65 4/20/1945 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 382 Robertsville Road, Oak Ridge, Tennessee Friday, April 20, 1945

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Jimmie's birthday present came on the day of his birthday and I think the book is wonderful and Jimmie loves it. I enjoy the stories as much as he does and the author sounds like a Christian Scientist. I am so glad I didn't read the book I bought him. The one you sent is a lovely book and Jimmie takes very good care of his books now. He has a special place to keep them and he is always so careful to always put them back so Mary won't get them. He likes to lie down on the floor and look at them but first he always asks if Mary is going to be down on the floor. I read the Bible stories to him every night before he goes to bed. That book certainly is written for children all right. The birthday card is such a cute one and I keep all the cards to put in their scrap book. I didn't get a birthday cake made but bought a sponge cake and frosted it and had candles on it. I had Doug and Billy, the little boy across the street, come over after supper for ice cream and cake. Mrs. Brown came over today and brought me a pound of margarine. It was the first I had had in ages. Someone had brought her two pounds from Knoxville and I thought it was so nice of her to give me one. Elmer is in the chess tournament now and doing fine. Last night Esther Dean and I went to the show and then met Elmer and Olney afterwards at the recreation hall in townsite where they are playing. Elmer said the tension is so awful in the tournament because they all try to think so hard that one fellow he was playing got so nervous he had to stop and read the newspaper for a few minutes. I got the little snowsuit you sent Mary back from the cleaners today and it looks swell. She will get a lot of wear out of it next winter. She has a wonderful time outside. She crawls all over the yard and always ends up under the house in front and stays there and plays. I have fixed up a swell place under there. I raked it and cleaned it all up and bought mosquito netting to put all around the section I fixed up to keep the flies out. I bought a folding gate to put at the entrance so Mary can't get out when I want to stay in the house. Jimmie has lots of trucks and cars under there and other toys so I built a garage to put them in every night so if it rains the toys won't get wet. They both love it under there. Doug brought a friend over the other day and when he saw the place he just hollered and said oh boy, and ran in and started playing too. My radishes and flowers and grass are all coming up. They don't seem to mind the stones at all so since things will grow I'm going to plant more. I have finished cleaning the kitchen and living rooms now. I did the ceilings too and the rooms look like they have been freshly painted. For the ceilings I use wall paper cleaner and it is wonderful. It just wipes the soot right off. It doesn't take off fingerprints so that's why I didn't use it for the walls for these two rooms but am going to for the bedrooms. I cleaned the living room rug and davenport and chair and they look brand new so I feel all this work is well worth it. When I am through housecleaning I will have so much time. I do a lot of the work at night so I won't get behind in my regular work during the day. I also have taken the mattresses outside and beat the dust out of them so have really been busy. The curtains I had in the bedrooms just fell apart in rags they were so rotted from the soot. They are curtains we had in Minneapolis, Mom, so I think they have served their purpose. On the back of the children's pictures I wrote their age and the date. Don't you think the two of them look a lot alike. Mary can hold an ice cream cone and eat hers first and then pester Jimmie for licks of his. He feeds her now at lunch time but it makes her laugh so hard it doesn't work out so good. Well Folks I guess I'll get ready for bed as it is after ten and thanks very, very much for the book. With Love, Helen