Thursday, October 9th.
Dear Andrew and John,
Haven't much to tell you but like to get something off anyway.
When I got home Tuesday I found that Virginia had called and cancelled her trip to see us. She and Connie were supposed to come but one of them couldn't make it.
Kathy's virus in her tummy persisted through this morning and I called home noontime to find out how she was and Ann says she's much better, having produced her first burp in three days. Stevie, the slob, is back in there shoveling in the food with both hands. His face is getting fat and he's going to outgrow Kathy in the weight department. But she's getting taller, I'm sorry to say, though I do think she'll still be in the cute stage for a couple of months till your return. Mike is all legs and has his spells of eating like a horse and staying away from everything but you can't call him unhealthy. Arlene we don't have to worry about. In the Christmas Card we chose for this year, I put her name next to a caption of Food Editor. Stephen is saying just a few more words but understands everything. His pronunciation is not as good as Mike's was at the beginning, as he calls our little girl, Kaki and has a few other wild expressions but you can't cross him up. I think you'll find Kathy changed most for she was just saying a few words as I remember it when you left and now she'll string an endless sentence into 5 minutes without faltering or stammering. But she's got to warm up to you first. And that'll probably take a couple of hours. When we went out to see Abe last month, while Ann was downtown shopping that day, Kathy wouldn't even look at Abe for the first hour; she buried her heady in my shoulder even when he tried to give her a little china dog. Abe is having a bit of trouble right now, too. I guess it's the combination of his father and I'm sure there are financial difficulties. He was feeling so bad he went to see our Dr. Gallager who gave him a thorough physical and suggested he take hospital test for diabetes. So Abe tolls me he was at Mercy Hospital for 5 hours on Monday with some sort of glucose test and there is a show of diabetes. His father is on the first floor at home, apparently to stay and the bathroom Buzz has half-built is still unfinished as you know Buzz. I asked him Monday what's new in Catonsville and he said nothing that he could see.
Tuesday evening I sew about an hour and a half of TV. Milton Berle has gone the way of the many others and is now on only every other week. In his place we saw the last half of a show sponsored by Buick with the regular performers apparently being Joe E. Brown as a clown and Dolores Gray and a John Ratti as singers. I don't know if the circus is to be the continual scene but that's what I got from it. Last night we saw the first half of Godfrey and Arlene switched to a new show starring Frank Fontaine and Patti Page with some very good dancers and sponsored by Scott. They played up their Cut-Rite wax paper and paper towels and Scotties but no mentions of the toilet tissue; Ann says they probably don't think that good advertising.
It turned quite cold Monday night. Western Maryland had temperatures down to 28° but we went no lower than 42°. Today it's raining but I'm sure we'll have nice weather again in October.
Andrew, you mentioned you'd like to get out of uniform as soon as you can when you get back and I've been thinking about fast ways of obtaining something decent to wear inexpensively and if we could run out as far as Sam the Tailor in Catonsville, I noted he is now carrying a full line of suits as well as slacks, coats and other men's wear. And knowing him, he'd put the cuffs on and make the alterations while you wait. In an hour I bet you could get pants and a coat, if necessary. And if either or both of you don't have company and intend to go on a shopping spree, I'd like to take off and see what they're offering these days. I'm down to one pair of shorts myself which I'm washing out at nights and those dacron socks I bought in the spring of '51 are still holding up pretty well. The rest of my wardrobe is good enough for another year, except for ties and there my last additions were what you two gave me last Christmas. So I'll provide transportation if things work out and I also know your credit is OK at Katz for when Ann talked with the fellow the last time he called to say he had received your remittance, Andrew, he said he was glad as you no doubt would want to use the account when you got out.
We've been learning a little more about the Barbours, the people who occupied the house before us. Jean Baldwin next door and Mommie lean on the fence or hang up clothes together. Mrs. Baldwin said one day this past spring she came over to what we occupy now to pick up laundry that was left while they were out and Mrs. Barbour was stretched on a couch smoking and reading while one of the smaller girls was dragging dump trucks full of dirt in front the outside and dumping the loads behind the pillow on an armchair with no correction from Mrs. B. Also, Mr. Barbour made all the clothes for the family in the garage and in the cellar and also sponsored a baseball team which met several times a week in the back yard or the Pasture across Long Green Valley Road. The kids were never supervised And one night in early summer, when Mr. Baldwin was on the verge of trying for his bar exam, at 2 a.m. in the morning the kids were whooping it up in the back yard. He asked them to quiet down a bit and Mrs. Barbour stuck her head out of the window and yelled, "Ignore him, he don't own the place". And just before they moved, referring to Mrs. Burton she said, "We're going, but I called the old bag up and gave her hell."
I heard the last two games of the World Series on the old radio here at the office and the papers around are giving Mickey Mantle the hero role. I mention this as I went down to Peterson's store last night for some bread and one of the farmers was addressing a small group and saying, "I was with the Bums and if it wasn't for that wop, Mickey Manuel, we'd have beat 'em."
Take it easy with the final moving. Mr. Pearson here at the office picked up a bag of Micalith at the mine and got himself a hernia which he has to have operated on in December.
Two weeks from today!
END OF LETTER
Editor's Notes:
Two weeks from todayis the deadline for John and Andrew to leave Korea!
Charles' employers own a mine that results in a product called micalith.
Abe is a longtime friend of Charles
Next Posting: October 10, 1952
Copyright 2012 Stephen A Conner
No comments:
Post a Comment