721 3/13/1942 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 582 Newburyport, Massachusetts Friday, March 13, 1942

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Plum Island Dear Folks, How do you like my new typewriter ribbon. It is the one you sent and it came yesterday and was just the kind for the machine and I am so glad to have it. The box of things you sent is just wonderful and my baby is practically clothed for a long time, thanks to you for all you have done. Mother did you make that one little kimono? I am so glad to have all of those things and I have so much now. Thanks just an awful lot. I had a nice long letter from you yesterday too. When you get two letters from me in one day do you miss a few days then in hearing from me. I hope not. I am glad you had such a nice time in Bryn Mawr with Aunt Lily. I bet the ride you took was nice and I think it is swell that you can drive all over like that. I bet though you were tired after the weekend was over with your extra work and I am glad Mrs. Martel’s visit worked out like it did. Did Stella buy a new bed for Bernice? Will Bernice go back to the little room now? I think Jim will like his new place too and it does sound as though it will be a lot cheaper. The kids will learn a lot by housekeeping and it will be fun too. I laughed about the boy who turned off the refrigerator at night to save electricity. They will probably do many crazy things like that at first. After our couple days of stormy weather we have been having wonderful spring weather and lots of people have moved down already. Now at night we see lights in several different cottages all around here and at first when we first came it was dark all over. This warm weather cuts our oil down so much and sometimes we can turn the stove off in the living room but usually have the burner turned down as low as it will go and still keep burning. I gave the house a good sweeping this morning so will take it easy for a little while now because when I bend too much I get kind of a catch in my back but after resting awhile it goes away. I should wash out several things but won’t if I don’t want to. I am sending you these three pictures. One is of our cottage, the back of it, and the other two are of the basin right in back of our cottage. I don’t know what that mark in the one picture is but something must have in the camera. Some of my pictures were blurred so I will just send these and when I get more good ones I will send you those too. That little dog on our steps lives in one of the cottages in back of us. We saw in the paper that Cully was through for the season and that he would probably be having an operation on his knee. That certainly is a shame and I bet he does feel awful about not being able to play. Those players certainly do get hurt a lot and I think it will be nice when he is out of it for good. I wonder what the kids will be doing this spring. I know along here that the gas is going to be rationed real soon so I hope we won’t have to move because it will be impossible to get very far a day with only so much gas. This war is terrible isn’t it. I had a letter yesterday from Helen Koenig, this girl I liked so well in Laurel. Her husband is an officer in the army and she said she is living with his folks in Pittsburgh now because he was sent out of the country and she is expecting a baby in July. She said it is a terrible thing to have your husband have to leave. She likes his folks, and it is a good thing because she doesn’t have any of her own. It will be nice if you get your garden, Mother, like you want to. I would like to have a garden but guess I can’t get anything to grown in this sand. I know I will be able to get someone if I want someone to come and help me but I will wait and see. I have been thinking if I send all my regular laundry out each week I may not need anyone because the housework around here isn’t much at all and I don’t think there would be much to do for someone here. I may be surprised though how much extra work a baby makes. During my stay in the hospital they will teach me how to bath the baby and change it and all about it and I am so glad they do that here because I don’t know much about it. I have never bathed a baby so will be glad to be shown how it is done. I noticed in the catalogue that I could order an inside padding for the bassinette so am going to order one today. I tried to buy some lining like Stella got for hers but none of the stores in Newburyport had anything like it. The bassinette is 29 inches long and 15 inches wide. Mother I hate to have you make me sheets because you do so much as it is and that is all extra work. Elmer will send you a telegram when the baby is born so you will know right away. I haven’t been able to go to the doctor because he is on a vacation but will be back the 20th of this month. Pop, I wish you could see the breakers here sometimes on stormy days. I was thinking though if anybody came here on some stormy days to see the breakers they would be disappointed because even on stormy days if the wind isn’t blowing in the right direction the ocean will be as calm as can be. There won’t even be waves at the very shoreline. I wonder if Cliff takes anyone’s advice during those Monday night meetings when someone does have a good suggestion to make. I think Cliff is terrible. There aren’t many stones along the beach here like out there. Doris said they lived in Virginia at one time right down on the coast and there were lots of pretty shells and odd-shaped ones there but there aren’t here. It is strange how different it can be in different places. Our fish chowder we had over there was just delicious so I made it for supper last night and mine was real good too. It is just like clam chowder only instead of clams you boil a fish for about ten minutes which is enough to make it tender and then put that in the chowder. We like the fish chowder even better than clam chowder. The reason the cats around here don’t have ears or tails, and some don’t have eyes even, and they are all funny is because they have been interbred so many times that is what makes them that way. This one woman that has the twelve cats in her house owns all these funny ones and whenever they have kittens she keeps all of them too so she gets more cats all the time. Last Sunday the Ducrets and Elmer and I were standing down on the beach and a dog saw one of the cats and chased it up to this woman’s house. When she opened her door to chase the dog away the cats just swarmed out of her house and her yard was just full of them. I know if there was a humane society around they would make her get rid of them. Elmer won’t be working in Salem for awhile now because he is going to be surveying again for awhile and he will finish this work in the courthouse later. Tuesday night Mr. Blakey came over and wanted us to go over to his girlfriend’s with him. We didn’t especially care to go but he had driven all the way out after us so we went. We drove in our car and followed him so he wouldn’t have to drive us back again because Esther, his friend, lives in town. All our suspicions were all wrong because everything is above board there. Esther’s mother was over too and Mr. Blakey is just an old friend of the family. He knew Esther’s father and mother before they were even married. Esther has only been married since August and her husband works nights so Mr. Blakey, having nothing to do either, keeps her company. We had a nice evening. Blakey took the mother home around nine and then the four of us played cribbage and then Esther made a very nice lunch. Well Folks, I guess I will sleep for awhile and then this afternoon I want to answer a lot of letters. I want to get all caught up with my letter writing while I still have lots of time to write. Thanks again for sending all those things and for the ribbon too. With Love, Helen