Thursday, August 20th 1942
My dearest Hal,
We were all so delighted to get your letters to all of us last week. Sara brought Page over with her yesterday [and] also Mrs. Moppet and Miss Louise. They brought Sara last week, thus they conserved gas. They only have four gallons a week. Sara and Page brought your letters to them, and we enjoyed comparing them and got a little more news there by.
You better adopt a plan of writing a little [more] often and have your letters ready to send when you have an opportunity, which you don’t have everyday it seems like.
I think of you when I don’t read my letter and when I send back food I think of those poor hungry people who need it so much. I hope when this war is over something can and will be done about such want and misery in so many places.
I enjoyed seeing the girls yesterday. They both look well, but both have their hands very full these days.
Sara has gotten a little maid to help her. She needs one, for Harry Nook is a whole team to keep up with and keep out of things. Not long ago he woke up from his nap and took the screen out of the window and got out on the roof and played around about an hour or more before they found him.
Page also needs one, so she won’t get worn out and dragged out while she is still young. I see a shining example of what I mean. These old country homes are a real burden to keep house in, but I like them. I guess I’ll never get over liking to spread out, and I wish I still had the old place. I took the wrong method about everything, so did your Dad as I see it now. It has been so increasingly hard to make ends meet on a farm, but conditions seem better this year. Maybe the farmer will come into his own sometime.
Page says Sam is so well and [is] constantly entertained with country life and happenings.
I think it is so good for him to be in the country. It is surely the ideal place for a child to grow up, especially a boy.
Billy said he had taken his exam for officer training and should hear from it in about a month. He really thought he would get into this a good while ago, but he feels they have put him off about it. Then, too, his first papers sent in seemed to get lost, and he had to begin all over again. I hope he won’t have to wait much longer.
None of us hear from Bits, but from the papers I judge he will be reclassified and in the army. Today’s paper says 1 B is to be abolished and all but [the] totally unfit are to be reclassified.
There has been a most remarkable season in this country and crops are fine. Everything looks so green and flourishing, very different from last years.
Sara is so set on my staying here this winter, so I guess I will. Dr. Pearson says if I could be where I could go along as I can here I’d be just as well off. Sam [is] getting too fat. [He has] a stomach like Uncle Lee, and it is due to the large amount of fat in the diet, which of course is the thing for the ones who need to gain. I’m having trouble keeping under 145. You will probably enjoy your food as never before when you get home. I’m surprised you are going back to the other place again.
Maybe the force will be better. I’m glad you read your 30 letters before you go back as you did not seem to get mail while there before. We had a state wide black out last night. We go to bed so early it makes no difference to us, but they blow horns so loud and long [at] about 10:30 [that] it woke everybody. I think of you through the night while I lie awake and hope you are safe and well. I am sorry you bore that miserable rash and wish you could get some kind of sulphur ointment for it. See a [doctor] as soon as you get a chance. There are so many diseases in these hot countries, and people are so ignorant and dirty. If you itch you will get your clothes infected and keep having it unless you get them sterilized as you get cured.
I often think we get a lot here for what we pay. Food and lodging and a doctor on call. [We get] what medicine we need, even a notary public, if we need one, is sent right in to us. In fact all that we need for the $1.00 per day. One comes in contact with many tragedies here. Hundreds of people have had their lives messed up with this horrid disease.
The most pathetic are the young mothers who have left small children at home and could not see them.
Nancy Moffett is right pitiful. She has gone through three rib operations. [She] had 9 ribs removed in one side. They hoped she would stop forming fluid and could go home but she still has it. [She] is afraid that still other trouble is developing now. I feel awfully sorry for her and for her mother and father. It is a great sorrow to them.
It seems strange to hear you say or speak of wealthy people in the midst of all that misery and disease and starvation.
I hope you will not get into the habit of drinking, even if people are constantly drinking around you.
It doesn’t get you anywhere, and it is easier to refrain than to break the habit once forseen.
“Fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the whole duty of man.”
Organized
labor in this country continues to be on top of everything.
I don’t see why the government doesn’t go on and set the prices as that is plainly what has to be done.
A heart full of love to you my dear son,
Always devoted,
Mother