Letter from Will's older son Billy to Will's younger sister Alma: 1/8/1933
A Christmas thank you letter from 15-year-old Billy in Atlanta, Georgia, to his Aunt Alma in South Hadley, Massachusetts
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Of course I wonder what books Aunt Alma sent to Billy for Christmas. Judging from the little I've seen of what books she sent at other times, they were good ones.
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334 Eighth St. N.E.
Atlanta, Ga.
Jan. 8, 1933
Dear Aunt Alma:
Thank you very much for the books. It was very kind of you to send them to me and I appreciate them very much.
We have been having very bad weather in Atlanta. We had three weeks in a row when it was cloudy every day. The last week has been little better. There has been very little rain but very little sunshine.
During the last weekend I finished the telescope that I have been making with some help from Roger and Daddy. It is a reflector with 5 ¾ inch aperture. A friend of mine silvered the mirror and diagonal for me. The moon was fairly clear in it and a good many craters could be seen, but the stars were not as good as they might have been, although they were fairly bright.
Mother went to Savannah two days after Christmas and stayed there until last Monday.
With love from,
Billy
Atlanta, Ga.
Jan. 8, 1933
Dear Aunt Alma:
Thank you very much for the books. It was very kind of you to send them to me and I appreciate them very much.
We have been having very bad weather in Atlanta. We had three weeks in a row when it was cloudy every day. The last week has been little better. There has been very little rain but very little sunshine.
During the last weekend I finished the telescope that I have been making with some help from Roger and Daddy. It is a reflector with 5 ¾ inch aperture. A friend of mine silvered the mirror and diagonal for me. The moon was fairly clear in it and a good many craters could be seen, but the stars were not as good as they might have been, although they were fairly bright.
Mother went to Savannah two days after Christmas and stayed there until last Monday.
With love from,
Billy
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1.
During the last weekend I finished the telescope that I have been making with some help from Roger and Daddy.
Here's a picture of Billy with the telescope, from the album that Kay sent him many decades later:
Or anyway, I assume this is the telescope he was talking about.
During the last weekend I finished the telescope that I have been making with some help from Roger and Daddy.
Here's a picture of Billy with the telescope, from the album that Kay sent him many decades later:
Or anyway, I assume this is the telescope he was talking about.
There was a mention of a telescope in Billy's in a previous letter - see: We spent the first part of the day getting Billy's telescope ready for the eclipse.
Either it was a different telescope, or else I read the date on this letter wrong. It looks to me as though Billy wrote a 2 and changed it to a 3, which would not be a surprising mistake in January - but maybe that wasn't what happened.
2.
Mother went to Savannah two days after Christmas and stayed there until last Monday.
So Kathleen went to see her parents and her sister Ruth on Tuesday, December 27, and came back on Monday, January 2. And apparently none of the kids went with her. Billy doesn't mention any names, but I'm throwing it into the Farmer documents list anyway.
3.
Billy wrote a thank you letter to Eva the next day, so I figure Kathleen's been getting after him.
Either it was a different telescope, or else I read the date on this letter wrong. It looks to me as though Billy wrote a 2 and changed it to a 3, which would not be a surprising mistake in January - but maybe that wasn't what happened.
2.
Mother went to Savannah two days after Christmas and stayed there until last Monday.
So Kathleen went to see her parents and her sister Ruth on Tuesday, December 27, and came back on Monday, January 2. And apparently none of the kids went with her. Billy doesn't mention any names, but I'm throwing it into the Farmer documents list anyway.
3.
Billy wrote a thank you letter to Eva the next day, so I figure Kathleen's been getting after him.
LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT PAGES IN THIS WEBSITE
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DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- KATHLEEN: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- THE NEXT GENERATION: DOCUMENTS ----- Billy, Roger
- FARMERS & GRAYS: DOCUMENTS ----- WJ, Annie, Ruth
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