712 2/20/1942 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 582 Newburyport, Massachusetts Friday, February 20, 1942

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Plum Island Dear Folks, I had a nice long letter from you yesterday and as always so glad to hear from you. It was nice hearing from you too, Pop. We had two really swell days here, day before yesterday and yesterday. Yesterday I took pictures of our cottage and the basin and then went over to Ducret’s. Both Doris and George Ducret are so nice and the four of us get along swell together. Yesterday afternoon Doris and I were having a cup of cocoa and George and Elmer came in because where they were working it had been snowing and they can’t work in wet weather because they have to write notes all the time and the paper gets wet so Doris made them each a cup of cocoa and then they went out to the cottage in back where their office is to work. I believe I told you they work on the Island but they don’t except the office work. The land they are surveying is all around here but not on the Island, so when Elmer is surveying he doesn’t come home for lunch but when he is down at the cottage working he does. Last night the wind came up again and was terribly strong. I was awake most of the night because I had to go and didn’t want to come downstairs and go outside. Elmer said I was crazy not to use one of the pots up there so this morning I got one out and brought it down and am going to clean it out good and have that to use at night. I have had a good ambitious streak today in spite of the lack of sleep last night so washed out quite a few clothes and have them out on the line now. They are frozen stiff but after they blow a while they unfreeze and then get dry. I just warmed up some coffee and drank some and wished you were here to have some with me. Sunday I am having Ducrets over for dinner and guess I will get a chicken and fix a good dinner because we have eaten over there so much and whenever I go over in the afternoon Doris always fixes us a lunch. She said I shouldn’t have them over for dinner because there are so many of them with their three boys, but if everything will only taste all right it will be fun. Mary, the woman next door, isn’t mad at me I guess because she came over the other afternoon to visit. She is nice but I don’t care to see too much of her because her kids are such a nuisance and when she comes in the house they do too and they could get into anything they wanted to and she wouldn’t tell them to stop. Wednesday Mr. Blakely, our landlord, came over and spent the evening. He lives all by himself in town and is evidently kind of lonesome because one night he’ll go over and see Ducrets and the next night come over here. We have storm windows on the cottage but no storm doors, at least we didn’t have, but he just had some made for the front and back doors and it certainly keeps the draft out much better now when the wind blows. He has been swell about doing things around here for us. The baby things you are sending will be very much appreciated but I don’t want you to spend any money now on buying things because you do too much. In March I am going to get everything lined up and leave nothing to the last minute. I hate to buy a baby basket because they outgrow them so soon but I can’t buy a bed since we wouldn’t have room to move it. I don’t know yet what we will do when the baby is too big for the basket but will just have to wait and see. Mrs. Ducret will be a big help all right and since she has three of them she should be able to tell me anything I want to know. My doctor is about forty years old and is awfully nice. I think it helps to like the doctor you are going to don’t you? We had a letter from Bob one day this week and he is still in Fort Dix but still says they may be sent away any time so I always try to get his letters answered right away. The war is certainly terrible. You can’t help but feel sorry for those Japs out there who have been born there and lived there all their lives. I wonder where they will be sent. It will be hard for them to give up their homes and everything. The Ducrets are from new Hampshire but this is the first time they have been anywhere near their homes. They are about three hundred miles from there now. The New Hampshire state line is only four or five miles from where we are though and then the Maine state line is just a few miles farther so we want to get into both of these states before we leave here since they are so close. The night Mr. Blakely was over he said in the summertime here on the Island there are so many people that there are two traffic cops here all the time directing traffic. He said this is really a busy little place and like a little summer town because there is everything here. He said even though the war is on he thinks there will still be lots of people here because so many family people come down for the summer and other people who usually go farther away for their vacations will come here instead to save their cars and money. By the way, we had a big cut in our spare tire and the tire was real good so we took it to the garage to have it vulcanized. They couldn’t do it in Newburyport so sent it to Haverhill, a neighboring town to have it fixed. We were supposed to be able to get it this coming Saturday but last night read in the paper how a big garage in Haverhill had burned down and 1500 tires that were there to be recapped and fixed were all destroyed. We don’t know yet if our tire was one of them or not and if it was we will be in a bad spot but I’ll have to know it wasn’t burned or ruined. Mom, I don’t know if your typewriter ribbon would fit this typewriter or not. I don’t know how they come. This typewriter is a portable too and is a Remington. You could send me the ribbon and if it didn’t fit I could send it back. If you are sure you won’t need it send it and I will pay you for it. I liked the book, “How Green Was My Valley”, and then we went to see the show and I liked the show better. Doris and I both like to read so we exchange magazines and books so I am kept pretty well supplied. Elmer and I have to flip a coin one of these nights to see who gets to name the baby if it is a boy. He wants to name it Robert James, after his brother and Jim, and of course I want to name it James Robert. The only way we could settle it was to decide to flip a coin and see who wins. The other night we did it but not to count, and I won then so hope I do when it really counts. When I think of little Bernice and Ruthie I hope it is a girl so won’t be disappointed at all which ever it is. There are no rocks along here by the ocean except there is a small jetty built out a little ways of rocks and the waves really beat against that. The other day when I came from town I drove over to the other half of the Island where I said it wasn’t populated and there is a big hill there above the ocean and the waves splashing along there high too. Although it is awfully windy today I can’t see any breakers at all from here so I guess the wind is blowing in the wrong direction to make the water rough. We certainly wish too that you could come here in April mother. We would like to send you money to come but one drawback is that we might have to move right after I get home from the hospital and never knowing when we will have to leave makes it kind of mean. If we are here this summer we will certainly help you to get out here. I would love to have you and I know you would love it here too. I wish you could come in the spring and stay as long as we are here. We would go into Boston and see the church and everything. I remember when the cat got in our icebox in Minneapolis, Pop. Was that our cat, or a stray one. I hate cats so much and Elmer said someone in our family must like them if we had one in Minneapolis but I told him it wasn’t ours. Well Folks, I guess I will sleep for awhile now. I like it better when Elmer doesn’t come home for lunch because then I don’t have to wonder what to have and don’t have to bother fixing it. I make his lunch for him to take though in the morning, when he is going to be working outside. I’ll stop for now and will write more later. Love, Helen I had Florence send me my nice blanket that I had left there and it sure does keep us warm these cold nights.