491 5/17/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Monday, May 17, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Your nice long letter came today so I will answer it now and then go to bed pretty soon. Sarah and Herb got their orders to move today and they are going to Wyoming and are leaving Thursday. Herb was so happy when he heard he was being sent to Wyoming that he kissed the head engineer on the head. He was born there and has a lot of relatives there although both his parents are dead. Tomorrow night I am having them over for dinner and Annie is coming over when she is through with the lady she has to work for then. Tonight we drove over to ask Annie to come and Jimmie was so glad to see her he wanted to get out of the car and go to her. Her father came out to see Jimmie and he looked to be about sixty and Annie told us he was eighty six. He was dressed nice and clean and Annie always looks clean. They live in a nice little white house and the yard is kept up so I think they are pretty nice Negroes. Annie taught school for twelve years so she isn’t one of the dumb ones. She asked me what I was going to have for dinner and I said what shall I have so she planned the whole meal for me and she told me not to get all upset about it like I did the night Colloras came over because she would fix everything and take care of it all. I’m going to have a roast and she said if I didn’t have enough points she would give me some but I have plenty. She is going to bake a Boston Cream Pie and fix the salad and do just everything but I’ll clean the house. Wednesday night we are invited over to Margie and Monty’s house. I think it is going to be a party for the Facklers. The crew is really breaking up now and it always makes everyone wish they had seen more of each other. This has really been a swell bunch and I hope we will see everyone again. The Deans upstairs have gone to Lake Charles but they left without a friend in town. They were funny people because they wanted friends so badly but no one liked them. Remember Esther Dean is the one who called Jimmie a drooley thing when he was about four months old. They went away and didn’t pay the paper boy and they left their apartment in the most terrible mess you ever saw. They said they sure were glad to leave Monroe because they thought this was the snobbiest bunch of people they ever saw. They forget they will probably see most of us again. I was always nice to Esther even though I didn’t like her. We thought we might be leaving in about two weeks but now we just don’t know but it can’t be long because they are finishing up the job now and Elmer gets home an hour earlier because there isn’t enough to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if we go to Lake Charles but I sure won’t be disappointed if it is some place else. By the way, Elmer is Washington conscious again and he said to ask you if they need surveyors for that work Cully is doing. Let me know anything you know about that just as soon as you can. If there is a chance of Elmer not being transferred with this company we would come out there and I want to anyway. I’m sure Elmer could get a job some place. The lady across the hall gave Jimmie a little bathing suit that her little girl had outgrown and it fits Jimmie just right so today I took him down to the pool. They have a great big one and then one for children. He was afraid of the water at first but before we came home he let me put him in it. It came up to the middle of him even in the shallowest place but he got to like it. He is just the cutest little thing it makes me sick that you haven’t seen him. He is covered with red bug bites tonight though from playing out in the grass but they don’t seem to bother him. It doesn’t cost a single thing to go swimming in the pool so I’m going to start going a lot while I’m here. Monroe certainly is a nice town and I hate to leave it unless we leave for the north again. I bet our weather is hotter now than you ever get there. It will be a lot hotter than this too in a month or so. I don’t think that box of candy Jimmie received was the one I sent him first. The first one was chocolates and this second one was pralines which are just made in the south and I didn’t think he had ever tasted them. I’m going to send you some too. I had a letter from him today. I’m glad Dahlstroms had a nice visit. She really is nice but is just so bossy that I suppose that is why she isn’t so nice to be around much. She is just used to running her own house though that it isn’t easy for her either to have someone else there. It is funny Wally Dahlstrom hasn’t been sent overseas by this time but I hope he won’t have to go. Mr. Massur, our landlord, called tonight and wanted to know when we were moving but I couldn’t tell him since I don’t know but he didn’t seem to believe me. He knows we are all moving soon but the Deans sneaked out on him for no reason at all because their rent was paid up but they didn’t want him to rent their place since their rent was paid up until the first. The joke was on them though because Mr. Masur always refunds your money when he rents the place to new people and not more than two minutes after Deans drove away Mr. Masur drove up to see how much money they would have coming when they moved. Yes Jimmie went to bed just swell the night the Colloras were here. I kept him up later and then he was awfully sleepy so I hurried and rocked him a couple of times and he was asleep. When I came out of the bedroom they asked me if Jimmie was asleep already and I said I think so, so they didn’t know I rocked him. I keep him up until eight o’clock every night now though and he is so sleepy by then I just put him in bed and pat him a few times and he is sound asleep. I like rocking him though and I would like to keep him a baby. He has just learned how to kiss me now but when Elmer asks him to kiss him he just laughs. How do you ever teach a child to eat solid foods. He has been eating the strained baby foods all this time and now I’m trying to get him to eat the Junior foods and potatoes and things but anything with lumps in he just spits out. Tonight while we were waiting for Elmer to come home I put the washtub out in the back yard and filled it full of water and let Jimmie play out there in his bathing suit. Before I knew it all the kids in the neighborhood were out there and had taken off their shoes and stockings and were standing in the tub and trying to get Jimmie not to bother them. Jimmie had fun anyway watching them and I made the kids get out of there in a few minutes. Alvin Pope is an instructor in the, no I have forgotten what branch. I was going to say in the parachute division but I don’t think it is that now. Well Folks, Elmer has gone to bed so I guess I will too. I should write to Jimmie tonight but guess I will in the morning instead. With Love, Helen