511 7/12/1943 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 401 Alexander, Monroe, Louisiana Monday, July 12, 1943

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, A nice letter came from you today, Mom, written Friday the 9th so you are back home again and it doesn’t take long to get back to the same old routine does it. It’s always nice to get back home though. Yesterday I noticed Jimmie had a big jaw tooth and it is all the way through. That makes his 8th tooth and probably also explains why he hadn’t been eating good. He ate a lot today though and slept so good because it was rainy and nice and cool. I haven’t heard from Jim for several days now but sent him a box of pralines today and a large book of stamps. Mom, I’m so glad you saw Uncle Carl. I have always liked him so much and I bet he was glad to see you because I imagine he gets kind of lonesome there all by himself. Did he say anything about Hilda joining him soon? Today I had to go downtown so left Jimmie with the lady upstairs. I got caught in the rain and had a dress on that shrinks up if it gets wet. I was hurrying around in the rain and pretty soon my dress was way above my knee and looked terrible. I was right in front of a dress shop that was having a sale on cotton dresses so I went in and found a real cute one for 2.98 and wore it to finish my shopping. That’s one good way of getting a new dress anyway. I quit taking my laundry to that colored woman because she charged me way too much. I suppose Annie told her I would pay whatever she asked. I’ve been doing practically all the washing myself and don’t mind it at all. I have a good scrub board and think it is kind of fun and scrubbing is much easier than rubbing. I washed sheets the other day but that’s pretty hard so this week I took the sheets and Elmer’s khakis (work pants) to the laundry. The Jews have moved to their new home and invite us to go out all the time but I can’t get Elmer to go out there because he doesn’t like them. I’ll take Jimmie out sometime during the day. Before we leave here we want to go to New Orleans. Everyone says you shouldn’t miss it and everyone from the North tries to get down there before they are transferred. There is an old French section of the town that is supposed to be interesting but the only trouble is it is practically impossible to get a hotel room but I still want to go. Well Folks I want to be in bed by ten o’clock tonight and take advantage of a cool night. Goodnight Folks and I’ll write more later. Love, Helen