Ruth is working hard keeping up with the farm chores, filling in for her mother with the young kids, and cleaning house. Jennie is doing better, though she still worries about her. Both she and Dave share lots of news and talk of other family members and friends.
May 10, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
Dear Dave,
I wouldn’t say I am exactly in the mood for writing, but I’ll do my best which I’m afraid isn’t so good these days.
First of all, please don’t worry about me working too hard. There is plenty to do and I have been working quite hard but I guess I’ll survive. I get awfully tired but that is because I haven’t done much housework in nearly two years and I’m not used to it. My cold is better but not entirely gone yet.
Thursday we had a girl in to help me clean so we managed to get the woodwork, floors, curtains, etc. washed. Now everything is done downstairs but papering and that can wait awhile. Edna was over Friday and helped me prepare the refreshments for Joyce’s meeting.
The meeting was a success I guess. There were about twenty-two people here. Mom went down to Percy’s and Janie came up and helped me. I could have managed alone but Mom still thinks I am a baby. The minister even had me outdoors playing games.1
I started this after church but Eva and Hermann came so I didn’t get very far. They are all looking good and ask to be remembered to you. They just went home. I even managed to chisel a dime from Hermann. Hermann said he was mad because you didn’t come to see him when you were up.
Eunice Ann Parker, June Sedgemore, and Beverly Bartlett. Aug 19, 1938
Lynn, Eunice Ann and Beverly were here yesterday for dinner. Lynn brought Mom a nice picture of himself for Mother’s Day. He has a new summer suit which he tried on for us. It is even equipped with a zipper.
Mom got a lot of nice flowers for Mother’s Day. She got a card from Marion postmarked Reno, which of course upset her.2
Janie’s old cat had six kittens Friday and I have picked out a kitten which looks something like Fluff. When they get a little bigger I may change my mind.
If you should happen to see some nice fresh catnip, why don’t you give some to Fluff. I think she would enjoy it.
We have bargained for a yellow mother cat of Glenn’s. She is about to have kittens so we have to hurry and get her over here before they hatch.
Billy’s old hen has eight baby chickens. They didn’t hatch out very good. The chickens are so cute, I’d like to do nothing but watch them. I can see where my husband will have to be a chicken man. How’s about it?
Gee, it seems like I just can’t find time to write letters any more. After working all day, I don’t feel like doing anything but go to bed. I am never caught up on the work. I commence to feel like the “woman in the shoe”.
Last night after most of the work was done, I went down cellar and brought out the plant boxes. I planted some seeds and have them back on the porch. If they don’t come up, I’ll give up gardening as a bad job.
Mom isn’t so well tonight. I guess it was too much for her to go to church. The kids made her nervous too. It seems the harder I try to make her better, the more things there are to upset her. I worry about her all of the time. She goes to bed about three times during the day.
She has rented the house where Harold was and she says that has to be cleaned before the new family moves in. There is no way out but for me to help do it. I suppose they will hire some of it done. Sometimes when I think how slack Beulah is and how easily she gets along, I could swear. I guess you get along better if you don’t pretend to know anything. She certainly raised her family with very little effort on her part.
Now to change the subject before I go into a tantrum. We have sixteen dimes saved. Mom gives me all she gets. How are you coming, or aren’t you?
It is after nine o’clock and I am awfully tired so me thinks I’ll go to bed.
Monday morning.
The kids have had their breakfast and are ready for school. I had to fry the kids’ fish for breakfast and after it is fried, they won’t eat it.
Mom put in sort of a hectic night. Last night about 1:30 she called me and said she had an awful pain in her chest. I don’t know what it was caused from but it went away in a little while. I think maybe it was gas but it may have been her heart. I stayed in her room the rest of the night. I think she worries a lot about herself.
Everyone is good but I don’t believe they realize what noise does to Mom. Well, darling, I guess I have told you enough of my troubles, but I have to tell someone.
