722 3/16/1942 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 582 Newburyport, Massachusetts Monday, March 16, 1942

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Plum Island Dear Folks, I just finished the supper dishes so will write to you now. I had a nice letter from you today, mailed Friday the 13th. You wondered if I would get it Sunday or Monday. I think I would have gotten it Sunday, but we didn’t go into town at all so Elmer brought it home tonight. I had a nice letter from Jim today too. Saturday night we had another big snowstorm and this time the snow really piled up. It was supposed to be the most snow they had had here all winter. We went over to Ducret’s Saturday night and they had some other people over there too and by the time to come home we could just get here because the snow was so deep and of course hadn’t been plowed. It snowed all night and so was an awful lot on the ground Sunday but the sun came out nice and warm around noon so it is all gone now. The main road on the Island is kept plowed but we have to turn off to drive down to our cottage and it was really deep here. Jim and the boys seem to be getting along swell with their housekeeping. I am glad they like it so much and it will make the term go much faster. I hope Jim will still get a lot of studying done. He said he was trying to reduce but I hope he won’t do that because he certainly isn’t too fat at all. I bet little Bernice loves her skates and it is so hard to imagine her big enough to have them. I remember my first pair of skates. Pop brought them home one night when we were in St. Paul and I tried to skate on the sidewalk by the side of the house there. I will remember about washing woolens in lukewarm water with ivory soap. I would hate to spoil anything I have. It was real nice today and I could have the living room stove off this afternoon. I think it will be stormy or windy tomorrow though because we can hear the buoy so clearly tonight and it seems whenever we hear it that the weather is bad the next day. I suppose because the wind is coming from that certain direction. We haven’t had any bad winds for quite a few days now and it does seem nice when it doesn’t blow. So Ed Smith expects to quit too. What will he be doing in the shipyards I wonder. I am glad you have always gotten along all right with Cliff, Pop. Isn’t it a shame about Cully’s knee though. He was going so good and then this had to happen but it could have been a lot worse so maybe it is just as well he is through for this season. I wonder if they will be playing next year again. I think Ruthie and Bernice will have a lot of fun this summer together because Ruthie is older now and Ruthie just loves to play. I’ll never forget how she loved to go outside in Chicago and she would run down the sidewalk and was so tiny that everyone stopped and looked at her. I have wondered too about Teddy Matz when I hear about all those oil tankers going down. I sure hope he is all right but if he isn’t maybe Mary doesn’t even know it but I should think they would tell the parents right away and maybe they do all right. I think it is awful that your watch is still at the jewelers. I bet he would lose all his business if anyone came there besides ___ and gave him some competition. We told Blakey about the rain coming in the window but I don’t know how soon it will get fixed. He has been good about doing things though. Tomorrow if it is a nice day Doris and I are going into town. I’m going to stop at Blakey’s girfriend’s house on the way home and invite them over some night this week since we had such a nice time over there. I would like to keep on the good side of Blakey anyway so he’ll keep on doing things around here when we ask him to. The outhouse needs moving or something and he has promised to do something about it because it is getting pretty full. Well Folks, I will stop for now again. Tell Stella I wrote to her Friday but sent it plain mail so maybe she hasn’t gotten it yet. Love, Helen