As I was transcribing this letter, I went from the horror of my grandmother diagnosing herself and having my uncle sterilize needles to near hysterical laughter. That damn laundry! I still can’t stop laughing. And then, reading about my uncle Mark moaning about doing dishes and Grandma coming to his rescue. And then…you know what, just read the letter. It’s hysterical. I am sure that this letter provided my grandfather with some pleasant comic relief from his tragic duties. I think the situation with the laundry belongs in its own Abbott and Costello sketch at this point.
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- September 4, 1942 (GRY) Envelope
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- September 4, 1942 (GRY), p. 1
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- September 4, 1942 (GRY), p. 2-3
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- September 4, 1942 (GRY), p. 4
Letter transcription:
Kentland Ind
Sept 4-1942
Dear Daddy,
We are still enjoying cool weather-since this is Sept I doubt if we have any more “torrid” weather. While I am upstairs I hope for cooler weather. Dr. Cole didn’t make it up here yesterday but I know he is terribly busy and I am feeling better. The way I felt I knew I was needing a shot so had John sterilize the needle and gave myself a c.c. of Vit B. I feel better this morning (tho I know you say you can’t get results that quick). Maybe it is the mind over matter theory I am using. At any rate I don’t feel so weak and can sit up and this is something.
(page 2) Clara is here this morning-doing this & that-which includes taking clothes out of the Bendix and making vegetable soup. She cleaned up here yesterday so will work downstairs this morning.
The mail just came with a letter from Mrs. Evans. Your laundry was sent to California then back to Norfolk and she is forwarding it here-so now what am I to do with it? Forward it to you?
Had a card from Mother and she said she was coming up today if nothing turned up to stop her so she may be here by noon or after. Mark was complaining yesterday about having to wash so many dishes and I told him Grandma
(page 3) was coming and he wouldn’t have to do so much-he was very pleased about the prospect of more time to play. Since Clara can only be here mornings the evening dish washing has been falling to Mark because John has been trying to get the lawn mowed. Mowing the fall grass is no joke. It grows like magic and is so tough got more than our mower could do so Link told John to use their mower. Then Mr. Zell came over and helped him some yesterday. Now it is finished but Mark will have to start on it again tomorrow-and how he will howl. John said not to tell him before tomorrow because of the reaction we would get from him.
(page 4) Mark came home from an errand to town yesterday and said Mr. Boone would trade horns with him. I haven’t talked to Boonie but apparently Mr. Webster had and Boonie must have a horn that would be easier for Mark to blow. I will call him today and find out about it. Mark has been so busy since school started he hasn’t done any work on his models but after Mother comes maybe he can work on them again. He is still buying the 10¢ kind. I am holding him to those until he does a good job then I said he could buy the larger ones.
Love Mother
I laughed too, remembering my grandfather’s long-running complaints about getting dinner, doing the dishes and the laundry. He is so happy when either Aunt Betty or Grandmother Peabody is staying at the house. Then he can concentrate on cleaning out the barn and replacing screens for storm windows or vice versa. Housework is NEVER DONE – once it is, you just have to start it all over again.
I think that is something that will never change. We still have to do the dishes, the laundry, pick up after the children…
Yes, I do remember growing up that mother took Vitamin B-12 shots from time to time. I suppose John just put the syringe in boiling water on the stove. This sentence made a word pop into my mind that I haven’t thought of in ages: autoclave. I just Googled it, and sure enough I was right. In my dad’s office there was a small autoclave, maybe the size of a small toaster oven, used to sterilize the needles and syringes he would need during the day. I remember the array of glass syringes. This was long before the day of plastic disposable ones.
Oh my gosh the saga of the laundry!
Coast to coast to coach and back to Kentland. These are the little things about daily life in the 1940s that we really don’t identify with now. And I’m wondering if the Bendix was the washer or dryer. And for sure, the mower was not a power mower, otherwise the grass being tough would not have been an issue. When pushing the hand mower, if the grass was tough or high, just pushing it was hard labor. I have a memory of either Mr. Staton or Mr. Zell sharpening the blades of a hand mower. My dad would not have been at all reluctant to buy a motorized mower, and we even had an electric mower at the new house, as well as a riding mower. That lawn was huge, and I detested the mowing chore as much a Mark or John did. And, as far as washing dishes was concerned, at the new house we had an automatic dish washer. I don’t recall one at the old house.
One small transcription error: the should be a “)” after “quick” …
Another reason I think Mr. Staton was Link as he is often mentioned when it comes to mowing the lawn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendix_Corporation
Well, I guess that answers the question. The drying was done in the back yard, weather permitting.