One long week has passed and it seems like a year since I saw you. Even though I am busy all of the time, I am always thinking of you.
Did you work yesterday as you had planned? I hope you don’t work hard every Sunday. When you work so hard during the week I think you should have Sunday to rest. How is your job holding out? Is Fran going to try and do contracting or what?
Have you any mosquitoes? If you haven’t I think we could spare you a few. They have me all bit up.
The bus just came so silence reigns once more. I think I’ll close and eat some breakfast and get to work.
Take care of you for me won’t you, Honey boy? Don’t work too hard and write often.
I love you, sweet.
Yours,
Ruth
May 12, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
Hello Honey,
I just received your letter and while I am waiting for dinner to cook, I’ll see if I can get it partly answered. Yesterday afternoon I cleaned up in the house on the hill and I am going up again this afternoon, so if I feel like I did last night, I know I won’t feel much like writing tonight. I guess I am going to have some help today. Mom goes up with me but I have to watch her all the time or she will be working. Yesterday I cleaned the pantry and mopped a couple rooms. Every time they ever moved yet Mom has had the house to clean after Beulah.
Mom said she felt the best yesterday she has felt at all. I hope she continues to feel good.
I guess Grace is coming up alone Friday night and stay over the weekend. I guess she isn’t very well herself. Seems like she would feel better if she would reduce a little.
I got weighed over at the Dr.’s the other day and I weigh 124 with my coat on. I went to see Mrs. Paver (the lady we used to board with). She seems to think I have grown taller. I certainly hope not.
I had rather a cute letter from Ruth Springsteen yesterday.3 If I can find it, I may send it to you. She certainly has the dope on you.
Tuesday night.
Well here goes to finish this before I retire. We finished cleaning the house this afternoon so now maybe I won’t have to work so hard.
Kent and Ethel were here for supper. It seems like someone always comes to eat when I am the most tired, but maybe I am always tired. Ethel even helped me do the supper dishes.
Get ready for a shock. Imagine my surprise to have Ethel tell me how nice you are and how glad she is I have someone like you.
Seems like your letter sounded sort of blue. I can’t say I blame you much but I see no reason why you should think you are a slacker. Please don’t say it anymore. You certainly have ambition enough and I don’t know how you can do any more than work all of the time. I know it seems discouraging but we will manage some way. I wish you didn’t work all day Sunday. I think you should have some time to rest.
The weather was nice up here last week but not as hot as you had it. Are you still building bridges?
I’m afraid you were due for a disappointment when you got home and found the letter I wrote Sunday. My letters are never so good anyway and Sunday I was tired and had so many interruptions I didn’t even know what I wrote.
I am glad you had the car fixed up. How are your tires holding out?
Gee, I certainly wish Mom’s other house was where we could use it. It really is a good house when it is cleaned up and Mom says if I ever lived there, she would fix it up a lot. Beulah always hated the place but I think she even hates herself.
Well, my sweet, I think I have told you everything except I love you, which of course you already know.
Be a good boy, Honey, and try not to get too lonesome.
Lots of love,
Ruth
May 13, 1936
Middleburg, N.Y.
My Darling Girl,
Guess it is about time I wrote my sweetie a letter to remind her once more that I love her. Shall I tell you a little secret? That ending you put on the letter you wrote Sunday made me feel lots better. It had been so long since I had heard you say those three little magic words. I don’t mean that I doubted the fact that you do love me, but it is so nice to be told once in a while. Your first two letters were a little different than they usually are, but I knew it was because you were tired out and worried about your mother. I wish I could say something that would help, but I don’t know what it would be. I would like to hold you snuggled close in my arms once more and tell you a thousand times I love you.
I’ll try not to worry about your working so hard anymore but it doesn’t seem right for you to have to clean the other house or even help.
So Hermann is mad because I didn’t come up and see him. You tell him that probably the only reason he wanted me to come up was to take down his stove.
