Chapter 18 – Dear Daddy – The Farm Letters

Category: Chapter 18

May 30, 1933-from James to Martha

Posted on May 30, 1933 by ddadministrator

My Dear Martha and Children

I am well but busy. It rained so yesterday during my time off that I did not get to the cemetery but I went there this morning. I put a nice plant on Jane’s grave and set a nice one in the cement vase for your Father and Mother. The plant for them is a double pink geranium, it has 2 big bunches of blossoms and one bunch of buds on.

I am working 2 runs today. I drove a Selby-Lake run from 12:36PM to 7:17 PM and now I am on a Snelling-Minnehaha run, went to work at 7:38PM and work till 1:57 AM. which will make us $6.75 for today. I am conductor on this run and am writing this on the run. I wish I could of been with you and the children today. Sundays and holidays are the worst to be alone. Well I will make this short so by-by with lots of love from Daddy

May 30, 1933-from John to James

Posted on May 30, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear Daddy

How are you feeling today? I am feeling swell today. it rained all last night and started to rain again this morning. say Dad do you know how me and Mitzi play? I pretend I am a buffalo and butt him just enough to make him roll over. say Dad whenever anybody lays down on the ground Mitzi comes and crawls all over them. my timothey is just up and my clover is an inch high. some of the grain in the big field is almost a foot long. the corn is coming fine some of it is two inches high. gee I wish you were here. well I can’t think of any more so .- goodby love from John.

May 30, 1933-from Martha to James

Posted on May 30, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear James,

It seems like a long time since I heard from you and since I wrote too, I guess. To continue where I left off on Monday, it cleared up at noon and we went to P.R. after all. I got my shoes changed, they are a nice pair of black oxfords and cost $2.75. I had to get some cloth to make Ruth another dress. She has only one the right size and is growing so fast.

Today has been lovely altho a little cool. We stayed home all day except we drove over to Blisses for a little while tonight. John and I set out 2 rows of cabbage plants last night and we will get the rest of the garden in this week. Everything is up but the potatoes, beets and spinach and everything looks good. We’ve had 2 rhubarb pies and some sauce and 2 messes of onions so far.

Wasn’t that a nice letter Ruth wrote? I just helped her a little with the spelling. John wrote his all alone too. I paid them each 10 cents last week, John for getting the milk and Ruth for drying dishes. I buy eggs from Jensons too and Ruth goes with John then to carry them home. I pay 10 cents a doz. for the eggs. I paid 25 cents per lb. for butter in P.R. It was 22 cents in Dorset.

The school picnic is on Friday and we are going. I am sorry about their missing so much school but I really think I did the right thing and they are farther ahead than they would have been.

Don’t work too hard. I’ll get by with the money I have until the insurance is paid. We are all feeling well except that Ruth has a slight cold. Write soon again and we wish every day that you were here. Love from us all, Martha

May 29, 1933-from Ruth to James

Posted on May 29, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear Daddy

Yesterday the cat got five kittens 2 gray and 3 black, one was all black and the other 2 had a yellow spot on there heads the gray were like the mother cat. We are keeping the 2 blacks. Thay are both mail. Well Daddy we are fixing up a nice box to put them in. well I can’t think of much else to say except thanks a lot for the candy

well this is all love from Ruth

May 29, 1933-from John to James

Posted on May 29, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear Daddy

How are you I am fine say do you know the cat got kittens just yesterday afternoon one kitten is black with a orang stripe on it’s forehead and a white spot around his left eye that one is mine and another one is black with a orang spot on it’s forehead and a few white hairs on the very tip of it’s tail. boy but I like white beaver and seizer of eagles well good by love from John

May 29, 1933-from Martha to James

Posted on May 29, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear James

It is Sunday evening. It is raining now – began about noon. We drove down to Jenson’s after the milk this morning, then came home, visited the garden, baked a cake and a rhubarb pie, had dinner, looked at magazines, made some candy and popped corn and are now ready for bed,

Your package and letter to Ruth came Sat. We drove to Park Rapids on Thursday. I got myself a pair of black oxfords and you a shirt. I picked out the prettiest of the ones he had left. I think you’d better buy your own shirts after this.

