Mrs. J. C. Bitterman Mason City, Ia. Jan. 25, 1940 Dear Circle: It is cold outside but cozy indoors. We had a card from Jennie today. They are at McAllen, Texas, and she said "Don't come down here. There are no rooms available and we wear coats & overcoats all the time. We have a cabin at $3.00 per day, the only one we could find in four towns." McAllen is in the very south part of Texas. So we will continue to be comfortable in Iowa. I see this is Amelia's birthday and I hope she has had a very happy one, and will have as many more as she can enjoy. A little thing like giving a book review of a 972 page book before the Reading Club doesn't cause a ripple in her well-ordered 79 years. Verily, a woman is as old as she feels! Cal & I have just read "Gone With the Wind" that has 1036 pages & we jointly found that an 8 day job reading aloud. On Tues. PM Cal & I & Rena went to Cy & Ella Berk's golden wedding "Open House". They live on their farm near Rockford, Ia. She was Ella Jackson, Amelia. Sylvia, Mitchell, and Annie were there, also. Sylvia married Jason Berk, & Annie married Mr O'Keefe & they live in Omaha. Myrta & Mitchell are single. Mitchell lives with Ella & Cy, and Myrtie lives with Annie. Gene Fuller was there. He married Sophia Boothroyd for his first wife but she died & he married again. He is a cousin of Cy Berk's. Ella is quite spry but Cy is not so very well. Cal went down to the farm today. He says Dale has just bought a new hay loader. He had been using one that Cal bought when Ward's left the farm about 1894. Cal went fishing one day this week. The river near here is partly frozen over but is open where there is a little fall and the fish get out on the ice and freeze to death. He picked up two carp a couple of feet long & put them in a tub of water but they didn't come back to life, so we did not use them. He never caught one larger than a PERCH before. Other men were throwing them in their cars with pitchforks. So I suppose some people use them. As I recall it, those taken from the lakes at Madison were shipped to New York for the Jews to eat. I hope you all keep well. There is considerable "flu" around but so far we have escaped. Love to you all. Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. March 1, 1940 Dear Circle: Well, March came in like a lamb today, HERE, but rain or snow is forecast for tomorrow. It always seems like spring when March comes tho' we may expect some wintery days yet. We are "real kind of busy" as Mrs Jackson used to say, in light of our coming Golden Wedding Anniversary on the 19th. We hope to see all of our friends who can come on that day, and that includes our relatives, of course. We hope the day will be as fine as the one 50 years ago. Ruth and Grace are coming but not the families. It is some problem to arrange for all to be comfortable in a house of this size but, for all other times, I would not wish it any larger. There are ten of the group that were guests at our wedding who are still living and we hope to see most of them on the 19th. We have escaped the prevailing "Flu" & throat trouble so many are having, so far. Grace writes they have all had it but Noel F. Cal has been out getting Ins. for the Farmers Mutual Co. this week. He has Mason Twp. & Mason City and he, also, has tornado Ins, too. He wrote $69,000 during Feb. I saw Edith Wilkinson uptown recently & she said Mabel & Leonard Bliem had arrived home from their Florida trip and Mabel thought it had done Leonard good. Some Mason City people have gone down just for 10 days vacation. It seems quite a trip for so short a time. Dale and Cal went at it & topped all the tall maple trees in the house yard at the farm to make them branch out lower down. They look strange just now but will be better when leafed out. I think those two are the real "Modern Woodmen." Our big chunks of wood have kept us very nice & warm all winter. If you ask me, I think that armless woman has more than her hands full with 9, but the Closterman family are a fine looking group and the parents, too. Here's hoping you are all well, as we are, at present. Love from Annie E. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. Apr. 19, 1940 Dear Circle: Today it's raining, and there is a steady stream of good soft water running into our cistern. We would have been out of soft water if Cal hadn't shovelled a lot of clean new snow into it just after the last snow. Cal put the fish out a while ago and I see some tulips are appearing, and he asked me yesterday if he should dig some of the garden but now it will be too wet for a time. I'm entertaining my old enemy lumbago and have not found much relief from the treatments I've been taking for several weeks. The older I get, the longer each spell lasts. With Cal's help, we get our little house keeping done and when the sun shines warm again I may feel better. I managed to finish filling in all the details of the Golden Wedding in our Guest Book yesterday. We have the names of 100 guests who were present, 53 cards of congratulation came, 19 letters and ten telegrams. It surely was a happy day for us. Grace stayed till Easter Sunday & Ruth stayed