Madison, Wis. Jan. 16, 1921 Dear Circle: I must get this sheet written before the arrival of the regular Sunday callers because it would be unbecoming to incorporate some of their conversation in this "Robin". We have a gale blowing today that would make a first class blizzard if the snow was not somewhat packed from thawing some yesterday. Since Henry wrote his sheet, the jury of farmers has returned a verdict of "Not Guilty" for the policeman who shot a student last year. And Mrs. Franzen has made up with her husband and run away again to her affinity. We were at the Inagural ball as innocent bystanders and thought it was very decent as to dress and behavior but we left at 10 PM. What the papers saw must have occurred after that till twelve. Gov. Blaine had a special request printed in the daily papers that no evening dress should be worn. So all but a few of the ladies were in waists! I did not vote for Blaine but I like some of the things he has done the past two weeks. He told some of the heads of commissions they'd got to stop those junketing trips at state expense and he informed some officials who objected to having their offices moved from the Capitol to another building for more room, they could move or give up their jobs and they moved. The University is asking all students to be vaccinated as there is considerable smallpox around, and several children have been sick and died from diphtheria at Middleton six miles away. We are in our usual health and hope this will find all of you the same. Best wishes for 1921 from Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Feb 28, 1921 Dear Circle: Last week on Sat. we had such a block of bad news. Rena wrote that Dale was in bed threatened with appendicitis and that Myrta was in the hospital and Henry lost his job the same week, but we hope Myrta is better, Dale is better and Henry is at work in a new capacity. The Democarat sold out to the Journal and Henry goes on with the old firm in the role of bookkeeper in their job printing & binding business. We hope Myrta's illness is not serious, and that Rufus will find something he likes to do that will not be to hard for him. This house is strong with the smell of paint. After five years of use, it began to need attention in various ways so I had the kitchen, bathroom, and sewing room kalsomined and I painted the enamel again. I will continue along the line of refinishing as funds and strength permit. By the end of March, when the taxes are all paid, we will be "as bare of money as a toad is of feathers" as Mr Boothroyd used to say. So everything will have to shaped accordingly. Cal. is away at the Mozart Club practice tonight. Grace went for what promises to be about the last skating of the season tonight. The lake is about to break up if the weather is mild much longer. It has been fine skating all winter. Ruth is busy with helping arrange for the weekend meetings by Sherwood Eddy who comes Friday for over Sunday. The young people of all the churches in the city are co-operating in these meetings. Grace has begun to take music lessons again after a lapse of six years. Our roomer is a music student and Ruth is practicing some each day, too, so we have SOME playing. I have the honor to preside at a meeting tomorrow where I shall introduce the Governor's wife as speaker of the PM. I shall be glad to meet her as I hear she is very democratic. I hope this will find you all well as we are. With love Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Apr. 10, 1921 Dear Circle: The sun is shining today and has removed all the snow which fell all day yesterday. By my last letter I had begun to varnish. Well, I'm still at it. Have the living room and dining room to do yet. It is no joke to refinish all the woodwork and floors of a house and have a family of five living in it at the time. Cal has caught the cleaning fever, too. The past week he has been getting up to paint screens before breakfast. There are 36 windows in this house and all the porch screens besides & the doors. He painted the storm windows as he took them off, too. The most important news I have is the announcement of the engagement of Ruth Genevieve to Leon K. Jones of Seattle, Wash. who is a graduate student in Plant Pathology at Wis. We like him very well. He has worked his way thro' school and will get his Dr's degree next year. They do not plan to be married till then. Ruth comes up for her Masters exam in June, but says she will not try to get her Dr's; will MARRY it instead. Grace has a stiff exam in Chemistry by the State Civil Service in a few days. Well, it was this way about the Gov. Blaine's wife. She was to be the guest of the mother of the former Sec. of State, who is a member of our club. She was going to bring her with her to the club and have her speak to us but some official social duty came up for that day so she couldn't be there. She used to live in Wingra Park so some of the ladies already know her. Tomorrow night Cal, Grace & I are going to hear a company of 100 Grand Opera singers give "Lucia di Lammermoor". It is the San Carlo Opera Co. They claim to be the best travelling co. in America. Cal & I were innocent bystanders to watch the Military ball held Fri. eve in the Capitol. We staid an hour or so. It was a very gay scene with all the ex-service men in uniform and others in full dress, and the girls about half dressed. Eggs were 2 doz for 39 cts last week so we are eating them again now. All well. Love to you all. