79 7/29/1946 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson Box 281, Sparta Pike, Lebanon, Tennessee Monday, July 29, 1946

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, I'm out of paper so will have to use scraps that Mary and Jimmie have written on. I had a nice letter from you today, also one a few days ago with the pictures of Jim. I think Jim looks real good, although he is quite thin it looks like. Your car surely looks nice. Has it stopped using so much oil since you had it worked on? I had the cutest letter from little Bernice the other day with so much news in it. Is Mrs. Jacobs really living at Stella's now and if so, how did that come about. Bernice said Houstie broke his back. How is he getting along? Your business certainly is going along fine. How much are oranges. I was going to buy some today and they were up to one dollar a dozen so I didn't buy any. The other day I noticed that one of Mary's front upper teeth looked darker than the others so I took her to the dentist today and the nerve is dead and the tooth is turning black and she won't lose that tooth until she is seven or eight. She has fallen down now and then and cut her lip so I suppose she bumped her tooth real hard one of those times. I felt awful about it at first but Mrs. Ellis, the store lady, showed me her front tooth which was only slightly discolored and she said the nerve in it had been dead for over thirty years. Don't feel sorry for Mrs. Jackson's baby as she is good to her and the new husband is too. The other children are very happy with their grandmother. Glad certainly does have a lot of company. All of you are very busy people. We went for a pretty ride Sunday around some hilly country with winding roads and I could almost picture it as the mountains, although it took a lot of imagination. We stopped in a little town and bought cones and popcorn and ate in the car watching the Negroes. One Negro woman was drunk so was very amusing to watch. There was a white Negro too. A young girl, with hair about the shade of mine who could hardly be distinguished from a white person. Did you read the article in this week's Post (as if you had time) about the couple who had a grocery store and the black market trouble. Did Bernice get her red bicycle? Does Sandy have something to ride on? I'm reading a book on philosophy which is very interesting and have also started the book of Chaucer so have a lot of reading to do after Mary and Jimmie get into bed. Jimmie dusts the furniture for me every morning now for two pennies and does a good job. At the library they both pick out their own books and take them to the librarian to check out. Mary likes the ones she picks out so much she never wants to have them taken back. She had one book about Little Lulu and now we have to call her that. She says her name isn't Mary anymore. Well Folks I had better stop for now and thanks for the picture. Did you get the shirt. Love, Helen