May 4 & 7, 1943. Two letters from Anna to Dad. The letter on the 4th is a fairly short handwritten affair. Anna apologizes for not writing a “decent letter” explaining that “mama had two more teeth pulled today”. As far as mama’s general health “although she isn’t critically ill, she isn’t well either and hasn’t much strength or energy to do anything. She tries to help by taking care of Theresa-Marie. Mama gives her a bath, feeds her and plays with her.”
In addition to all the other things Anna needs to do, she accompanied her mother to the dentist and now “the morning, afternoon and evening are gone”. She bemoans that “time flies so fast…no wonder people get old when they have kids. You work hard and the years go by unnoticed.” To illustrate she mentions that “Yesterday I did the wash, cleaned up the mess and the house, washed dishes and did all the ironing. I was like a log when I plunked myself into bed.”
As Anna continues her correspondence on May 7th she is “entirely pooped out, or in other words very tired.” She hopes “mama will get rid of her molars soon so we will hall have regular daily lives not just one grand daily rush.”
In response to a comment made by Dad in one of his letters about things getting warmer soon in Albany, Anna replies, “It got very hot out and muggy. People still walk in coats—you know how they are…nobody wants to be first [to take their coat off]. …afraid that it might turn cold suddenly.”
In other neighborhood news, “Libby Gostyla…has a papoose too.” She elaborates, “A few years back it was a novelty if somebody had a baby but now it is an everyday occurrence. Augie Weiss’s wife is going to have a third baby.”
Anna mentions that the Mother’s Day cards that the boys sent made it to the house. “Poor mama was happy but she was sad too because you boys remembered her across so many miles and you were so far away.” She returns to mama’s dental issues and notes that she has not been feeling well since having her last round of extractions. “Her jaw is still swollen and it’s already been three days… she isn’t very healthy. When one sore gets healed a little she goes to have others pulled and she gets nervous again and starts worrying.”
Anna goes on to relate a story of how her husband, Eddie, had a watch on layaway with a local jeweler. He was paying fifty cents a week. Eddie got notice that the jeweler was going out of business. The jeweler did not have a watch for Eddie but told him to come to the shop and pick out something else worth the amount he had paid down on the watch. Eddie came home with “a silver coffee set that always shines and never will tarnish.” He gave it to Anna as a Mother’s Day gift. Anna beams, “It looks swell and I have it in the front room. You don’t get such gifts every day.”
Anna writes that they are looking to buy a high chair for the baby “because now she doesn’t want to lay down, she wants to sit up.” Anna goes on to relay that the baby drinks two cups of orange juice a day and gets water the rest of the time. “When she gets thirsty she drinks it and smacks her lips. I was going to teach my children manners but so far I didn’t succeed very well. The baby makes big smacking noises when she drinks anything—you can hear her in the parlor, and she eats like a little pig. She eats a whole cup of cereal…twice a day.”
Anna then goes on for an entire paragraph describing some of baby Theresa-Marie’s antics. Rather that retyping it all, I let Anna tell you about it on her own…
Click on the image above to go to a full size excerpt
She wraps up the letter telling Dad that they have been too busy to plant anything in the garden and that “it is time for Theresa-Marie’s bottle and when she gets through with it I will go to sleep.”