We cultivated the corn and peas and beans, they look nice. I found one cutworm. We mowed a lot of the lawn and the children raked it. The iris are so pretty and the currant bush is blooming too. The hollyhocks are up.

(Monday morning)

It rained off and on all night and is at it again today, just a gentle rain with a little shower now and then. We didn’t see any signs of damage from the storm when we were in P.R. last week, except that roads were washed out in places. There were teams working, hauling the gravel out of the ditches and back on the roads. Jenson’s hill is all right. The curve around the lake by Rood’s place is the worst. On the highway there were a few danger spots where the loose gravel had been washed away but we kept to the middle of the road and drove slowly. We drove around the farm but couldn’t see any trees blown down. The wind was from the East most of the time.

This is the last week of school. We took all the school books and library books back last Friday, and the children are going to have review work for 3 days. You won’t get this letter until Wed. on account of Memorial Day. We’ll just stay home tomorrow – maybe work in the garden, as I don’t know of any program. I’m glad you are getting so much work and that you are keeping up our insurance.

I must close now. Lots of love from us all. Keep well.

Martha

May 27, 1933-from James to Martha

Posted on May 27, 1933 by ddadministrator

My Dear Martha and Children

We are having a nice day here altho it looks like rain. We are thru with the trial but won’t hear how it comes out till next week, the lawyers will make their plea before the Judge on Wed. May 31st.

Say Martha, if I have any time off on Monday I will go to the cemetery and fix up what I can so the folks will be remembered. The store man by our place has given me a good price on flowers quite a lot less than other places. I think you and the children had better go to the school picnic and also take the car and get away for Memorial Day. Pack a nice lunch and go to some of the other lakes or maybe there will a celebration in Park Rapids but anyway get out and see something different on that day.

I will send the other things on the list as soon as I can. I am sending the account sheet with this. We must figure on my insurance for June 12th. Guess we can make it, but it will keep us on the jump. I have got in a few good days lately. Hope it keeps up.

Jack was home and brought back 2 lbs. of home-made butter. He marked it on the list at 20 cents a lb. Regular creamery butter is 26 cents.

I am writing this sitting on the bench out at Fort Snelling and its time to go to work. I must close love to all, Jim

May 26, 1933-from Martha to James

Posted on May 26, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear James-

How are you? We are all well. It is cloudy and cool today. All the garden stuff is up. We worked in the garden last night and I am going out again after school and get the mail. John changed the cultivator for me and we use that for digging. We are having green onions from the ones the children set out early. I’ll set the plants out next week. The other iris was near the little lilac. I cleaned out the berry patch on the South side, and some of the bushes are blooming. The children are kept busy pulling wood ticks off Mitzi, to say nothing of those that get on us. We are invited to the school picnic shall we go? It is on June 2nd. Send us some paper soon.

Love from all, Martha

May 25, 1933-from James to Martha

Posted on May 25, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear Martha and Children

I have been in court all day and will be there again tomorrow. Its been a lovely day but I don’t like to sit in court.

I got the insurance paid up till the 26th of June. Our check today was $38.74 – $4.00 which left $34:74. I have the $8:50 at the bank to pay and I should pay Ted, the butcher some, we owe him something over $7:00 but I haven’t been over to his shop since you were here. And thats all the bills except to get the Ford license. I will send you some money in the package and I will try and get it mailed tomorrow. If the shirts you looked at in Park Rapids are well made and good material get me one15 1/2 size.

Its the same case Fred and I were on before when the 3 people and boy and dog were in the Ford Coupe. I may be in court the next few days. The package came today and everything was in fine shape. We had some of the biscuits and a piece of cake for supper and they sure tasted good, thanks a lot. The rhubarb we cooked with raisins for sauce.

