193 11/30/1948 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 4008 Randall Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minneapolis 16, Minnesota Tuesday, November 30, 1948

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, A nice letter came from you today. Elmer is working again tonight. He worked every night last week except Thursday night which was Thanksgiving and all day Saturday and will work every night this week. He is working on a building that has to be finished this week. He wasn't put on this particular job to begin with but the other engineer on it turned out to be an alcoholic and is off on his spree. His wife called the office one day to see if he had been coming to work because she didn't know where he was and she told them he was an alcoholic. Elmer's boss must be a very nice man because he wants to find this fellow because he said he wanted to help him. One of the days during the spree this fellow came up to the office to get his check. He was with another fellow who said he was a member of the Alcoholics Anonymous but this other fellow was just as drunk as the first one. Yes Elmer gets paid for his over-time so he brings home nice checks but now we have to buy oil every other month and that costs 28 dollars every time they bring oil. Our weather is staying between 25 and 30 and Lake of the Isles has a thin crust of ice on it and the warming house is up already. We still don't have a great deal of snow but the ground is still covered. This last Sunday we started plenty early for Sunday school but by the time I got out to the car and scraped the ice off the windshield and back windows and got the car started we just barely made it in time. I see Rose every Sunday and usually drive her up to Lake and Hennepin to eat. She is going to try and get over here during Christmas time. I saw Frances Woodfill this last Sunday. I have been getting there very regularly so far but will probably have to miss quite a lot this winter on account of the car as it just doesn't like to start good in cold weather. I know you must have had a good Thanksgiving dinner. I can just imagine how darling little Gary is and I certainly am anxious to see him. Oh, say, I want to call you up either Christmas Eve or Day or sometime during the holidays. You tell me when a good time will be and then I'll let you know ahead of time when I will call. I probably would have an awful time getting a call through but would like to try anyway. Say, if you want to send Elmer a shirt for Christmas like you mentioned, that would be just wonderful. He is just about completely out of shirts and the ones he is wearing are all old and I plan to buy him four or five new ones for Christmas because he just has to quit wearing any of his old ones to work. As for furniture for Mary's doll house, I haven't bought any yet as I figured I could always get it the last minute but I'll tell you, I'll buy the main pieces for each room and you could send her some of the extra pieces if you want to. That would be just swell, and if you are wondering what to buy Jimmy, a book, game, puzzle or anything like that would be very much liked. I know everything you look at costs a lot but keep it down. Oh yes, Carlsons sold their house last night so are getting out January 2nd. Their new house is supposed to be livable then but not finished. I don't even see how it will be finished enough to live in then either because I don't think the heat is even in yet. Well I just hate to have them move next to me but Elmer just never sees them so maybe we won't see them anymore when they live close to us. I know your two brown chairs will look just lovely. That price is very, very reasonable and those chairs will be nicer than any you could buy. It is almost impossible to get really good furniture now. Your house will look very nice with your new curtains too. Wally's new job is insurance too. He is going into business with a man who is a friend of Mr. Pope. This man is in his 80's and has been in the business a long time and he wants Wally to carry on for him. It sounds like a very good opportunity. We had a nice Thanksgiving at the Ducrets. We all ate a lot. Going over to Doris' house reminds me of our traveling days, because their house is furnished with the bare necessities and trunks around and everything. If we are still here when Jimmy has his seventh birthday in April it will be the first time he has ever spent two birthdays in the same place. Next Tuesday is Nellie's birthday so I am having her and Mrs. C. and Eden over for lunch. The only reason I am is because Nellie is awfully nice and we don't see each other very much. Even though we do live next door. I'm having a Christmas party for Jimmy and Mary the 18th which is on a Saturday. Just think, only eight mothers and 19 children. I'm going to be Santa Claus and the party will be in the basement. I'm going to make a bunch of Christmas cookies and have orange pop for the kids, and I think that will be plenty because I will have a lot of popcorn and candy canes. George Ducret is loaning me his red pajama trousers but they can't find the tops so he gave me a big roll of red material he uses for surveying and I am going to make the tops. I'll wear Elmer's snow boots and trim the suit in white cotton. I hope the party goes over good. Did I tell you that Agnes invited us over for turkey dinner Thanksgiving. I thought it was awfully nice of her. She said her mother is getting along much better but still ailing. Marian Bohm, the girl from Oak Ridge, called today and invited me over this coming Thursday. Jimmy will go home from school with Norma Jean. They just live a block from the school. I've been doing a lot of painting. I painted the inside of my cupboards yesterday, a bright yellow. Can you imagine that with a red and white kitchen? It looks just swell though and an architect from work said yellow was the only thing to use so I took his advice. Now tonight if I get the kids into bed early enough I want to start on our bedroom. There is no paint on the walls in that room at all except all the woodwork is painted. We had intended to paper but we just put off buying the paper so I thought as long as we already have all this paint down in the basement I might just as well paint and we can always paper over it if we should decide to. I bought my green coloring today and I mix that in white paint until I get the color I want. Before I write again I will change the ribbon on this typewriter. It is awful. Well Jim and Mary are at it again so I'll have to stop and get them off to bed. More later Folks. With Love, Helen Later: While I was writing to you I decided the temperature must be dropping fast because my legs began to feel awfully cold. I went in the hallway to turn up the thermometer and saw the heat had dropped down to 65 and it was set for 75. I went down and looked in the oil burner and it is out. I called Elmer and he is coming home to see what he can do. In the meantime I found some wood so built a fire in the fireplace. I must order more wood or coal tomorrow because we do like to have a fire on Sunday nights at least and now I see we really should have it for emergency too. This last Sunday night we had fun. For our supper we turned all the lights out and just had the fire in the fireplace and roasted wieners and marshmallows. The kids had a wonderful time. After eating we played cards with them until bedtime. Jimmy will have to sleep downstairs tonight as I've closed the door going upstairs since the heat is off so it will get too cold up there. I leave that door open all the time ordinarily and so far it is almost as warm up there as downstairs. I tried to get heat put up there this fall but all the heating places are so busy I couldn't get a man out here. Will let it go now for this winter and maybe we won't even need it.