Tuesday, September 2
Dear John and Andrew,
Got more letters from you at the office here this morning--two from you, Andrew and a two pager from you, John. By this time we're settling down and I hate to do an about face, but they've been very nice to us. Ann's 'phone conversation telling her just where we stood seems to have worked and there has been mention of the subject they were going to tell us all about. Since Friday, the house has blossomed out with rungs, that is rugs, chairs, pictures and little odds and ends which we had hoped to acquire if the house was sold at the higher figure. But we got them anyway showing our prayers were answered and this was evidently meant to be.
I tried everywhere to find a New York Times on Sunday but Baltimore is the closest spot and we didn't get in nearer than Parkville. I'm going to work out a little deal with Mr. Beesemyer starting next week where he can get it for me here in town an he likes it himself and can bring it across the street from his apartment on Monday mornings. I even asked the paper man on our route out there but he said he couldn't order it. I have a copy of LOOK I'm mailing today to make up for it and we should be back on schedule next Monday.
Don't worry about the monthly payments to J. Norman Geipe. We'll take care of them and work it out with you. In fact, I'd better cell them because they're supposed to start sending the statements here to the office and we haven't received their typed copy the inventory yet. I believe the down payment of the $10 takes care of the first month.
This was a pretty nice and a pretty bad week-end, the bad part being only the weather. Saturday was OK and we spent a quiet day putting a few more thinqs in place and looking for others. It clouded up by nightfall and Sunday morning was rainy. I took Ann to 8 o'clock Mass which they start when they feel like it. Ann says it got under way about 8:20. I went to 10 and that began on time but didn't let out till 11:05 with a long sermon. The church, as I said before, is smaller than St. Mark's but nice. It wasn't crowded at the 10; maybe due to the rain and maybe not that many usually are there as I noticed a number of out of town cars. Not a soul visited on Sunday and we left the house for only one hour, to go to Parkville for a little ride and some magazines. A hurricane that turned inland hit us Monday morning about 5 o'clock. The wind was so strong it forced the water under the weather-stripped doors and windows. At 6 a.m. the electricity went off and we didn't have water or cooking till five after twelve. But later in the day I found out we were lucky and that parts of Baltimore didn't get service until yesterday evening. You should see the pictures in the paper of Catonsville and Ellicott City. In Ellicott City the water burst the fronts out of almost every store on Main Street and washed the contents down to the Doughnut Machine Corp. One picture shows 17 autos that were carried down and dumped in a mess of silt. Abe (whom we talked to by 'phone last night) said refrigerators and electric appliances as well as watches and all sorts of jewelry and junk were floating over the place. Catonsville was hit almost as hard and till this morning and maybe still has only bus service to Irvington. I called up Schatz first thing this morning and he says the loan has been approved that all they're waiting for is the settlement. So if the house is still there, it is apparently going through.
Our lone visitors for the entire week-end were Aunt Alice, Sam, Pud and Jeannie, who came by yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours. I forgot to say that the storm abated as quickly as it began and by noontime the sun was shining. Now the papers say there's a big one coming in from the northwest that is supposed to hit this evening sometime.
This morning was school for Arlene. I haven't located the other girls we heard were going to Towson Catholic from out our way but I can bring her in all right. She was supposed to have a half day for this first day but at 10:25 she called me and said they were through. I drove out and picked her up and she's downtown with her weekly allowance right now seeing The Greatest Show on Earth at popular prices.
I see that your Show of Shows is due back this Saturday night and all the others are slowly falling in--Hit Parade, Dinah Shore and Perry Como. We never listen to the radio hut Arlene has it on quite a bit and gets around 30 stations. What the stations are I don't know, but two in particular have the same program one hour apart. For instance, Sunday night she listened to, and called me in to verify it, the Frank Fontaine show at 8 p.m Daylight Time and at 9 p.m. Daylight time heard the same show over again. Both stations are strong and clear and one is from Pennsylvania.
It took a little longer getting in this morning and the roads were tough going. The two temporary bridges they had built around the bridges that were knocked out by that big storm in June were washed out yesterday along with another bridge on the alternate route a half mile down the road so we had to come in by way of Glen Arm and the Joppa Road and found the Joppa Road cut off which necessitated more detouring; but there's many ways and a mile or two doesn't seem much when you're not in traffic. Mrs. Burton always wanted a lake on her place and this morning she has one which you can see from our windows looking out across and beyond the fence Mike was sitting on in one of the pictures we sent. It's about 160 feet in diameter but not very deep. The wonderful feeling is going down the basement and finding not a drop of water but I still worry about the house on Bloomsbury,
I hope they don't try to kill you off with pneumonia as a result of your messy set up and let's hope the cold weather isn't upon you too quickly after all the water subsides. If it takes all that time in transit, will they start moving you out in October instead of November. They do have to get you out by Dec. 6th, don't they, if nothing happens?
END OF LETTER
Editor's Notes:
Mr. Beesemyer also works for the Burtons.
Ann's Aunt Alice's children are Puddy and Jeannie
Next Posting: September 4, 1952
Copyright 2012 Stephen A Conner
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