715 2/28/1942 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 582 Newburyport, Massachusetts Saturday, February 28, 1942

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, We just finished eating lunch and Elmer and George Ducret are going into town in a little while to do our shopping for us so I will hurry and write to you so this can get mailed today. Elmer brought me a nice letter from you. I save the plain sheets of paper you send around your letters and will use them. This morning the ground was covered with snow and it snowed for quite a while this morning and it looked so pretty but now the sun is out and it is so nice and warm out so the snow won’t last long. In fact, it is practically gone now. The box came yesterday and I am so glad to have all those things. The little pillow and pillow cases are lovely and all those blankets will be swell to have and also the things to wrap around its stomach. Those little jackets are cute as can be and I am so glad to have everything. Elmer has to pay 41 cents for haircuts here which is plenty high enough but the 65 cents that you have to pay out there is just terrible. I bet those Columbia River smelts did taste awfully good. We can’t get them any more here now because I guess the season is closed for catching them. We surely like them and I wish I could get some more. It would be nice if Glad and Cully got to go to California. It looks as though the Black Hawks have a good chance of getting in the playoffs. I’ll be sorry if the kids don’t get to come and see us because I would love to have them come but I haven’t planned too much on it because I know how indefinite everything is. It surely would be swell if you could come back with them in the fall mother. I wish you could come this summer too because it will really be nice here them. Pop, you asked about the work here, if there was much of it or not. There is an awful lot of work to be done here but sometimes they decide another job is more important and want to get that finished and sometimes they don’t have enough money to finish one job but have money for some other job. Right now there is a big job in Virginia to be done and we are all holding our breaths that we won’t be sent down there. Neither Ducrets or us want to move from the Island. Then Lee, who lived with us in Maryland, has been working out of the Minneapolis region, but he just quit, and since that is Elmer’s original region there is a good chance of them needing Elmer there now. We certainly hope not though. At least I don’t want to go to Minneapolis at all but of course it would be nice for Elmer to go for awhile anyway and see his folks. We wouldn’t be in Minneapolis very long anyway but I like it so well here on the Island that I don’t want to go any place else. It gets light here about 7:30 in the morning too, the new time. The ocean has been so calm the last few days. Yesterday afternoon Doris and I walked over to the beach, we didn’t walk because I had the car, but we rode over and looked at the water and it didn’t have a wave in it. It was such a nice day out that we drove over to the other part of the Island and looked around but the only thing that is on the other half of the Island is a lot of sand hills and a few cottages but no one living there now. I guess the ocean up this far north is pretty cold all the time too. At least Mary, the girl next door, said it was like ice so she always did her swimming in the basin, right in back of us. I am going to have baked beans for supper tonight and have them in the oven now and they smell good. I had planned to have them last Saturday but when Bob came I forgot about them being in the oven and when finally I remembered them they were burned black and as hard as stones so we had to eat eggs for supper. I had chicken for Sunday dinner though so Bob got one decent meal. Well Folks, I will have to stop for now because Elmer will be going pretty soon and thanks just an awful lot for sending me all those things for the baby. It is so nice out I might go into town too. Love, Helen