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Alma writes to Kay, who is at Columbia Journalism School. Alma seems sort of intrigued by the idea of learning how to do the news - not too surprising, coming from the editor of that august institution The Fernbank News.
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March 2nd
Dear Kathleen:
Eva wrote that she had sent her radio to you but that you could not use it on account of the difference in current. She thought that it would be a good idea to send it to Woods Hole but that I should write to you.
The world has been too full of things to write sooner but I now proceed to say that it seems to me that it would be better to send it up here. Fred has a cheap radio - one of Sear Roebuck, but Eva's is a better one for music and we would use it here until time to go to Woods Hole, and then we could take it down in the car. So you might send it here by express college. Send it to Dickinson House, South Hadley, via Holyoke. (I should have putin Mount Holyoke College, so that the college express will pick it up.) The express pays the fee and the college will collect from me on my monthly bill.
Fred is to begin working 9 hours a day tomorrow, which means commencing the day at 7 and working until 4:30 with half an hour for lunch. That is so early to leave here - 6:15 instead of 7:15, that we made arrangements for Alma Grace to stay at the school from Monday until Friday afternoon. Sunday nights they will stay in Springfield, at least this Sunday night.
I took Alma Grace to Holyoke yesterday for the smallpox vaccination. That finishes her off for three months; she is to have a whooping cough inoculation in June. She behaves very well. I got both her and Katie (her big doll) new dresses to celebrate finishing the diphtheria inoculations. Katie can wear one year old size - lucky for her as she would soon be threadbare and I will not make doll dresses or even children's dresses. She has been very well since Christmas - lusty and vigorous. She is so hard on her coat and leggings that I am afraid they will not lst until spring. She evidently slides down hills on her seat - whether it is soil or ice does not matter.
Eva wrote that Bill was in Philadelphia. I do wish I could see him. I have not seen him for 6 years - not since he entered college. I understand that he needs a course in journalism so that he knows news. So does Alma Grace. One day she was coasting down a hill in the grounds at school and went off her sled into the pond - perhaps your father told you about it - and got her head so wet and dirty that Mrs. Godell had to wash it. She never said a word about it except to tell Fred that her mittens had to be dried that day, until I began to fuss about her dirty hairribbon - it was a horrid little string and Fred said he had put on a nice one in the morning. She did not consider the event worth mentioning, until we fussed about the hair ribbon.
Alma Grace is now a very well-behaved child. Sheis a great favorite in the house.
What are the prospects of coming here for a visit? I should love to have you come.
If Bill is to be in N.Y. I might make a trip down to see him. Would that be news?
Affectionately yours,
Alma Stokey
Dear Kathleen:
Eva wrote that she had sent her radio to you but that you could not use it on account of the difference in current. She thought that it would be a good idea to send it to Woods Hole but that I should write to you.
The world has been too full of things to write sooner but I now proceed to say that it seems to me that it would be better to send it up here. Fred has a cheap radio - one of Sear Roebuck, but Eva's is a better one for music and we would use it here until time to go to Woods Hole, and then we could take it down in the car. So you might send it here by express college. Send it to Dickinson House, South Hadley, via Holyoke. (I should have putin Mount Holyoke College, so that the college express will pick it up.) The express pays the fee and the college will collect from me on my monthly bill.
Fred is to begin working 9 hours a day tomorrow, which means commencing the day at 7 and working until 4:30 with half an hour for lunch. That is so early to leave here - 6:15 instead of 7:15, that we made arrangements for Alma Grace to stay at the school from Monday until Friday afternoon. Sunday nights they will stay in Springfield, at least this Sunday night.
I took Alma Grace to Holyoke yesterday for the smallpox vaccination. That finishes her off for three months; she is to have a whooping cough inoculation in June. She behaves very well. I got both her and Katie (her big doll) new dresses to celebrate finishing the diphtheria inoculations. Katie can wear one year old size - lucky for her as she would soon be threadbare and I will not make doll dresses or even children's dresses. She has been very well since Christmas - lusty and vigorous. She is so hard on her coat and leggings that I am afraid they will not lst until spring. She evidently slides down hills on her seat - whether it is soil or ice does not matter.
Eva wrote that Bill was in Philadelphia. I do wish I could see him. I have not seen him for 6 years - not since he entered college. I understand that he needs a course in journalism so that he knows news. So does Alma Grace. One day she was coasting down a hill in the grounds at school and went off her sled into the pond - perhaps your father told you about it - and got her head so wet and dirty that Mrs. Godell had to wash it. She never said a word about it except to tell Fred that her mittens had to be dried that day, until I began to fuss about her dirty hairribbon - it was a horrid little string and Fred said he had put on a nice one in the morning. She did not consider the event worth mentioning, until we fussed about the hair ribbon.