till the following Thurs., so they were here for a nice visit, and we were happy to see every one who came. Last Sun. PM we went to Mr & Mrs Phil Kehm's golden wedding anniversary, and we are invited to join a Golden Wedding Club here on Thurs. whose members are all past their 50th anniversary. I think we will join. They have occasional dinners & picnics. I am sorry to say that Blanche Wilkinson is in St Mary's hospital at Rochester recuperating from an operation. Theodore is with her and we have not heard how she is since Sun. PM but surely hope she is gaining. Arthur, I think you letters are getting more natural and you can't help it if the ink won't stay in the pen. Farmers haven't really begun field work yet around here. It is still too wet from two rainy days we've had. It's anybody guess who will rule Europe in another month. I'm so glad we are Americans. Love to you all. Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. May 13, 1940 Dear Circle: I see I've had this letter a week so must send it on to Wendell. Today I've done a two weeks washing, cleaned the porch & set out the tomato plants. Yesterday, I picked my first bouquet of the season, of tulips and spirea, for the table. We had Dale, Rena & Janet for dinner, a combined Mother's Day & Dale's birthday dinner, for he is busy today (13th) planting corn. Jean had gone down to Ames for Veishea days and had not returned at noon Sunday. It has been very warm today. Cal has been building fence around the pasture at the lower farm for three days so the cattle could be put out to pasture. Before that he helped Dale put electricity into two sets of farm buildings near Dale's, and at one farm he saw something entirely new to us. They raise White- Leghorn chickens and on every one was a pair of aluminum spectacles fasted on thro' the nostrils like nose glasses. They are to prevent the chickens from fighting each other!! Yesterday PM we went up to Ned DeGraw's. They were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary with Open House to their friends. Saw most of the Holdens, Celia, Oliver, Arthur & his wife. They have four nice children now. They have three girls and the baby is a boy, Eugene. They live on the home farm, and Arthur's wife has made a big improvement in the house inside. Maggie's daughter Ethel Hill, had just returned from her honey moon trip to Canada & Niagara Falls. She married a Mr Hungerford and they will live on a farm just north of Manly. Ella, Grace wrote me that your talk at the Woman's Club was very interesting and you did it well. We may go back to Madison in June to do some repair work at 1717 Chadbourne. Trullie says they plan to come to Iowa in June, on the train, & get a new car & drive it home. Ruth and Dick are busy with house plans & hope to get it ready to move in by Sept. Bedtime now. Love to you all. Annie B. P.S. That stamp was for Wendell to use but he missed it, it seems. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hawthorn Cottage. June 24, 1940 Dear Circle: I am "monarch of all I survey" so long as I stay inside our garden fence while Cal is in Madison doing repair work at 1717 Chadbourne Ave. He and Dale went to Mad. Sunday and will do shingling & some painting if the weather permits, for a week. But if the day was as windy there as it has been here today, I don't see how they could keep a shingle any where that wasn't nailed down. I'm not keen about having J.C. doing that sort of work at his age but he still claims he doesn't mind being up high, if he fixes the staging himself. The rain we had on Sat. night was most welcome, and did not do the harm here that Rufus says they saw it had done farther south toward Nevada. The rain and wind had blown down both grain and corn near Ames. Rufus & Myrta drove down to Charles' on Sunday and found him better and able to be up, with liquid food about every hour. Ethel & Emerson were there also. Ethel is suffering from sciatica severly at present. We are surely having extremes of temperature these days. We had a furnace fire on Fri. last week, and have had 90o other days. Our Sweet corn in the garden is knee-high, but just now we have only lettuce & rhubarb & gooseberries from our garden Jay & Trullie & Theodore are visiting among the relatives and friends for a few weeks. Trullie says she'll never go back on Iowa. She is thoroughly enjoying all this lush green grass that grows without being watered by hand. Rufus Wilkinson made front page news last week when a lone bandit robbed the Rock Falls bank of $700. and got away, at least, for the present. That was a VERY GOOD talk, Ella, about your club and you surely did well to remember it so well. Arthur had a letter from Edith Beatty in Penn. telling of Uncle Will's death June 10 after a fall in which his hip was broken. Young Will Pickford has just been pensioned by the firm he has worked for the past 50 years. It will soon be time for the family picnic. I wonder how many will be able to go. Love to you all from Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. Aug. 3, 1940 Dear Circle: I hope you all got home from the re-union safely. We got back to Madison at 