Sunday, January 27, 1918 Dear Circle:- We have been to church and had our dinner and now I will ans. some letters. The "Robin" first. Yesterday, Theo got a cablegram from Ray saying he was comfortably and permanently settled in France but nothing to indicate where or at what work, Amelia says. Amelia had a chance yesterday to rent her house furnished for four months and, as her roomer was going to change locations anyway, she is thinking of taking this chance of escaping firing the furnace the balance of the winter and go down to Ediths. Amelia Churchill has permanently closed her home in Monroe this winter and is at Ethels now. Ethels boys have all had the whooping cough but are better now. We have been quite well here all winter. Arthur the Dr. here told me to go to bed for a week and keep warm and quiet and take the medicine he gave me to get rid of lumbago. Cal is enjoying having a comfortable warm office to be in this winter. He has a call tomorrow to a farm 18 miles S.E. of Dodgeville where a man is said to be starving his cattle. He is to go to Dodgeville on the train but will perhaps have to drive the rest of the way. He is not enjoying the prospect. If it were not for the SNOW he could easily drive across country. The place is a few miles N.W. of New Glarus. The autos here are having a decided rest this winter. Our garden has three ft. of snow on a level on it. We are heating only the bathroom upstairs this winter. Cal fixed a ceiling over the front stairs and we hung a curtain at the 2nd landing which helps to conserve fuel mightily, but we have only enough coal to last this week. Then we may have to make some of our forehanded relatives a visit of some length till we get more fuel. Now, don't all speak at once. Rufus and Myrta will enjoy their new improvements this weather, I guess. We hope Charles is in his ususal health again. I think, Amelia, no one is old in these days till they are too feeble to move about, which does not apply to any of the Pickfords yet! Love to you all from Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Feb. 27, 1918 Dear Circle- I have been on the eve of getting the circular letter for about ten days but have not seen it but tomorrow Cal and Henry have promised to get in conjunction and bring it to me. They only see each other every day so one can't expect things to move too rapidly. Most of last week Cal was up at the Auto Show as Supt. and walked home Sat. night at 1:30 AM after it was finally over and the cash counted, and the street cars had stopped running and he took cold which settled in his teeth and he had neuralgia till this morning when it suddenly ceased, and he went back to work. Ruth was home for the weekend for the vacation between semesters. For a time, they will have six school days a week to make up some of the time they've lost this year for various reasons. The snow is slowly disappearing and I took stock of my garden seeds yesterday. I shall have to test my seed corn from 1916 to see if it is good for I didn't get any from 1917, and they say the garden seed supplies are short this year. Grace and I are planning on having a war garden this summer on a vacant lot near us and if I can scare up the cost price, I am going to have a swarm of bees. One of our neighbors got 50 lbs of honey from her swarm last year. I think the Gov't had better kill off some of the hogs on Hog Island and not have to float quite so many Liberty Loans. Profiteers of that kind are WORSE than Pro-Germans, I think. Love to all from Annie. I think Charles is quite a poet. The Pickfords just "nachelly" don't waste things. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Mar 24, 1918 Dear Circle- The "Robin" is flying by a different route this time. Goes to Fennimore from here. Henry went down there today to spend Sunday and will come back on Monday noon with Ella who has been down there since Friday noon. We are very glad to hear that all the sick are better and hope they will be in their usual health soon. We had no church services today as the temperance speaker who was to be here did not get here. And Byran has put off his temperance lecture in favor of Vice Pres. Marshall who talks on politics this week. I hope the dry element will win again, but it looks dubious. I registered so I could vote on whether the school board of Madison should be appointed by the council as now or elected by the people. I wish I could vote for temperance, too. Grace and I (on Henry's tickets) enjoyed the concert given by David & Clara Mannes last night. They are artists on the violin & piano. Mrs Mannes was formerly Clara Damrosch of N.Y.City. Cal has the yard raked and has made me a cold frame to plant my seeds out doors. I am testing my 1916 seed corn. It has been in since Thurs. and shows no signs of sprouting yet. The Ass'n of Commerce has had 4 carloads of potatoes shipped in from up north the past week & sells them out at 80 cts per bu. Love to you all from Annie We were glad to see the boys corn judging picture and are proud of their score. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis May 12, 1918 Dear Bro's. and Sisters:- The "Robin" is nice and fat this month having taken the trip a little slower the last time. We have a robins nest in our attic window where we can look at them at close range. Grace is taking Ornithology this Semester and goes up to observe them often. They take bird "hikes" in that class and have to be up on the campus at 6:30 AM to meet the teacher. She likes the work but it makes a long day for her. She has gone to Whitewater on an auto trip with the Unitarian Y. People today to visit a former member who married this spring and lives on a farm near there. Yesterday Mr Schoelkopf, Pres of the Ass'n of Commerce, invited Cal and two other friends to go to Fond du Lac with him in his car to a demonstration of the new tractor Ford has put out. Henry F. insists that all dealers handle them entirely without profit as a war measure. Cal has resigned from the Humane work as there was too much work with both of them, for the Ass'n of Commerce is taking up new lines of activity this year and they wanted all his time. He likes the Ass'n work very much. There is something different every day and it is indoors & out also so he is not confined to a desk, tho the office he has on the 4th floor has a beautiful view over the city and Lake Monona. I notice Ellen quite often says in her letters now "I am alone this evening" and it will probably occur more frequently from now on. Cal has been at the office evenings for over a month of this allotting of war gardens. That is easing up a little now and I hope to have him at home once a week at least. He took lunch and often super up town also as our auto has been overhauled and is not yet together, but we hope to have it again this week. I have planted only half the garden yet but must get the rest in soon. Dale is 27 tomorrow and I wish he lived near enough to come home for his birthday dinner. Ruth writes that she has accepted a position as Botany teacher in Eau Claire high school for next year at $95. per mo. They have two botany teachers there and a well equpped science room. They have taken German out of the Bangor (?) school the last 6 weeks, so she teaches Latin instead. Did that cyclone strike any of you Iowa folks on Fri.? The Dem. said that there were 3 killed in Mason C. We are glad to know where Charles is located and hope they find it pleasant there. Goodnight and love from Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wis. June 30 1918 Dear Circle: My pen and ink are so poor I have taken to a pencil. Was glad to hear from all of you and know that you are all well, and I guess we're all about as busy as can be. We were glad to hear of Arlyn's good position & Paul's lucrative job. Grace is ledger clerk at the gas office but only gets $50 a month; being a woman. Ruth is in summer school now which keeps her busy all the time. She has met several people of late who have known Harold & his wife either at Ames or Menominee and all speak very highly of them. Lettie and William are up from Monroe for a week. We were invited over to Ethels for supper Thurs. We drove to Bangor Wis to bring Ruth home when her school was out June 14th. We went by way of Kilbourne and Sparta and north of Kilbourne, the roads were hills or sand. One big hill north of Mauston, called by the natives "The Ridge", was too much for the old Overland and halfway up it refused to proceed on account of the boiling water in the radiator but the highway patrolman came along with a team and pulled us up. He said the state was going to spend $40,000 to make that old hill passable or go around it. It is a desolate, sandy country up toward Sparta. We came home by way of LaCrosse, Viroqua and Richland Center and found a very hilly, picturesque with very fertile valleys & wooded hills. Had a flat tire at Black Earth but no other tire trouble. Grandma Bitterman writes us that Milt and Mamie have just been there, having driven from North Platte, Nebr. in their car. About fifty cars from points in Illinois came into M. yesterday enroute to Sparta to see the soldier boys up there who are very soon to be sent across. We have had two good rains the past week and gardens are growing well. We have had peas and will have string beans tomorrow I think, also beets. A young lady from Toledo, Ohio who is at summer school, came to our church the past two Sundays. We find she is from England a few miles from where father and mother lived. She has lived here seven years. There about 2000 in summer school, about 360 less men than last year. Well, I must close. With love to you all. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Oct. 6, 1918 Dear Circle: The "Robin" arrived on the 4th and had been a long time on the way. If my memory serves me right, I wrote a sheet for it but when it came this time, there was no sheet of mine in it. Perhaps some of you felt moved to have it framed as a sample of Spencerian Penmanship! We have been to church and there was a good attendance. Charles, the Dr. Foster who is our minister is the same Dr. Foster who used to be a Baptist but out grew that belief and is now a Liberal in Religion. The church is filled each Sunday with people who enjoy his sermons. The gasolineless Sundays are still in force so M. is as quiet as the farm. Last Sunday Cal had a permit from the Fuel Admin. to use our car to get the tent & etc used by the soldiers in guarding the airplane which spent the night in a field around Lake Monona. But that is all the use we've had of it since the 1st of Sept on Sunday. In the paper yesterday was a mention of allotting so much gasoline to each car owner