194 12/10/1948 Verna Douglas to Sadie Erwin

Verna Douglas Route 2, Box 129, Swanville, Minnesota Friday, December 10, 1948

Sadie Erwin 1120 Cole St., Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Aunt Sadie & All, Christmas season is here again. We had our first below zero temperatures yesterday and today. We have a little snow. Seems unusual for us to have so little snow when the southern part of the state has had two heavy snow falls. We are all fine. Douglas had so-called chicken pox very lightly just before Thanksgiving. Only a few on his body and two on his face. He felt fine but of course kept him home a few days until the spots vanished. We are 45 miles from Brainerd. That is the nearest place where there is a Christian Science church. St. Cloud is 48 miles and Alexandria about the same. I see by my Sentinel that you had a lecture in Enumclaw in Sept., I believe. Mother has improved and much better than a year ago. She has been up and down in between times but seems to be on a steady gain now. She does most of her own work now, especially cooking, and Dad helps a lot with the other work. She fancies now that her ankles are weak and that she can't stand very long at a time, so she has a high kitchen stool on which she sits to mix her dishes for meals and ironing. But she looks very good and gains weight easily. She and Dad weigh about the same, 151 lbs., I believe. Dad has no pigs, about 100 chickens and a few cows. I think Herb said 6 head in all, and none will milk much until toward spring. Then he has the two horses. They have been hoping for electricity, R.E.A. to come by. Ellsworths have been wired over a year, but the folks haven't wired up yet. This past fall we went with Ruth, Eldred and their youngest boy on a weekend trip back to Garden City. Garden City has been building up quite a few new homes, otherwise I didn't note many changes since we were there. Aunt Nell and Aunt Minnie live there, of course, and aunt Fan's boy has a grocery store near where Shepard's Hotel used to be. I should say on the same street as the Christian Church. Aunt Minnie and Uncle Tommy were fine, uncle Len too. Aunt Nell broke her arm a year ago last fall, and she complained that the arm ached. I yearn to ask her if I could work for her in Truth, but she knows I am a Scientist and some how I felt she wouldn't care to have me do so. So I only try to keep knowing the truth about the only man there is, God's man. Aunt Fannie and uncle Giles are still on the farm a mile north of Vernon Center. I am to be auntie three times in this coming year. Frances and Ellsworth are hoping for a boy the latter part of January. Lois is expecting the first part of February and Fern in May. We have a niece and nephew in Herb's family who expect wedding bells to ring for them. Herb reads a lot in the Sentinels and Agnes has passed her monitors on to us, and he enjoys reading them. At least he says they have interesting reading and are not crime sheets like most of our newspapers today. I believe there would be less crime if so many crimes weren't advertised and given so much notice and detailed. We have our electricity as you know and this fall in September we got an electric range. We figure it costs us about $2.00 per month and we can't get any other kind of fuel for that. We are all very grateful for the past year and its blessings. Love to all. Verna Douglas is in the 2nd grade and does very well in school.