Yes, I have a few dimes saved for you. Seven I think and there must be nearly fifty pennies again.
You are doing good in the cat business I see. Leave it to you to pick one that is sure to produce more.
I went down to P.H. last night for a little while. They have moved back into the other front room again. The dining room looks sort of empty there now without the davenport and chairs, and the whole thing feels empty without you. If you had been there last night, I think I would have asked you to marry me right away and take a chance. I can’t seem to go in that house and see Lydia and Fran so happy without realizing more and more how much I need you and want you.
Fran thinks we ought to be married right away but when I get away from there and start thinking rationally again, I realize how much it would be asking of you and what a chance it is.
He is still working on the W.P.A. job but is taking outside work when he can get it. This week he is working at Redick’s and drawing his pay on the other job just the same.
Lydia and Fran both told me to tell you to write and I told them how busy you are. Do you hear anything from Loretta?
If everything works out right, I may go to Hubbardsville and see Florence Saturday night and come back Sunday. I really should go and I feel as if I just have to go somewhere or do something. It will depend mostly on whether I get paid Saturday or not. If I go, I’ll take Mom and my father and Lula. I looked at it on the map and it is only about 35 miles from Syracuse so I’ll be a lot nearer to you, sweetheart, but not near enough at that.
It rained hard here this afternoon, the first since the night you went home. It was warm though and no one seemed to mind it much so we worked right thru it. I could wring water out of all my clothes when I got home. After supper it had stopped so I went up in the woods and cut down an ash tree and split out about 30 berry stakes for Fran. He wants them for his Mother’s garden. When I got there I was soaked again because everything in the woods was just dripping and the flies had me about half eaten up. We haven’t so many mosquitos but the deer flies are here in swarms. My arms are full of scabs from scratching their bites.
While I was doing that Fran and Lydia stopped here on their way to M. but no one knew where I was and I was too far away to hear the calls so I didn’t see them. They wanted to take me down with them to see Tex. I would have liked to have gone but when I came in I was too tired to change and drive down myself so I came up and started writing to my honey.
I’m about out of words now so I’ll quit and say goodnight. This letter isn’t quite as long as the one I wrote Sunday but it makes up for it by not being quite so crazy. I’ll bet you didn’t get much enjoyment from it.
Goodnight, my sweet.
All my love and kisses to you and best wishes for health to your, or rather our, Mom,
Dave
May 14, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
Hello Sweet,
I thought I might have a letter to answer tonight, but since I haven’t any, I’ll write anyway. Your letters usually come the day after you mail them, but something may have happened to the one I was supposed to have received today. I didn’t intend to write until tomorrow, but I happened to think you wouldn’t receive it until Monday.
I haven’t been doing much of anything for the last two days. Last night I was in bed at seven and I even managed to get a nap during the day.
Yesterday afternoon Mom and I went to Watertown. Tonight we had to go to Smithville. I am kept nearly as busy as you are with the car.
Tonight I went out and mowed part of the lawn. I think we could make a pasture of two-thirds of the yard and still have enough lawn left. Maybe I’ll go down and get one of the horses to eat some of it if I can find a time when they aren’t all in use.
If you get a chance, come up and stay a week and I’ll give you a job pushing the lawn mower. If you do a real good job, I might give you a sandwich of some sort.
I just finished helping June find pictures for her scrap book. I guess I’m in my second childhood, or maybe I’m not out of my first yet.
We have had several letters from Bill. He has completed his first trip. I don’t know whether the cargo was coal or iron ore.
I finally got even with the old rooster. Every time anyone ventured outdoors they stood a chance of having a duel with him. Yesterday he snuck up on me and I set Pat on him. She grabs him by the tail feathers and he takes himself off.
Church is at nine o’clock this Sunday instead of two so I probably won’t get around to going so early.
Gee, the weather has been awfully cold here for the last two days. If it continues, I will be tempted to put my winter underwear back on.