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. May 15, 1921 Dear Bros. & Sisters- I must send this sheet along tomorow as Henry was quite shocked that I still had it here. He and Lettie & William were here for dinner today. Ella is in Milwaukee for a few days enjoying the twins. I just want to announce that we have the honor of being grandparents since May 10 when little Annie Jean Bitterman was born. We hear from them every day and we know from their letters that she is the sweetest, dearest little maiden ever. The family say that every other remark I make now either refers to how glad I am that little Jean is strong and well or that I have finished housecleaning! Lettie & William came up Sat. to the auto show and have not yet been able to decide on which make of car to purchase. Rather incline to a 5 passenger closed Studebaker. Amelia Churchill has been in Chicago for a couple of days on her way home from a six weeks visit with Helen and Bob in Cleveland. Ruth takes her exam for her Masters degree on Tues. this week. Cal is putting a new shaft in the rear axle of the car and overhauling the engine in spare moments. We want to drive to Janesville next Sunday PM if the weather is fine. The Mozart Club is to sing there & the wives are invited to go too. There is something doing nearly every day this week also. So I must close and go to bed. Love to all. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. June 20, 1921 Dear Circle: Just a note tonight to put in the letter. I am going to Dale's tomorrow to help Rena for a couple of weeks as Jean has had the colic each day and Rena is getting so tired out. Will see most of you then. Must pack my suitcase and get to bed now. Goodnight -- Annie. Madison, Wis. July 28, 1921 Dear Circle: Henry told me to send this letter along on Tues. but we had just got home from a weekend trip to Sturgeon Bay when he brought in over Mon. eve and I was too weary to write. We four started for Sturgeon B. on Fri. morning at 5:30 but when out about seven miles, a key in the rear axle gave out and we had to be pulled back home. It took Cal. all the rest of the day to take the thing apart and get it together again, so we started again Sat. morn. and it went all right that time except for two blowouts before we got to Beaver Dam, where we had to get a new tire. We got to Sturgeon Bay at 5:30 PM and went out to a cherry farm where Ruth's fiance, Mr. Jones, is doing work for the Univ. Sunday morning, we took the two students (Dick & his assistant) with us and drove up the peninsula to Fish Creek, Ephriam & Sister Bay, crossed over to the east side & came back to Sturgeon B along the east shore. The girls staid at the farm till Wed. but Cal & I started on our way home Sun. PM by way of Mil. and got to Manitowoc Wis at 9 o'clock Sun. eve then home at 5:30 Mon eve. Those cherry orchards are wonderful! Only some 15 years since they were just bleak cut over lands apparently worthless till two men from the Ag. dept of the Univ. experimented by planting some cherries. Now, those hundreds of acres of cherry orchards are worth $1000. per acre. The season closes this week; then later the apples are picked. Most orchards have both cherries & apples, some plums but those do not do so well. There are some 8,000 pickers in that section while the cherries are on, brought in by the train load from everywhere. When the cherries get too ripe to ship, the pickers pick them off the stems as they take them from the trees and they are taken to huge canneries in Sturgeon Bay where they are canned on an immense scale for market. We were glad to be able to see all those new sights, but we were pretty tired when we got home. We were glad to see the pictures of Rudolph's family and hope we shall be able to send some of our little grandchild soon. We are as devoted as any other grandparents and did our part in spoiling Jean while we were out there, I guess. We have had three good rains on Sat. Sun. and Tues. and hope you Iowa folks got some too. Bedtime now, so goodnight. Love to you all. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Sept. 11, 1921 Dear Circle: The past ten days have been so full of work and other things that I have neglected the "Robin." Tomorrow Cal is 55 and will celebrate it by working all day, I suppose. Last year we drove to the Dells on his birthday. We drove over some new road today that is under construction from Verona to Mt Horeb and it was about the worst stretch we ever rode over. I'm afraid they won't get it finished before winter. [James Calvin Bitterman b. Sept 12, 1866] Grace was at the State Fair a week ago, helping in the booth of her dep't there. There were several rainy days and the attendance was below the usual number but the exhibits were good. She with several thousands of Milwaukeeans suffered from the "summer flu" while there and for several days after but is feeling all right again now. The rest of us have not had it. I think Chas. must have a large garden to have so many bu. of potatoes. I want to state right here that Cal Bitterman made our garden for the first and only time in the last 31 years, but I think he may go on with the good work from now on. Arthur, will you please use a softer grade of lead pencil. I can hardly read your letter this time and I don't want to miss any of them. It is surely hard times on the farms now with prices so low and crops so short. We have not bought our coal yet but will have to get 10 tons this week, I suppose as colder weather is promised soon. It is $18.00 for hard coal. I wonder if Rufus & Myrta still expect to live in Mason and go down to Nora S. to work each day as they planned to do when we were out in July. I