Letter transcription:

Kentland Ind
June 20 – 1943

Dear Daddy –

Sunday and rain again. John has kept check on the rain on Sunday’s since Easter and this is the 8^th Sunday. It rained on Easter and he wanted to see if there was anything to the old adage about rain for seven Sundays – I think he said today disproved that because this is the 8^th. It hadn’t rained for a few days so I think this rain was beginning to be needed. However some of the farmers will need to replant corn because cut worms have ruined entire fields of corn around here. Washburn’s lost one field and everyone was so late in getting corn planted due to the continued rains. The cut worms

[page 2]  have kept Mr. Zell on the jump. He has helped us with our garden and the boys in turn help him around his place. They moved the lawn for him last week and Mark helped him plant late potatoes last week. I don’t remember you ever ridging potatoes in our garden, but that is his method so he run the garden plow thru our potatoe and J. & M. hoed up the ridges. Now they will help him ridge his. They haven’t a pressure cooker so I took our cooker over and helped her can peas one night this week. We didn’t raise enough peas to can but I have been buying canned peas each month with our points. I bought some canned pineapple last week – and a medium size can takes 24 points – or half of one’s ration points for a month.

[page 3] Oranges are 55¢ a dz. – but we don’t use many because David hasn’t been able yet to take orange juice and J. & M. don’t care for it all the time. I still give D. Vit. C tablets. I tried to give him juice one day this week and he threw it up. We have a Baby Care Manual that was given to me at the hospital and in it are listed the achievements of 3-6-9 & 12 mo. olds. We checked on D. and he can do some of the 12 mo. things – like walking around his pen. It doesn’t say anything about a baby standing up in the buggy  & holding on to the top. That’s one thing he has on the book. He tries to climb out of his play chair and got so I couldn’t feed him he was always twisting and squirming around and climbing over the side so yesterday I decided it was time to do something about the situation and I spanked.

[page 4] He cried and kept on so I spanked again – he cried a while then settled down and had his breakfast as nice as he should – now we have no trouble at meal times. John & Mark were both present at the time and both agreed it was the thing to do. They are both very much attached to David but agree he must be corrected when necessary. John said we corrected him when he was small and must do the same with David. J. & M. say they don’t want David to be a “mean little kid.” John is entertaining him now. He woke up too soon from his nap and has been a little cross and it’s getting near his 2 P.M. feeding.

I went to church this morning. Mother said she didn’t feel like going. It was getting cloudy when we got out of church and a few

[page 5] minutes after we came home it was so dark we had to turn on the light, such a black cloud in the north spread over and then it poured down for a while – now it just a steady sprinkle.

After our garden work yesterday we cleaned up and went to town – I told John it was silly for town people to go to town on Sat. nite – I wanted to get a gal. of wax – I got it at Childress – He had his office open but he wasn’t selling gas. We parked the car there. He closes every evening at 6 P.M.

I rec’d 18 letters last week – the latest being June 5 – Also the 100⁰⁰ ck – I paid the Ins. loan. At present I have a bal. of 189.70 but will have to pay ins prems. Next month $83.66 altogether, also have some other bills amting to 21⁰⁰ – However I will get 200 the first of the July & your Ins won’t have to be pd till after I get that – also will have to pay Link for the bicycle – The auto ins. will be due in Aug but will have two cks before it is due. David has had his vegetables and is asleep now.

Love – Mother

(over)

Just came from Arlene’s – she told me Marie Steinbaugh’s breast operation proved to be a very deep cancer – they took off her breast and cut into her arm. She will have to take radium treatments now – also Rosemary is in the hospital for an appendectomy – her baby is 7 wks old.

© 2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
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