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643
Cedar Street
San
Antonio, Texas
May
2, 1943
Dear
Mother,
It has been 2 weeks since I've written, and the time has passed like lightening. Harold has had Wed. off the last 2 weeks, and
went to the market each time, and got some strawberries. We have 26 pints of jam, & I used the
sugar I had 20 lbs. I guess we aren't supposed to put up jam during war time, but I have it up, & I’m glad. Dewberries are on now too, and we are going
to put some up tomorrow if we can get them.
For Dewberries & Strawberries the board allowed me 15 lbs of sugar,
so I’m sure we will make out ok. The
first time Harold went to the Market he brought back 30 bunches of
carrots. He got them for 30¢. We had carrots for a week, and so did all our
neighbors. He also got 30 lemons for
50¢, and they are the size of grapefruit.
A half a lemon makes a 2 qt jug of lemonade. We've been trying to get rid of them ever
since. All the neighbors found out about
putting Epson Salts in jam, and what a stir it has made. Mrs. Brown, Scott, & Muegee tasted the
jam before they knew, and are going to make some. We paid $2.50 a case for strawberries, but
there are 24 boxes to a case so we don’t think that is too high. Dewberries will be about 1.85 for 24 boxes.
Harold was off last Sunday, Easter,
and we had a very lovely day. There were
no candy eggs here either, altho Mrs. Muegee fixed up a great big basket with a
rabbit of composition, & half a dozen hard boiled eggs & it was just filled
with candy eggs. She bought them 3 weeks
before easter. We went to Sunday School
in the morning, then walked down to the park in the afternoon & ate our
lunch. Harold went to church at night
alone, the children & I were too tired to go. Harold said Byron Nielson & his wife were
there. I think it was only the second
time they have been out. I've been going
to have them out, but it is such a job to have company. We had the lady missionaries out 2 weeks ago,
& I had quite a time. Alvin wouldn't go to sleep in the afternoon, & I don’t know what got into him, because he
dirtied in his bed, & I had to wash his sheets & bath him, then I made
some lemon pie filling & it fell on the floor as I was taking it off the
stove, and you should have seen the mess I had.
I can laugh at it now, but what a time I had then. Have you heard from Sis. Poole? We heard she was married 3 days after she
returned so if she didn't call it was because she didn't have time.
I've been busy sewing too. I made 2 dresses with matching bonnets for
Betty of those pieces I sent in my last letter, and I've started another dress
out of that night gown Helen made for me years ago that I wore for an evening
dress. Last night I went to town to get
something for you for Mother’s Day, thinking the stores were open until 9 P.M.
but they were closed before I got there, with the exception of Kress &
Grants, so instead I bought some patterns for sun suits, summer nightgowns,
& a pinafore. I came home by 8:30
& made one night gown for Betty before 9:30. It was just plain square cut, but that is
what she needs. I’m even thinking of
making a shirt for Alvin to wear at night.
You remember last year he just wore his panties, & he sweat so. The little thin shirts would take up the
perspiration anyway. For the next 2
weeks I’m going to keep pretty busy sewing.
The heat has really started, & I want to get it all done before it
gets any hotter. We have had no rain to
speak of here, & everyone is bemoaning the fact. Our garden is doing fine. Our neighbors are sharing it too, because
with as little space as we have there are too many vegetables for us to eat
alone. During this last week we have
picked string beans 3 times. One bunch
we gave to Mrs Muegee. The beets seem to
multiply. The faster we pull them the
faster they grow. We have been getting 3
eggs a day too.
Mrs. Jetton came to S. A. a little
over a week ago, and she is feeling much better. She said she has felt much better this past
winter than she has for 3 or 4 years.
She felt pretty low for 2 or 3 days when she first came, but is feeling
well again. She likes to have Alvin
visit her, & he doesn't need a second invitation. He spends a good deal of his time there.
Mrs. Scott across the street finally
moved last Thursday. They moved over on
Devine near Labor. That is the corner
where we catch the bus to go to church, so from now on we will push the kids
over in the buggy & leave it at their place until we come back. It will make it easier, because Betty is
getting pretty heavy now. She crawls all
over the place, and gets into everything.
Poor thing, she feels the heat worse than any of us. She cut her 2 lower teeth this week, and that didn't help her much. She drinks water
out of a cup like a veteran, & won’t let you take the cup away until it is
all gone. With this heat she needs all
the water she can get.
