720 3/9/1942 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 582 Newburyport, Massachusetts Monday, March 09, 1942

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, It is another rainy day out today and disagreeable too because a wind is blowing so the rain just blows all over. It isn’t cold out though. Today my bassinette came and it looks real nice and I am sure it is quite a bit larger than the one Stella has and I hope so because then I will be able to use it for quite awhile. I don’t know if I am supposed to line it or not. There are spaces along the top edge to wind a ribbon back and forth and the catalogue didn’t say anything about a lining so I don’t know. It looks alright without a lining but it just depends on if there is supposed to be one there for the baby or not. What do you think I should do? I had a nice letter from Glad today and she said Cully wouldn’t be playing tomorrow night so we won’t be going in. Cully certainly is having a tough time getting his knee back in shape. She said maybe he won’t be able to play any more this season. She said that Ruthie sings now and I bet she sounds so cute. Ruthie sings and Bernice can dance so I wonder what Sandra and mine will do. My bassinette has a movable hood on it like on a buggy and it is on a stand and has little rubber wheels so it will be easy to move around. I guess I told you I also got the mattress with it. It isn’t a regular mattress but a pad filled with something. Tomorrow or Wednesday I go into the doctor again and shouldn’t have to go for much longer. I had another letter from you yesterday and tell Stella I certainly will be glad to have that Baby book. It is nice to have one I think. You and Stella are certainly saving me a lot of money by sending me so many things and then it is hard to know just what things to buy too so I really appreciate everything you are doing for me. I bet you enjoyed Mrs. Swain’s visit, Mother. Too bad she couldn’t have stayed longer. I hope Mrs. Martel didn’t make her visit too long because it is hard for you to have company right there over the weekend but she should be able to understand that, but even so it will mean a lot of extra work for you too. I hope you had a nice time at Aunt Lillie’s. I suppose you drove in and I hope you got along fine but you are a good driver so I am sure you did. Saturday night we were over to Ducret’s again. Mr. and Mrs. Walker who are the owners of Ducret’s cottage were there too. They live in the cottage next to Ducret’s and have been coming down weekends to fix their place up and intend to move down to stay in a couple of weeks. They are in their sixties and are awfully nice. They have a big cottage and serve meals and rent out rooms during the summer. Tomorrow Elmer is going to start working in Salem for two or three days. He will be working in the courthouse looking up some deeds and things and will take the train back and forth. He’ll drive the station wagon into Newburyport and leave it there and catch the train for Salem. The government can’t get any more tires for the station wagons now so they are trying to figure out a way that horses can be used for field work instead of driving the cars. Things are certainly getting bad aren’t they? If only Jim can stay out of it though nothing will seem so very bad. The mist down by the ocean has lifted enough now so that I can see the breakers and they look big again today. I haven’t even swept the floor today because the sand is wet so sticks to our shoes and it wouldn’t do any good to sweep. Elmer is working down at the office today so was home for lunch and just left a couple of minutes ago and he has been back and forth different times. He expects to be back pretty soon because they haven’t much more work to do in the office. He really has an easy job up here and Bob said he thought Elmer must have lost all of his ambition to keep it but he gets paid pretty good and he kind of hates to quit a job right now. It really does seem awful that the government pays out money to have land surveyed just for fish and wildlife, but of course now with the war they might have to cut it all out. They won’t be buying any more land now but there is still a lot of land to be worked on that they already have. The schools in all the towns around here close every time the weather is the least bit bad. They are closed again today and then every six weeks they close for a whole week so I don’t see how the kids get in all the time they are supposed to. My pictures are still in town but I’ll send them as soon as I get them but forgot to have Elmer pick them up when he was in after the mail. Our landlord, Mr. Blakey, was over Saturday and stayed for most of the afternoon. Did I tell you that his girlfriend is married and her husband works nights in Maine, just a few miles from here, but he sees her all the time. It seems funny to be so close to Maine. We are going to be sure and drive over there while we are here. Elmer and George rode over to New Hampshire this morning which is only four miles to the first town. The Life Magazine for this month was banned in the state of Mass. because it had some artist’s models in it that this state didn’t approve of. George Ducret was anxious to see the magazine when he heard about it so they went over to New Hampshire to get one. They went in the drugstore and asked for one and the clerk laughed and said he was completely sold out and could have sold 500 of them to people from Mass. just because they thought they were missing something. He said it seemed like good advertising to him. Elmer has an old brown suit that he has had for years and the seat is all worn out and is beyond fixing but the legs are perfectly good so I ripped it up yesterday and am going to make a skirt out of it for me. There is plenty of material for a skirt and Mrs. Walker has a sewing machine and said I could use it all I wanted so I will feel pretty good if I can get a skirt made to look all right. It is getting so black out that I am glad Elmer is just down here at the office. It looks like we are in for a good storm. You would never believe it the way I sleep through these wind storms though. I just seem to have gotten completely over being afraid of the wind. My beans I had Saturday turned out just right this time. It is nice having them every Saturday. Remember you used to always have bean soup on Saturday night. Gosh but the waves look big. If it wasn’t raining out I would walk down to the beach. This cottage has stood up during one hurricane so I guess it will through another one. It has gotten so dark out and the clouds are so low that it looks like anything could happen. Well Folks, I will stop for now and will add a line on in the morning before Elmer goes to work. With Love, Helen 6:00 P.M. Dear Folks, I just finished the supper dishes and will add on a note now because I have to drive Elmer into town in a few minutes so he can pick up his station wagon which is in the garage. We didn’t have a storm after all, the sun came out and it stopped raining and it is real nice out now. I will mail this tonight now since I will be going into town. Love, Helen