1918-11-26: ​​~TOUR STOPS~---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1918-11-26​: ​tour stops---~IMAGES~---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1918-11-26​: tour stops---images---~AUDIO~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1918-11-26: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
You might send this on to S. Hadley if you will.  I do not know when I shall get a chance to write there again.
12 Staff Post
Fort Sam Houston
San Antonio
Nov. 26

My dear Eva,

I am very much ashamed that I have not written to you before this.  The dress arrived safely and is very pretty indeed.  The buttonholes will be a small matter and I am sorry you bothered to think of them.  My own button holing is far from good, so it is likely they wait until Grandmother’s visit!

It has turned cold here and is very wet and dreary.  Really I am disappointed.  I thought after such a hot summer we might expect a good fall + winter.  People say the best weather comes after Christmas.

I feel quite sad this morning.  Virginia had evidently been feeling the cold for some days in spite of our efforts to keep her warm.  Last night Will got up after going to bed + put a bottle of boiling water by her cage +  wrapped her up + today I thought she was better but a little while ago she just stiffened up + went away.  Billy was so fond of “a deek” and we shall miss the little bird although she had not sung for ever so long.

The reason I did not send you the last photos I sent to S. Hadley was that Will did not get many printed.  I just sent a set to S.H. + one to Savannah.

How could a person who is as negligent as I am about writing letters reproach another one for not writing?

Ruth is still here.  Her work is temporary, but it was a change from teaching in Savannah, so she decided to do it.  She does not know whether she can get permanent government work as she is not a full American citizen, only having taken out her first papers.  The temporary people are taken from “four to six months” or less, so I do not know how long she has the work, but I have been glad to have her here the last few months.  We seem very far away from the rest of the family, + I do hope we are soon moved nearer to everyone.

Monday

I am determined to finish this letter at all costs this morning.

Will buried Virginia in a Baking Powder can in a flower bed.

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving.  It was a lovely day here, the first good day for quite a while + so we appreciated it.  We went for a ride in the afternoon and as we had just had the first frost the trees looked very pretty indeed.  Texas sunsets are more beautiful than any others I have seen.

Margaret just had one day holiday + went to school as usual on Friday.  She seems to enjoy it and I think she is doing better at her music now.  She is more interested in it than she was.  We were amused by Billy yesterday.  To punish him for something Will told him to go in the corner + he went + stood with his face right in the corner, hands by his side + stayed quite still until Will told him to come out (after 2 or 3 min) + then out he came.  Then I asked him why Daddy did it + he took my hand + showed me what he had done.  Sometimes to punish Margaret I make her sit on the back staircase + some weeks ago she was playing with Billy + suddenly called for Lydia in a very anxious voice.  I went to see what was the matter + found Billy was disappearing up the back staircase.  Margaret’s explanation was “Billy was bad, so I put him there for a punishment.”  When he started on upstairs she did not know what to do about it.  They have very good times playing together.

Besides the chickens + ducks + fish we now have a turkey in the garden.  Will bought it the day before Thanksgiving.  He got it from a man in the office who had some sent in from the country.  I bought one killed + when I brought it home Will was very curious about the weight + price + I could not think why + then he produced his live one which was a much better bargain - much to Will’s pleasure.

Will is very much interested in his farmyard + the children like it too.  The frost has spoiled the vegetables + so the chickens + ducks have the place to themselves.  They are quite tame + the children like to feed them.

Will seems to think that we are more likely to be moved now than when the war was on, but we can only wait + see.  The drafted men are being sent home from the camps here every day.  Lydia’s husband will soon get his discharge and then she will go too.  When the camps are emptied here it will make a great difference to San Antonio.  I imagine there is very little doing here in peace time.

I suppose you have heard about the new baby from Mother.  I hope so otherwise you will wonder why I did not write to tell you before.  As a matter of fact I did not tell anyone until quite recently, for no reason at all.

It scarcely seems possible that Christmas is so near.  I wish very much we could be all together as we were last year.

I am very glad that we all escaped the Influenza.  There was a great deal of it in Savannah.  Mother + Father were on the point of going to Pittsburgh for a visit when the armistice was signed + then of course Father could not leave his business, so they did not go.  Ruth had a letter from England written just before the Armistice was signed + it said that everyone was excited + they could hardly believe the end of the war was in sight.  Please forgive me for not writing before + thank you very much indeed for the dress.

Kathleen
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1918-11-26​: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
My own button holing is far from good, so it is likely they wait until Grandmother’s visit!
I googled and found that the buttonholing attachment for a sewing machine had been invented before this.  Did Kathleen even have a sewing machine?  As for Grandmother, that must be Mama Margaret, who came to visit after Kay was born.  I think Mama Margaret was Grandmother and Kathleen's mother Annie was Grandma, but I haven't yet taken the trouble to nail it down.

2.
Virginia had evidently been feeling the cold for some days in spite of our efforts to keep her warm.
​Virginia was apparently a small bird.  There was a Verginger/Ferginger in earlier letters, whom I assumed to be a cat.  Now I’m wondering.

3.
suddenly called for Lydia
I guess Lydia was a maid.

4.
​Will is very much interested in his farmyard + the children like it too.
Ha!  When we were children, my brother Roger wanted to keep chickens.  My parents (Will's younger son and his wife) vetoed it.  They had had chickens when they were kids, and they weren’t going to repeat the experience.  But then, in 1918 my father hadn't been born yet.

5.
Mother + Father were on the point of going to Pittsburgh for a visit
Kathleen's brother Cecil and his wife Jessie lived in the Pittsburgh area.

6.
Ruth had a letter from England written just before the Armistice was declared + it said that everyone was excited + they could hardly believe the end of the war was in sight.
A favorite movie of mine, Random Harvest (1942), starts (well, almost starts) with the end of the Great War in England and people pouring joyfully out into the streets to celebrate.

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