Letter: Dortha Winters to Her Sister Cora, 1943

Fri eve. (Barbara estimates this was in 1943)

Dear Sister, (Aunt Cora, Barbara added)

We recieved [sic] your letter today, Barbara sure was tickled, Otis gave her the letter and she just kept saying Aunt Corie over and over, finally I got her persuaded to open it and I read it to her.  She carried the folder around until we went to the garden then I made her lay it up; as soon as we came back from milking she gathered it up, she kept it beside her plate while she ate supper. We think the world & all, of our babies, but my, oh my, they get so mischevious [sic] sometimes one hardly knows what to do.  The other week one afternoon while I was cleaning upstairs Barbara pulled out the sewing machine, got a can of flowers, emptied the whole thing out on the floor.  Then when I went to feed the chickens, I looked over at the house, and up in the spare bedroom window was both babies, Barbara had a jar of mustard from the refrigerator. Sun, eve. it was warm outside, she wanted out so bad, I put her wraps on and left her play awhile.  When I went to look for her she had opened the gate, & was going way down the road.  Wouldn't it be awful for a baby to wander off that way, it's no telling where they would go to.

I'm down to the living room cleaning house, I cleaned the wall paper yesterday and done some varnishing today, don't know how many days it will take to finish.  I planted some onions, radishes, & lettuce today.  We don't have our garden plowed yet.  It just rains every few days & stays so cold.

You should see our calf nursery, we have 11 now, we haven't started using the milker yet, guess we'll start when we get rid of some calves.

Otis was sowing fertilizer on the pasture today.  My it certainly does keep one busy.

I'm ashamed for not writing sooner, but it's impossible to write during the day, then when I get through in the evening I'm too tired or maybe just lazy.

We had planned to come down to see you Sun. but Glenn's wanted us to come up for dinner, so we'll see you sometime soon.

I found this letter in my mother's 1943 file.  I don't know if the letter had a second page or not; if so, it's lost.  But it is undoubtedly written by Dortha Winters, even though it doesn't have her signature. She had her first baby, my mother, in 1941, and her second baby in 1942 (followed some years later by another one).  Reading this reminded me of the challenges she faced with being a busy farm wife with two very young children to watch over!