Alfred Spencer, 1831-1904
I have two dollars in my dime saver. I have put one dollar in since I got home. At that rate I will soon be emptying it again. I guess I’ll get another pair of sheets and four pairs of pillow cases. Then I will start saving dimes toward an electric flat iron or sompin’. I think Mom intends to buy us a living room rug. I have chiseled a few dishes from Mom that she has had for years. One dish is out of a set my great, great grandmother brought from England. My grandfather would have been 105 this year so you can tell something about how old the dish is.4 I haven’t had much luck chiseling from anyone else since I have been home, but give me time.
I haven’t written anything but a couple cards to Lydia since I was home so that will give her something to harp on the next time she seems me.
Well, honey, I haven’t anything to write about so I’ll call it a day and try to do better next time.
Take care of yourself, dear, and try and get a little rest Sunday.
Oodles of love and kisses.
Your sweetheart,
Ruth
May 14, 1936
Middleburg, N.Y.
Dearest Ruthie,
I had a pleasant surprise when I got home tonight and found your letter. I thought it wouldn’t come until tomorrow.
There isn’t anything new to write about so I’ll just answer some of the questions you asked.
Yep, I’m still working on the bridges or rather bridge. We just paved the one for traffic this afternoon and it will take all of tomorrow to finish up there and move to the other one.
I’m glad to hear you have the cleaning done. Now won’t you rest a little yourself and gain back some of that lost weight.
That was quite a speech for Ethel to make wasn’t it? Guess I’ll have to try and like her a little more. Who gave your girlfriend all the bum dope on me? Quite a line she has I’d say. Tell her next time I come up I’ll give her a break and let her look at me.
It has been real chilly here today. Quite a change after the heat of the past week or so. I’m putting an extra blanket on my bed tonight.
We are having fresh carrots from the garden tomorrow. I’ll bet you haven’t anything like that yet. It seems we had some carrots in the ground last fall that weren’t taken up and they took new life this spring. I never heard of them as being a perennial plant before but they grew anyway.
I think I will have to have at least one new tire before long. I have had two flats with one of the good ones and can’t find a hole in the tube anyplace. No, it isn’t the valve either. I’ll put it back on tonight to try it once more.
I wish we could live in your Mother’s house, too. You and she would probably both be happier if we did. I would be happy anyplace with you, darling.
Well, I guess I have answered your letter quite fully and I have managed to keep one letter free from my own miseries but that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss you more and more each day and love you with all my heart, so I’ll stop now before I do say something to spoil it.
Lots of love and kisses.
Your own,
Dave
P.S. I have one envelope here addressed to you at Albany. I did that Sunday. It’s a good thing I found it out before it went in the mail.
Footnotes
- Joyce’s “young people’s meeting” was mentioned in the previous post. Since she mentions the minister (probably Ivan Cash), it was most likely a church group.
- By this time, Jennie would have received news that Lynn and Marion were divorced. The next post will provide more detail on this. Eunice Ann was their daughter, and Beverly (in the photo) was the daughter of his new bride, June (Marion’s cousin), and her former husband, Edward Bartlett.
- To see the letter and notes about Ruth Springsteen, see the previous post, here (May 9, 1936)
- Alfred Spencer, 1831-1904, was Ruth’s grandfather, and would have been 105 in 1936. He was born in England and came to Jefferson County NY in 1833 with his younger sister Caroline, his father James Spencer, and his grandparents James and Sarah Spencer. Sarah may have been the one who brought the dish. Alfred’s parents, James and Hannah (Neary) Spencer, were married in 1830. Hannah likely died before they left England. Alfred married Lydia May Overton on April 12, 1855, and they had 8 children in 19 years (Jennie was the 7th born in 1873, of 3 daughters and 5 sons). He served in the Civil War in the 10th NY Heavy Artillery Regiment. His pension file says he was shot in the leg when they were in Virginia. After the war, he lived the rest of his life in Henderson, NY. He is buried in the Smithville Cemetery.