677 3/25/1951 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 4008 Randall Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minneapolis 16, Minnesota Sunday, March 25, 1951

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, I hope you had a happy Easter. It snowed hard here most of the day but did warm up this afternoon. Jimmy and Mary went to the matinee for something to do. I didn’t fix a big dinner and we didn’t have our company as planned because yesterday Davy came down with the chickenpox. The poor little thing is really covered with them and is so uncomfortable that I didn’t get a bit of sleep last night. I hope one of these days I can write you a more cheerful letter. If I can just hold out until spring, things won’t seem so bad but all this snow and gloomy weather is enough to drive a person crazy. Yesterday I went up to Lake Street to buy some Easter eggs and then I stopped in the supermarket up there to get a couple of things and I saw something just terrible. It was a woman without a face. What was supposedly her face was just a mass of flesh in huge bulges and a little knot hung out for her chin. She had absolutely no mouth and no indentation even where the mouth should have been. Her eyes were just two marks in this flesh and besides all that the face was purple with splotches of white here and there. She was a large woman. Her neck started from way up in the back of her head. She was a hideous monster and the women who saw her including me just gasped out loud when they saw her. I wanted to look the second time but just couldn’t. She was standing two lines over from me going up to the checking counter. The woman standing in front of me said she had seen her around Lake and Hennepin before. She must have some intelligence if she can go to the store alone, but aside from the horrible face she walked like an ape. It was the most terrible thing I’ve ever seen. 8:30 Davy has been sleeping since 6:30 and this is the best sleep he has had since he got the chickenpox. Things have brightened up already just since I started my letter to you as Elmer has been spending this time writing letters to firms in Seattle. He also wrote to that firm who asked him for more information. He also saw in the Sunday paper today that there is a representative here from Boeing interviewing engineers so he is going to see him tomorrow. Of course I already have us out there but Elmer told me not to get my hopes up too much because they may not want to pay him anything but he will make a change to Seattle for the same salary he is getting here. He also wrote one letter to Boston, Massachusetts. Eden just called me and told me the big news that she is expecting in August. She said now Stella is next. More later Folks. Love, Helen