Alma Grace is now a very well-behaved child. Sheis a great favorite in the house.
What are the prospects of coming here for a visit? I should love to have you come.
If Bill is to be in N.Y. I might make a trip down to see him. Would that be news?
Affectionately yours,
Alma Stokey
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1.
Eva wrote that she had sent her radio to you but that you could not use it on account of the difference in current.
The radio gets a mention in a letter from Kay to her father and her Aunt Eva the previous month:
1941-02-08 LETTER FROM KAY TO WILL AND EVA
P.S. I think I forgot to tell you that the telegram about the radio arrived after I had written you - later that night - Fortunately I’d already seen about the currents.
This is very helpful in determining that this letter was written in 1941.
2.
Fred has a cheap radio - one of Sear Roebuck, but Eva's is a better one for music
For some reason, I'm always surprised by the indications of how important music was in Alma's life.
3.
Fred is to begin working 9 hours a day tomorrow, which means commencing the day at 7 and working until 4:30 with half an hour for lunch.
This must be Fred's job as a skilled mechanic at the Springfield Armory, the job that finally got Fred full-time work (albeit not as a doctor) after being let go from the Westboro Hospital several years before. This letter was written on Sunday, March 2, 1941 so he started the job on March 3. The Lend-Lease Act wasn't passed until March 11, 1941, but the Armory knew it was coming, I guess.
4.
That is so early to leave here - 6:15 instead of 7:15, that we made arrangements for Alma Grace to stay at the school from Monday until Friday afternoon.
Fred and his daughter Alma Grace (later known as AG) were living with Alma. Fred's wife (and Alma Grace's mother) Sibyl had died in 1937.
5.
I took Alma Grace to Holyoke yesterday for the smallpox vaccination.
Alma Grace turned five the following month. I think that vaccinations are done earlier nowadays.
6.
Eva wrote that Bill was in Philadelphia.
Eva moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta after her sister-in-law Kathleen's death in December 1940, in order to keep house for Will. We know from Kay's letter the previous month that Eva was already in Atlanta, but maybe she had some finishing up to do with moving out of her Philadelphia home. Or maybe Eva was just writing what she and Will had heard from Bill.
7.
Alma Grace is now a very well-behaved child. Sheis a great favorite in the house.
I think Alma must mean Dickinson House, the apartment house where she and Fred were living. Or were they living in Faculty House?
Eva wrote that she had sent her radio to you but that you could not use it on account of the difference in current.
The radio gets a mention in a letter from Kay to her father and her Aunt Eva the previous month:
1941-02-08 LETTER FROM KAY TO WILL AND EVA
P.S. I think I forgot to tell you that the telegram about the radio arrived after I had written you - later that night - Fortunately I’d already seen about the currents.
This is very helpful in determining that this letter was written in 1941.
2.
Fred has a cheap radio - one of Sear Roebuck, but Eva's is a better one for music
For some reason, I'm always surprised by the indications of how important music was in Alma's life.
3.
Fred is to begin working 9 hours a day tomorrow, which means commencing the day at 7 and working until 4:30 with half an hour for lunch.
This must be Fred's job as a skilled mechanic at the Springfield Armory, the job that finally got Fred full-time work (albeit not as a doctor) after being let go from the Westboro Hospital several years before. This letter was written on Sunday, March 2, 1941 so he started the job on March 3. The Lend-Lease Act wasn't passed until March 11, 1941, but the Armory knew it was coming, I guess.
4.
That is so early to leave here - 6:15 instead of 7:15, that we made arrangements for Alma Grace to stay at the school from Monday until Friday afternoon.
Fred and his daughter Alma Grace (later known as AG) were living with Alma. Fred's wife (and Alma Grace's mother) Sibyl had died in 1937.
5.
I took Alma Grace to Holyoke yesterday for the smallpox vaccination.
Alma Grace turned five the following month. I think that vaccinations are done earlier nowadays.
6.
Eva wrote that Bill was in Philadelphia.
Eva moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta after her sister-in-law Kathleen's death in December 1940, in order to keep house for Will. We know from Kay's letter the previous month that Eva was already in Atlanta, but maybe she had some finishing up to do with moving out of her Philadelphia home. Or maybe Eva was just writing what she and Will had heard from Bill.
7.
Alma Grace is now a very well-behaved child. Sheis a great favorite in the house.
I think Alma must mean Dickinson House, the apartment house where she and Fred were living. Or were they living in Faculty House?
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