203 2/1/1949 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 4008 Randall Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minneapolis 16, Minnesota Tuesday, February 01, 1949

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks: Your nice long letter came with the two dollars. Thank you very, very much but you certainly shouldn't have sent me a thing. The Monitor is a wonderful present for both of us. It started coming two days after you told me you ordered it. Elmer thinks it is a swell paper and we both enjoy reading it. I think of a million different ways of spending the two dollars. I almost think, though, that I will buy my first sterling spoon with it. What is Stella's pattern? I want to decide on a pattern as soon as I can get downtown to look at them. Saturday night we had our party and everyone seemed to have a good time. By the time they were ready to go home it was 18 below so none of the cars would start, not even the brand new ones. Finally Bill got his old car going so he pushed Warnie and so on so they finally all got their cars started but then all came back in while the cars got warm inside. The temperature didn't get above 1 above today and is already 10 below now tonight and is supposed to drop to at least 20 below before morning but it is dropping so fast that I think it will be much colder. Yes, you are having a terrible winter for your part of the country. The hard winters are certainly doing a lot of damage in the parts of the country that aren't prepared for them. The floods will be another terrible thing. Jimmy woke up this morning with the mumps but, like Sandy, he feels just fine. I had to report it to the school nurse but she just said to keep him home about eight days or until the swelling had disappeared. I didn't know Ruth's birthday was the 26th of January or I would have sent her a card. How old is she now, 25? Or 24? How is the house-hunting coming along? Everything certainly is out of reason. Wish they could find a place to rent instead, at least for a while. I have a vacuum cleaner with all the attachments now, and I think it is just wonderful. It is a second hand one but I think it works perfectly. The salesman wanted to sell me a brand new one but I told him I wasn't ready to buy one right now so he sold me this tank-type Universal with the attachments for 10 dollars and said if I decided to buy one of his new ones within a year he would allow the full ten dollars on this old one. I think the attachments are wonderful things to have. I feel as though my house is clean now. It was just thick with dust from all the sweeping I did. Well Folks, this isn't a very long letter this time but I have clothes to sprinkle and didn't get much done today with Jimmy being home so want to get busy and do a few things and get to bed before too long. Goodnight for now and thanks again for the swell birthday presents. That Monitor subscription certainly went through in a hurry. Elmer is reading it right now. With Love, Helen Morning - 20 below this morning. I'm certainly glad I don't have to go out in it.