I want to get it over with as soon as possible and I’m playing bridge Wednesday so don’t want to have it done before that as I want to be with him afterwards in case he is sore so will you keep him in mind from now on when you are studying your lesson? I had to stop but now the dishes are done and Jimmie is in bed and asleep. He certainly is ready for bed now that he plays so hard all day. He just loves to be outside and he walks all over by holding onto my hand and takes better steps all the time. He just loves to crawl though and races back and forth through the house all the time. Everyone says their children never crawled as much as Jimmie but I never made him stay in bed except to sleep and since he didn’t have a play pen he was able to get around more. He likes to crawl on the sidewalk but I don’t let him do that much because it makes his knees raw. Tomorrow I’m going to make him some kind of knee pads to tie around his knees. He doesn’t like the grass and doesn’t even like to touch it. It’s a good thing though because now that the weather is getting hot the red bugs are coming. I don’t know if I told you before or not but they are tiny little bugs that are too small to be seen and are just thick in the grass and weeds in the summer time and they get all over you and it itches like the dickens. Well Folks, I’m going to write to Jim now and maybe a couple of other letters and then get at my dresses. Thanks so awfully much for sending them. I know I’ll be able to fix them up good now and get a lot of wear out of them. With Love, Helen