716 3/1/1942 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 582 Newburyport, Massachusetts Sunday, March 01, 1942

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Plum Island Dear Folks, Well today is the first of March so now I can say that the baby is due next month. In about seven weeks is the time so when you can start counting the weeks it doesn’t sound very far off. I just can’t imagine a baby here but it sure will be fun to have. I finally decided on ordering a bassinette. I ordered a large size that is supposed to be good from 6 months to a year. It was so hard to know just what to get because I have to plan on getting it in the car. By the gasoline shortage here though we may not be able to use our car for traveling because in the paper today it said by the first of May we would only be able to get ten gallons of gas or less a week so we couldn’t travel very far on that. The fuel is also terribly short. We have a 50 gallon oil tank which lasts a week or eight days. When he came to fill it the other day it was practically empty and I wasn’t home when he came but he had only given me twenty five gallons. He came back the next day though and filled it full. He said the day before he hadn’t had enough fuel oil to fill it but had more the next day so he came back. Today was a beautiful spring day out and we went for a nice ride along the coast here. I just love it here on Plum Island and more than ever when the days are nice like today was. I just realized today that our cottage is a good deal like Glad and Cully’s cabin. Where their dining room is I have my kitchen which is one complete room and then the rest is all one room shaped like theirs. I have my dining room where their kitchen is. I finished taking my roll of film today and as soon as I get it developed I will send you a copy and I hope they all turn out good. I wished so much today that you folks could come here because it was so nice out and there were so many people down here at the Island and a hot dog stand was open and lots of people around. Yesterday when we went into town to get the groceries I was able to get some more smelts and they were 19 cents a pound. They certainly are good and we like them a lot. Well Folks, we are going to bed now so will stop but wanted to get this much written anyway so Elmer could mail it in the morning and I will write more tomorrow. With Love, Helen