Dear Daddy,
How are you I am fine. thank you for that nice poket book you sent me and the bars were offel good. Goodby now.
Love from John
Month: July 1932
Jul 21, 1932-from Ruth to James
Dear Daddy,
How are you I am just fine. Thank you for the candy and bracelet. Mother made some pinchary jelly and it sure was good. Daddy please tell me when you are coming I won’t tell Mother nor John and it will be a serprize to them. Yesterday the little kitten caught a mouse and it was still alive and the mouse bit my hand then the little kitten ate the mouse. well this is all the news for today so goodby.
Love from Ruth
Jul 19, 1932-from Ruth to James
Dear daddy,
When are you coming? I hope when you come you will bring the glue I need it to glue on my doll’s wig. and please bring my little doll I think she is in the doll buggy. And bring up all of our school things, and two pair of big cutting sizers. Nothing has happoned so far so this is all
Yours truly,
Ruth
Jul 18, 1932-from Martha to James
Dear James,
Today is going to be another scorcher. We have had several really warm days and last night we had an electrical storm and a little rain but it did not cool off much. We took another walk into the Big Woods and found some huge white pines, three really big ones and several fair sized trees and some small ones. We are so anxious to show them to you. The buckwheat field was in blossom and the corn is good tho it is drying out a little on the edges.
We haven’t gone fishing yet and we are hungry for a change in diet. It has been mostly potatoes, eggs and milk for quite a while until Saturday when I borrowed some flour and baked biscuits and cake and cookies.
We get milk morning and evening now as it doesn’t keep very well. The children take their time and have a collection of pretty stones they have gathered on the road.
Jensen’s have half the rye cut and shocked. Our sweet corn is waist high but has no flowers on yet. That sounds odd. We found some brown tassels on Jenson’s corn. The other garden stuff won’t amount to much. I wish that garden spot was ploughed. I could transplant some young raspberry plants and start a bed for next year. We are reading the “Mountains and Plains” book a second time. Do send us something else. We don’t work on Sundays and after we take our usual walk there is nothing else to do but lie around and read, especially in this hot weather. Blueberries were selling for .60 cents a qt. the other day.
The clock ran down yesterday and I set it by the sun and missed correct time by ten minutes. The children are very lonesome for you. We’ll be looking for you any day now.
With love,
Martha
Bring us a stick of blue sealing wax. This is important.
Jul 16, 1932-from John to James
Dear Daddy,
We are fine I feel like it was years ago we left home. Ruth found the blueberrie patch quite a lot of raspberries are ripe today we found a dishful. the pump works real easy I get almost all the water for mother I think that pocketbook is swell. I sure did like that candy and oranges you sent.
Well lots of love from john remember hers 8 kisses
Jul 16, 1932-from Ruth to James
Dear Daddy,
How are you? We are all well. Yesterday morning we couldn’t find the cats. We called them but they did not come for a while. The little kitten came and we found that his hind legs had been bitten. We couldnt find the mother cat so we let the little kitten go under the house, we thought if we let him go there that he would bring the mother cat out with him. We coaxed him but he did not come out so we left him alone. and when we were out on the back porch the little kitten came from under the house. We put him in a box and looked at his wounds. they were all right so we left him alone and he went to sleep. and when Mother was picking Rasberrys we heard the mother cat meyow and when we looked her all over we found she had not even a scratch.
Yesterday morning Mother John and I picked pincharys and Mother made some rasbary and junebary and pinchary jelly we got 3 glasses full and 3 molds full. We sawed down three trees and the biggest one we had the most fun with. John and I sat on each end of it and Mother sawed, and when the log cracked each of us sat down on the ground. and you can imagine how funny we looked. Well John is watching the men cutting their grain. the man that was cutting the grain let John have a ride around the field.
This is all so goodby, from Ruth Linsley
Emportent — bring my shoes when you come.
Jul 16, 1932-from Martha to James
Dear James,
John is watching Jenson cut rye this morning so will have a big story to write tomorrow. He got up at 4:45 this morning and built the fire for me.
