183 9/18/1948 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 4008 Randall Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minneapolis 16, Minnesota Saturday, September 18, 1948

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks: Your nice long letter came today. It certainly was a good letter telling me about lots of things. Pop, was it hard to shave after Trail Days were over. It must have been nice though while it lasted not to have to bother shaving. I am so awfully glad you folks have a new truck. You liked your other one so much, Pop, I hated to see you part with it. Is your new one a 1948 and do you like it as much as the other one? You really need a truck all right. I'm glad Ruth got to go on one trip with Jim to Yakima. They must have been tired the next day. Mother I think you need me to come out there and get you caught up on your housework and washing and ironing. I certainly think as long as you are so busy at the store and it takes so much of your time that you shouldn't even consider doing things like canning. Give up doing all the work you used to do before you had the store. Now with just the two of you, you don't have to can. It is wonderful to have but you can buy good canned peaches too and it isn't worth all the trouble to try and squeeze in canning anything. You also should send out all Papa's shirts and your sheets and towels and everything you can to the laundry. Why don't you try it. I have had to use the laundry for eight years, until we came here, and they don't ruin your clothes. Why if you had the main part of your washing and ironing done for you it would make a big difference. I wish you would do that. And for heaven's sake don't can a single thing more. I don't do any canning and I bet in some years to come it will be unheard of because it is so much work and now you can buy such good stuff. Of course, if you save a lot of money, it is worth it but in my case I wouldn't as long as I have to pay a lot to get the stuff in the first place. Next year I may have a small garden though. Don't you do it any more anyway. It was too bad Hilda and Carl showed up when you were so far behind in everything and so busy. It isn't good to surprise people and I am glad you were able to find them a tourist cabin, Pop. I can imagine how Stella felt when she heard the fire was at the store. That was certainly some excitement. I will call Leila in a few days to see if Mrs. Ellsworth is there. Poor thing, I hate to think of her living with Leila but I will see her often when she comes. I bet she will be staying in the house most of the winter if she isn't very well now. Maybe she would like to stay with me off and on. She is a wonderful person and I have always thought so much of her. For the last week we have been having 95 degree weather but we know the cold, cold winter will be showing up before long so nobody seems to mind this. Last night Elmer and I went to the night football game at the ball park and saw North High play West. We enjoyed it a lot and it was so nice out, in fact still in the high 90's, that we walked from Nicollet after the game up to Hennepin and Lake. Our car was on the bum again so we had taken the bus and streetcar to the game. Elmer fixed the car today, though. It was the gas line that was plugged up this time. Elmer is taking all next week off as his vacation and he plans to do a lot of work around the house. Then next weekend we would like to get a cabin not too far away and do a little fishing. Remember when Grandma Carlson's brother died I told you how his wife didn't want Grandma to go to the funeral or be seen around there because Lil, (the brother's wife) was so ashamed of her. Anyway, Grandma Carlson has always remembered that and resented it very much. Well after the funeral Lil left town and has been travelling all over the country and just came back a few days ago so Nellie invited her over for lunch yesterday and also had Grandma and me. Grandma acted just terrible but Nellie and I had to laugh about it later. Grandma was going to get even with Lil. Lil had told us she couldn't bear to think of the funeral or Nels so Grandma started in. She told about the pretty new rug she was making but she said it looked just like a coffin. Then Grandma said she used to have a brother but she doesn't have a brother any more and she kept it up the whole time Lil was there. She also asked Lil how old she was but Lil said she wasn't telling her age any more. She is around Grandma's age but she wears her hair nice and nice clothes and nice big car to drive around in and she would probably like another man, but anyway Grandma kept getting in cracks about her age. I couldn't feel sorry for Lil because she is a terrible snooty person, although she and I get along just fine. She probably just feels like I do toward Grandma and Mr. C. Grandma Carlson had a good time anyway, but Nellie was the one who suffered because she thinks Lil is so important and here her mother acted bad and her little girl also acted naughty the whole time so Nellie didn't enjoy any of it very much. Tonight we are invited over to George's house so I am glad Elmer was able to get the car fixed. I have to get supper on right away and the kids have to have a bath and on Saturday night we always make fudge and play cards so I still want to get all that in before we go so will have to get things rolling along pretty early. I saw Edna Dahlstrom in the store the other day and talked to her for a while. We are going to try to get together real soon. Mary and I had a good time downtown the other morning but we didn't meet Elmer for lunch as we had thought we would because I didn't know if we would stay down that long or not. Well Folks, I had better stop for now but I'll be thinking about you and I hope you'll write and say you have tried out the laundry, mother. With Love, Helen