We were surely glad to hear from
Pearl this week. It was a shame to think
Royce couldn't take a day off on his way East so he could see his baby.
I've been writing this letter piece
meal as usual, but hope it makes some sense.
Tell Pearl Cleo Nelson Bateman & her husband (Pibst) were in S. A.
for a month but I didn't know it until the day before she left, & she lived
within 3 blocks of us.
Well, I've got to get cleaned up and
get Harold’s supper ready so we can get to church tonight. I gave my last Relief S. lesson last Tues,
and it turned out really good, and it is a wonder, because they moved it up one
week again & didn't tell me until Sunday.
Next Sunday is Mother’s day, and our
second one away from home.
May
3, 1943
Well Mother another day and this
letter is not off, and it looks like I've messed it up pretty well too, but I’d
better send it before I decide it is too bad to send.
Lovingly,
Laura
643
Cedar Street
San
Antonio, Texas
May
9, 1943
Dear
Mother,
Mother’s Day is nearly over, and we
have been wondering about you all day, wishing we might drop in and see
you. We all went to Sunday School this
morning, & they had a very lovely program.
They gave each Mother a corsage of sweet peas. Herbert Turley gave the tribute to Mothers,
and they asked me to respond, representing the Mothers. It made me feel good to think I could do it. All this past week it worried me, & it
seemed like I had so much to do, but everyone said I did fine. Harold & the children gave me a dress and
2 lovely hankies. The dress is a very
pale green shantung, and it looks very nice on me. Late this afternoon we walked down to the park
and sat on the lawn trying to cool off.
The wind has blown hard for over a week, yet it has been very
sticky. Clouds have been hanging low,
yet we still have had no rain. It is so
different from last year when we had rain so much & so heavy. As a result of no rain we can’t get
dewberries. They say there is no sense
even trying to pick them when there has been no rain.
Can you get meat there? We haven’t had good meat since rationing went
in. Yesterday I bought some hamburger
& we made meat loaf. It was so
greasy it seemed like ground mutton.
There always seems to be plenty of port, but nothing else. Our garden is still keeping us in
vegetables. Harold had 12 eggs hatch, so
we will soon have more chickens. He still
has another hen setting too.
Mrs. Brown hasn't been feeling too
well lately, with a pain under her right breast something like I had, but it made her so uncomfortable they had an exray taken to see what was causing it,
and they tell her she is going to have twins.
She is going to have some time if it is.
Mrs.
Turbyville, the woman on the other side of Browns is due to go to the hosp. Any
day, but for the last 3 or 4 days has been running a temperature. She seemed better today however.
We had a letter from Jennette
yesterday & were glad to hear they were ok.
She said she was glad to get back home, but she surely misses you.
Betty and Alvin are fine, but Betty
had her first batch of heat rash today.
She crawls all over the house now, & pulls herself up around
chairs. She is always crawling under the
bed, then can’t get back out. We are
getting some pictures developed tomorrow, so within a week perhaps you can
expect some. I guess everyone has
decided I've forgotten about them because I've not written to anyone else for a
long time. I meant all week to write to
DeYoungs & didn’t.
Lovingly,
Laura
643
Cedar St.
San
Antonio, Texas
May
20, 1943
Dear
Mother,
It sounds like some sort of fairy
tale, but we are leaving here sometimes Sunday, as far as we know and are
heading for Salt Lake in a new car with enough gasoline to get us there and all
car expenses paid. We are so excited we
can’t settle down to determine what has to be done between now and then. We are going to drive this car back for the
Grant E. Hayes Co. in Salt Lake. There
was an ad in the paper here about it & we sent a nite letter and they
answered by phone.
Harold has a little over 2 weeks
off, and he needs a vacation too. I may
stay a little longer, it will depend, but we are so tired already of the heat
we would like a little cool weather. We
have all had heat rash this week pretty bad.
Betty has ben pretty miserable at times.
We may rent our place to a soldier
& his wife from church, we don’t know yet.
We were happy to hear from you the
other day. Did you get my letter telling
you Mrs. Jetton was here? She is going
back to Junction on the first.
We hope Mary & Dan will still be
there. We would surely like to see them
Can’t think of more to say now but
are anxious to see you. It will be some
time next week we don’t know just when because we don’t know how long it will
take us to drive. We will only drive
during the day.
With
Love,
Laura
[Laura’s
note: We left for Salt Lake the end of may 1943, and went to Topaz when school
started in the fall.]
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