will send the dates and names of the children Charles asks for. Henry forgot to put it in his letter. Goodnight and love from Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - At the Old Homestead. Oct. 16, 1921 Dear Circle: I brought the letter with me when Cal and I came out to the farm Sat. morning. So I will write it and send it to Amelia. Cal had to come out on business and, of course, I couldn't resist seeing Jean again so I came, too. Jean has grown so much since July, and we wish we were near enough to see her oftener. We saw Harold's & Hermine's little son today too, and he seems to be a fine healthy boy for his age. We found Theo was not well when we called today and Marie had her broken limb so Arthur was having to look after them. Marie seems comfortable and the Dr told her she could sit up or get up to sit in the chair if she liked with some help. The limb is in a cast & is broken just above the knee. We had an unpleasant surprise party a short time since when our assessment for the drainage district came. It was the neat sum of $4,387 due Oct 15. We were peeved, for when we have that much to pay, we like to have the fun of spending some of it ourselves. The weather is so fine we wish we had had our car in shape to drive out but Cal had broken an axle and the repairs had not come when we wanted to start, so we came on the train. Dale is plowing yet but some farmers have begun husking, he says. I bought a bushel of potatoes a week ago for $1.75 but hope when the balance, 6 bu, are delivered they may be a little less. My ink is gone, so I will close for this time. With love from Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Dec. 2, 1921 Dear Circle: I see Henry left off to go hear Voliva (pronounced Vul'-i- va). We went too, and heard the great(?) man. He IS great at the waist line. Said he was 51 years old, had never used tobacco or liquor and was the equal of TWELVE average men for hard work, was a born fighter and could gain 25 lbs while he had a good fight on. Told of all the different times he'd been sued & always won out and how he knocked the "pancake batter" out of a certain man who opposed him, etc. etc. Said the earth was flat and that the disarmament conference wouldn't amount to anything. It was just a jumbled harangue, not what one could call a sermon at all. We have had our church fair today, but did not sell all we had to sell. Just a rough summing up before we left showed something over $300. People are not buying so freely nor such expensive things as in former years, on account of unemployment in many cases. Ella told me today that Ray & Theo had rented an apartment in "The Bellview" for four months & were moving. That is right up town & on the lake shore. There have been so many fine musical entertainments the past two months here and still more to come. One can't go to all of them for the tickets are $2.00 generally. I joined the woman's chorus at the Women's Club this year and am enjoying it. Cal is Sec. of the Mozart Club and is busy across the table from me tonight making out a directory of the 60 members. He seems to enjoy singing with them very well. The Mozart Club is bringing Erica Morini on Dec. 15. The finest woman violinist in the U.S. who gets $1000. a night. Dale writes that he had a few days in Des Moines as delegate to the Insurance Convention recently, and visited Ethel & family. The year is waning fast, and I wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy, prosperous New Year. Love to you all. Annie - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, Wis. Dec 28, 1921 Dear Bro's and Sisters: Another year almost gone! Here's wishing the New Year may prove a happy, prosperous one for all. We spent a very pleasant day at Henry's on Christmas and had a big tree with plenty of presents for all, but Roswell and family did not get there till Mon PM as the quarentine for chicken pox was not taken off till then. The twins are fine, hearty boys having their first experience being away from home and nurse. Cal had a half day off on Sat PM so he got busy on the car as one cylinder had not been working right and in putting it together again he pinched one finger very badly and had to stop work before he had it together again. It pained him badly all Xmas day but is much better now. The nail will come off, I think. He has been working at it again tonight & has just got it going again, I hear. We were much surprised and pleased to hear of little Dean Richard's arrival at Herberts. There's nothing quite like being grandparents, Rufus. I was surprised to find Charles in the Editorial ranks and furnishing such spicy quips, too. It must be hereditary. Even I have written locals for the county paper. I don't like Betty's way of counting years. That's skipping along all together too fast. Had a letter from Jennie Bitterman Allen at Hollywood, Cal. this week. Jen & Will & Kate Warren & Frank live together in a five room house renting for $40 per mo. and every thing much cheaper than in the middle west. Carfares 5 cts to any place in Los Angeles. Jay & Trullie Schulte are also going to Cal. and will locate, if a suitable opening is found. Lilly Tribon died a few days ago following an operation. Grace Jones (our roomer) is in Yonkers N.Y. called by the death of her sister from tuberculosis. We are in our usual health and hope this finds you all the same. The young folks who are hang-overs between semesters are enjoying the fine skating on the lakes. Even I have had an invitation to go, but so far have refrained. Best wishes to all for the New Year-- Annie.