and letting him use it when most convenient which surely seems more fair. We got home from Iowa in a hurry, 13 hours, but the three days spent going out leave a dark brown taste in our mouths. With the extra tubes we had to buy, etc, it was a little more expensive that to have gone on the train. However, we were glad to see you all again at home. Soon after we got home on Sat. Sept 21 we received the sad news of the death of Ronald Mahre the young man to whom Ruth was engaged. He was at Great Lakes Naval Station and was sick only a short time with Spanish Influenza which developed into pneumonia. He was such a fine, healthy ambitious young man that we can not realize yet that we shall never see him again. It is heart breaking to think of the lives that have been sacrificed by this terrible war and by disease. There are some 200 cases among the soldiers stationed in Madison but no deaths have been reported here yet. Arthur, Grace would like Rollo's address when he gets across. University began on Thurs Oct 3. Grace has French this year so I studied her first lesson with her. This is part of it. "Voici la papier sur la table" = Here is the paper on the table but doesn't sound a bit like it. I fear I shall not be able to master a foreign language. Ella has charge of a church supper tomorrow night for 100 and I am to help her. The problem is how to feed 100 without using any sugar as none is to be had. However, she says it is to be done for 50 cts per. Ellen, I wish I had a keg of that new sorghum. We eat molasses now as in days of old with butter at 65 cts per lb. I am thro' house cleaning for which I am thankful and still have much sewing to do. This leaves us well as I hope you all are. Affectionately your sister Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison Wis. Nov. 3, 1918 Dear Circle- This is another quiet Sunday. Everything still closed and 6000 cases of "flu" still in the city. We have not had it so far but Cal is having a very stiff neck yesterday and today. It has been rainy each Sunday since the gov't removed the ban from gasoline so there have not been many cars in use for that reason. Ruth is having an extended vacation at Eau Claire and writes that it may continue for two more weeks but she thinks there is less danger of getting the "flu" there than if she were at home so she thinks she will stay there. She is tutoring in Latin and helping the Exemption board with questionaires, etc. For the benefit of the feminine members of the circle, I want to mention a labor saving stunt I've learned of late. It may not be new to them but it was to me. Wash windows with a chamois skin. Wring out of warm water, wash over the glass; rinse the chamois in the water, wring out & wipe the glass and Presto! no lint and all done. The neighbor who lent me her chamois to try had used hers seven years and it was still good. Mine cost 50 cents. I wonder what this talk of peace will come to. I do hope they will put in a provision to do away with the Hohenzollern* family from the face of the earth. There will be no safety with any of them alive for trickery is the breath of life to them. They seem to be rushing troops across as fast as ever in the face of this peace talk. Rena writes that her brother Ray went last week. He is a Lieutenant. I have not been up town for a month. Cal and Grace go away every day but there is nothing going on but business and so I stay here and make over old clothes to do another year. Madison is to be on an Aeroplane mail route from Minneapolis to Chicago at the end of Nov. Hoping this finds you all well. I am Your affectionate sister Annie [* A German royal family including rulers of Brandenburg, Prussia and Germany from 1415 to 1918.] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis Dec 15 1918 Dear Circle- Talking of color schemes set me to looking about and this is the result. [this is written in white ink on bright pink paper] We were glad you are all well. We are well as usual yet. Ruth came home again to stay till after Charistmas last week. She had taught six weeks, had six weeks vacation and then taught ten days more, then the schools were closed till after the holidays hoping by that time that the epidemic will have abated. Schools are still open here. Ruth took the serum treatment used by the Mayo Brothers at Rochester which they claim insures if not immunity, only a very light case. The Eau Claire board of health gave the citizens the three "shots" free. Here the U. clinic does not put much faith in it. What shall we do when Drs. disagree? Our pastor Dr. Foster is very seriously ill following an operation about a week ago. We are indeed sorry to hear this. He has given us such fine sermons. We expect to spend Xmas at Henry's and hope Kate will be able to join in the fun. She was brought home from the hospital yesterday but must not step on her foot for ten days. We took a little ride to the fish hatchery this PM. The first ride for weeks. The S.A.T.C. are to be demobilized by Dec. 21 and the question now is, how many of the men will come back to college? There are various estimates. Will Gerald go to Ames, now, Rufus? Roswell and Ray will have a different story of war time from some of those poor boys who were in the trenches. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from us all. Annie [Selective Army Training Corps ?