I got up at 5:00. We worked at the wood and he sawed a log 6 inches thru. We borrowed some flour and soap from Mrs. Jensen this morning. We’ve been out of flour over a week and haven’t much else left but can manage if you come soon. We get milk night and morning now. It has been very warm the last few days but it always cools off nights so we can sleep good. The Bunk is the “bunk” now. The boards have come out and been re-nailed so many times that the nails won’t hold any more. The chairs you mentioned would be a blessing. We can go back with you for a few days if you like and look the situation over and decide what to do. Then I could practice driving the car and drive back alone.
The gloves have been a big help, we all wear them. Now for the things you might bring with you when you come:
- Some glasses and odd jars for jelly and preserves
- Two dozen pint jars for sauce, with rings and covers
- Two boxes of Parowax
- Cornstarch
- White flour
- Five lbs. rye flour
- Pail of molasses
- Dried fruit
- Macaroni or creamettes
- Matches
- Vegetables, canned or fresh
- Vegetable soup, 3 cans
- Soap, washing and toilet
- Vanilla
- Tooth paste
- Shredded wheat
- Post Toasties
- One lb. good cheese
- Some ham (John likes it)
- Baloney (Ruth likes it)
- Can you partly cook a small roast?
The prunes and peaches you sent were extra nice. We cooked the prunes without sugar and they were sweet enough that way. The peaches we ate with cream and sugar. They were the Del Monte brand. Most of the stuff you can buy in quantity and keep part for yourself. If you don’t want us to go back with you for a few days, bring my quilt blocks and pieces. They are in the bottom drawer of the chest, also the cotton batts.
We miss you a lot, but are planning ahead looking forward to the time when we can be up here together. You don’t need to let us know when you are coming. There will be a “reception committee” all the time.
Hoping to see you soon. Will save the rest of the news till then.
Love from us all,
Martha
Jul 14, 1932-from John to James
Dear Daddy,
We are fine I feel like it was years ago we left home. Ruth found the blueberrie patch quite a lot of the raspberries are ripe today we found a dishful. the pump works real easy I get almost all the water for Mother I think that pocket book is swell. I sure did like that candy and oranges you sent.
Well lots of love from John
remember heres 8 kisses
Jul 14, 1932-from Ruth to James
Dear Daddy,
How are you? I am fine. the bracelet fits nice. And now for the ansers of your questions. No.1. I still dress the kitty in the doll’s clothes. No.2, once in a while John and I go alone and sometimes I go alone and most of the time Mother goes with us. No.3 the bracelet matches my new dress. No. 4 the anklets fit fine. An Daddy, do you think we could ride tim if he were here? we would like to have a horse very bad. you see he’s too old to work and then we maybe could ride him. and Daddy, will you please send the things we had laid out to bring with us. and please buy a new pair of shoes for Betty June one inch and a quarter wide and two and a quarter long but I will send a pattern of her foot so you will know just what size to get.
Love From Ruth
Jul 13, 1932-from Martha to James
Dear James,
It is 9:15 A.M. and we have our house work done and John and I sawed down a dead pine and I have sawed and split enough wood to do the ironing and bake some beans.
Now James, you had better forget other people’s troubles and try to find a way out of ours. In the first place you’ve said nothing about our having the car. Before we moved up here you promised us the car and you also promised to work with us and do anything you could to make us happy and comfortable. We need the car to get supplies. What you pay in postage would more than keep up the car for the little we would use it. Then there are loads of raspberries but I have no jars. I should also like to make some chokecherry and pincherry jelly. It seems a shame for this fruit to go to waste when all it would cost is the sugar. We also need a screen door, as the flies are terrible.
Now James, you must face this. We want to stay here and after thinking things over very carefully we will be much farther ahead by spring if we do. It costs us very little to live here and you’ll never get any rent from Jenson unless you take it out in some way like that. (By the way, hang the winter coats out in the sun and look out for moths.) You can make arrangements for getting wood on shares, or a week’s work on your part would put up a good supply. Also you could come up in the winter and take out some of the big trees to saw for lumber for a barn and chicken coop. In the Spring, well we won’t plan so far ahead. But if you are willing to work hard for the family welfare even if it isn’t so pleasant for you and me as individuals, we’ll earn independence sooner.
Come up the first day you are marked off and bring some jars for jam, also the bed on the porch and some chairs. I’ll send a list of supplies.
The children will write tomorrow. Their dispositions have improved a lot and they are getting used to depending on each other for companionship. I must mail this.
Love from us all,
Martha
P.S. We have no more writing paper.