Jack’s wife and little boy came down on the bus today noon and are staying at some of the neighbors so Jack is over there tonight. I am glad I fixed up the little house for the children so they have a nice place to play.

Say mamma I will send the things on the list as soon as I can but this court case may keep me tied up for a while and I have been going night and day for a week . We have been up before 4 o’clock every morning since Sun. I was going to take this down and mail it tonight but I am too tired so I’ll mail it in the morning.

I am glad that storm didn’t do any damage to our place. I was afraid for the plants you had in the boxes and the flowers and everything.

Oh say Swan Olsen rode with me yesterday and told me about a man by the name of Ole Anderson who used to work for Dad at Morris and he also had worked a lot for Grandpa too. He is in the General Hospital with a cancer. I want to go see him as Swan said he had asked about Pa and the rest of the boys. This Ole came right from Sweden to my Grandpa’s farm and there is where he made his home for several years. They even called him Ole Linsley.

Tell the children I have a whole flock of funnies I am going to send to them. You folks did just right by praising Mitzi for barking when folks go by but its best that she stay at the house or on the porch as she did. She is going to make you a fine watch dog and there won’t be much going on that she don’t know about.

Well folksies, I am going to bed as its most 10 o’clock and I’ll finish this tomorrow. I am expecting you to drive down but you had better wait until we have a little more money on hand.

Love, Jim

May 24, 1933-from Ruth to James

Posted on May 24, 1933 by ddadministrator

Dear Daddy;

How are you? I am fine, well I am writing this letter while I have a few minutes to spare out of my job dispaching to Captain John D Linsley. you see I am the Captain’s dispacher in a war between the Germans and the Americans.

Yesterday I found some flowers as yellow as buttercup but I don’t know the name of them. I don’t use the house by the pump anymore now because it is raining most of the time and it leaks in too much. Today two purple iris came out. The mother cat is going to get kittens now I think in a few days. Yesterday it rained and hailed and the wind blew so hard I thought it should blow some trees down for sure, and it did the same thing again today. This after-noon after John and I had come in from playing a little outside the dog got her two front feet on the running board and tried to bite the rope that held it up, she sure looked cute. John and I would tie a string to our feet and the dog would run after it back and forth for the longest time. The leaves on the trees are all coming out now. the crops are coming up fine now.

We fixst a bed for the old kitty in the wood shed where it is nice and dry for her. last night when we went to see how the kitty was there was half a foot of water on the wood shed floor. This afternoon when I looked at the furniture polish on the top it was all liquid and an the bottom it was just wax it was because it had been standing so long. I use bluing for ink in my office it works almost better than the real ink does. I hammered a nail in the wall and put an empty spool on it to put string on it sure is handy. today when we put the canvas on the car we pretended it was a sail on a ship and the wind was blowing so that it was hard as a real sail to put on, This afternoon I am going too sew the rips and tears in the canvas so it won’t leak. Please send us some more paper we are completely out of it. this morning I made both beds and swept the floor for mother because she was washing. This afternoon it started to rain and we just got the clothes in on time or they would have been soaked.

Just a little while ago John was trying to get the door open and the door had soaked so much rain it was real hard to open. just a minute ago the dog looked at herself in John’s window and saw herself in the glass and Boy O Boy did she bark and growl at herself, and the other night she saw Jenson’s go by and she barked and groweld and woofed for about 5 minutes afterwards, well I guess I’ll stop now or there wont be room for mother.

love from Ruth and Mitzi

(this morning)

PS. yesterday John got too close to mother and mother smashed into him and skinned the end of his nose. This morning I saw it and thought it was blackberry jam because we had bought some Sunday when we went to Dorset. But when mother touched it John said it hurt and then thay remembered what had happened yesterday and it was all right after that. Mother is not writing today so I am writing a real long one .How do like my long letter?