Fri 14th (Apr 14, 1944)
Dear Daddy,
Thank you for the flowers, they were Beautiful. I put some on the table, and the rest on the table beside the window.
I listened to Henry Aldrich last night. I wend to MacRaes sugaring-off wednesday the 12th. for my Birthday I got a skipping rope, just what I wanted. and two dresses and the book of Lassie come Home from Mummy, and a little Bunny Rabbit to Pin on my coat. and it had a Little fluffy red tail. and a $1.00 from Aunt Ruby and Uncle Parkie. $1.00 from Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bud. $1.00 from Aunt Ada and Uncle Kenneth. $1.00 from Clifford. and 16 cents out of Margaret's Birthday cake. and 6 cents out of mine. Aunt Adah made a Birthday cake and she made a Birthday cake for Margaret to. STANDBY FOR THE NEWS.
LOVE
JANET
Henry Aldrich, or The Aldrich Family, was a radio show that aired from 1939-1953, according to Wikipedia.
Sugaring-off is a traditional way to celebrate a maple syrup harvest. Part of the celebration is to make maple syrup taffy or tire d'érable by heating syrup to about 250º F and pouring it over snow. Some people then roll a popsicle stick or tongue depressor in the taffy to make a kind of lollipop. My mother remembers eating it with her cousins until the sweetness made them sick, then eating some pickles clear their palates and starting over again.
Margaret was her mother's half-sister, Margaret Evelyn Dean. She was a few days shy of her tenth birthday when my mother was born.
This letter was written a few weeks after V-E Day in anticipation of her father's return home.
24th of May
1945 To Daddy
Dear From
Janet
Peanut
To My Dear Beloved Daddy:
How are you.
I hope that you will be home soon. I can hardly wait to go to the s_______________ club. I have a Picture Puzzle about it. Mummy says people have to be rich to go there. We are going to have the whole Smith family after the war and I made up the menu we are going to have. Here it is.
Meat Vegetables Fruits in bowl By for now
1 roast turkey potatoes apples with Love
2 boiled chickens carrots oranges J.
1 lamb - mint jelly tomatoes pears J. Peanut.
1 dozen sausages celery Thats all Smith.
(You call them) lettuce I can (Drawing of a tree and flowers)
(They look like beets think of. Spring
bananas and are
burnt on one side.)
Unfortunately, that is all the correspondence between my mother and grandfather that survives. I am lucky and grateful to have these and I truly cherish them.
Among the many amazing things that we brought home from my step-mother's basement last year were some personal prayer books and bibles that belonged to ancestors and relatives. Assuming I can start getting them photographed this weekend, I will start sharing them here next week.
It's fun to see what she got for her birthday. I loved when she said she got a skipping rope, and it was just what she wanted. It made me think about what children want today and things certainly aren't simple anymore!
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