493 5/27/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Thursday, May 27, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, It’s been so hot that I have kind of fallen down on the letter writing. I had a nice letter from Jim today and he said Ruth had been to see him and he said they had a good time. I hope he gets in the army band. Wouldn’t that be swell and he would really like that. He certainly seems to be satisfied in the army so I don’t feel as bad about it as I did at first do you? I had a long letter from Mrs. Ellsworth yesterday and I suppose you have heard from her too but anyway she is in Texarkana, Texas. That isn’t so very far from here. She said they went through Shreveport on their way there and when I was at Sarah’s folks we were only six miles from the Texas line. Every day we planned to drive over the line so I could see Texas but we just never got around to it. The box came yesterday and thanks just loads for sending it. I have a pair of the pajamas on tonight and can really make use of both pairs. I took the long dress to the cleaners yesterday so it will be ready to wear for the next dance. It still looks as nice as ever I think. We had a dance last Saturday night but I couldn’t have worn the long dress anyway because everyone was supposed to come in play clothes as they called it. The dance was at the Country Club again but they didn’t even have an orchestra but just a juke box and everyone had a swell time. We had some excitement too. A bunch of us were sitting at a table and a great big guy came up and asked me to dance. At first I didn’t know if I was supposed to know him or not because Elmer had introduced me to several different ones and I looked at Elmer and he didn’t act as though he knew him and this man was awfully drunk so I told him I only danced with the men I knew. He took a hold of my arm then and said he wanted me to dance with him anyway. As he grabbed a hold of my arm he lost his balance and my chair started to go over backwards and Elmer jumped up and socked the man and he went bouncing against the wall. Everyone laughed because this man weighed over 200 hundred pounds and Elmer isn’t exactly big. The fellows at our table all stood up then ready to help Elmer out then if he needed it because after the man got on his feet again he came back. He said he wanted to apologize so we let him and then he wanted to stand around and talk and Elmer told him to beat it so he did. It sounds like a drunken brawl when I write about it but it wasn’t at all. Everyone there was talking about that man because he was so drunk. Elmer said he really just pushed him away but he was so drunk he pushed easier than he expected him too. Tomorrow I’m going to take care of Dottie Barrow across the hall because her mother is in the hospital but her aunt is coming tomorrow night. Annie was here today and she helps Mrs. Barrow once a week but when she finished her work here she went over to Mrs. Barrow’s house and worked until about seven o’clock straightening things up on her own accord. Annie has five boys and two of them she adopted. One of them was found by the railroad tracks when he was a tiny baby and her oldest boy, who found him, brought him home and Annie said she asked her mother what she should do with the baby and her mother told her she should keep it and the Lord would take care of her the rest of her life with his blessings. She adopted the second one because its parents died when he was a baby. Every day some more of the bunch from the Company leave. The superintendent here wants to keep together a small crew here until he finds out if he will be made superintendent of some other job and then he will take this crew with him that he is selecting from the bunch. Elmer can go to Lake Charles, La. Or to a job in Tenn. But Mrs. Tourek, the superintendent, wants him to stay here if he will. The only drawback is there may not be a brand new job opening up so maybe Mr. Tourek won’t be made superintendent of another job and in that case maybe this bunch who is staying here will be too late in getting placed at some other job that is all ready going on. We don’t see how we can go to Lake Charles because so many go there and come right back because you can’t even get a hotel room or rooms in private homes. There just isn’t an available place to be had and they charge 15 and 20 dollars a week for just an old room if you can find one and it would be an awful place to go to. We know we will probably run up against that wherever we go but still they won’t pay any higher salaries for going down there and it certainly would cost an awful lot more to live. The Tennessee job doesn’t sound bad but maybe by the time Elmer is through here in Monroe they won’t need men there. We think now we may be here until around July 15th. Elmer thinks it will be over before then though. I tell him all the time I know he could get a job out there but he said he wouldn’t feel right about going out there unless he wasn’t transferred to another job here but anyway Sunday he said he is going to write some more letters out there again and ask them if they can still use him. I’m not getting my hopes up at all yet though because I have been disappointed before. Another thing as long as he stayed with Kellogg they would defer him but they might not always be able to do that either. Mom, tell Glad I haven’t forgotten about her at all and I’m going to write to her tomorrow for sure. I did write to Stella the other night because I’ve owed her a letter the longest and when I read it over I thought what a lousy letter because it didn’t even sound as though I was writing to a sister but when it’s hot like this I lose all my ambition. Annie said today she has never worked for a Northerner who wasn’t a good housekeeper. That is she said not many but she said all Southerners keep their houses just terrible, by not doing a thing when they maid isn’t there but leaving everything for them to do. I told her I was going to be just like a Southerner pretty soon because I’m getting so I don’t want to do a thing and I don’t do very much. I guess I told you we heard from Bob and he had received the Purple Heart and was sending it home. Florence expects her baby any day and her husband left last Saturday for a job in Canada. Well Folks I guess I will stop for now and I hope you’re all fine and thanks for sending the dress and pajamas. With Love, Helen We’re out at the spaghetti place. Nice letter from you today. We’re at the P.O. now.