8:30 PM Sun. eve. Dale's stayed in Madison at Grace's till after dinner on Monday. We were just about to retire at Mrs Ulve's (where we slept while I was there) when the doorbell rang and Mrs Ulve came in. She had been away at Boscobel for a week and had asked us to stay nights at her house to look after things. She had returned at noon Sun. but couldn't get in as we had the key, but she visited some friends near by till she saw a light in her house after we returned. Cal worked at our house till Wed. eve. Then Thurs. at 8 AM we & Mrs Ulve drove to Oconomowoc to see Mr Ulve who has been taking treatment there since April at the Parker Memorial Hospital for nervous cases. He knew us but he is VERY THIN & LISTLESS. We got home again by 12, had lunch at Grace's, packed our grips and were off for Iowa at 2:10 PM and were at 718 N. Carolina Pl. at 7:30. The time it takes for the trip is gradually shortening. But I can't say I like riding at 50 & 60. The rains of late have revived the lawns & gardens and corn fields but is hindering the threshing. Dale is having one field combined and the ground is so thoroughly soaked that, even tho' tiled, they have to have an extra tractor to help pull the combine in places, and the shocks in fields are growing. I just called Rufus' telephone no. and found they had returned from their western trip this AM, so I will give him the letter & he can dilate on his latest jaunt. He said they had lovely cool weather after the first two days and until they reached Omaha on their return trip. The Penn. Pickford's are having a Re-union of their own in Aug. Our group was well represented. Only Charles' branch & Rufus' branch and Cyril Lamson's had no representatives present. We hope Charles is getting back to normal by this time. Ella seemed about as usual after a short sick spell the week before the re-union. Love to you all. from Annie & Cal. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [In September Cal must have had a serious illness or a fall; something that is not clear from the following letters. ] Hawthorn Cottage. Oct. 7, 1940 Dear Circle: There seems to have been a break in the circle the last time around, and my sheet slipped thro' it. But this time, I'm happy to say Cal is getting back to normal again. He has been up and about the house each day for a week now and I took him to the farm one fine day & he and I went up town & out in the country a few miles another day & he DROVE. So he is much pleased to be doing things again. He lies down often during the day but he walks better each day, I can see. He will still have to have some treatments when able to go up to the hospital, but only once a week. Ella, I think $100. is rather high for four days in the hospital and no operation in connection. The weather is so fine most of the time that winter will be here almost before we know it. Each time I pick the string beans, I think it will be the last but, so far, they are not frosted. We have a few roses out yet, too, and the dahlias and marigolds are above my head. In a letter from Ruth today, she says their new house is progressing nicely. It is to be white shingled sides with green roof & shutters, and the contract calls for it to be finished by Dec. 1. Grace sent these snap shots of two groups taken at Madison & Devils Lake last July. Gus & Ida Heinselman brought Effie Parsons to see us a while Sun. PM She had been out to Denver since June visiting her sister Lulu who has lived out there 18 years. Effie and Lulu are Uncle George's daughters, Charles. One wonders how this war is coming out, and how our own political affairs will shape themselves. It seems such a tangled mass. But here's hoping for the best. Love from Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hawthorn Cottage. Nov. 11, 1940 Dear Circle: Rufus and Myrta brought the letter over last eve, and annouced it was Rufus' birthday (a fact I had forgotten). Our days here are so alike that i scarcely notice the day of the month. Rufus would pass for 55 sooner then 71, and, with his new dentures, he is as handsome as ever he was. Cal had a relapse after I wrote last. He was too ambitious and developed a high temp. for several days, so the Dr put him in bed till the temp. was normal again., which was a week, and since then he has been dressed in the PM, but still lies down a lot, so he has not gained strength as fast as I'd like. He gets discouraged when he thinks of not being able to forge ahead, as usual, anymore but when we read Ella's letter telling of Mrs Krohn's mother with BOTH LEGS amputated, he didn't seem so helpless. Ella, that surely is a fine record for these days, TEN boys and none of them used tobacco or liquor! Today we are having our first winter weather and a RAGING BLIZZARD, and are very glad we have the storm windows on & the garden out to bed for the winter. The forecast said it would be 5o below zero by night. Arthur, use a pencil all the time. Your letter sounded like your self again. Charles writes as smoothly & evenly as ever, and it looks fine but I could read it more easily if he left a bit more space between words. Rufus must have turned over a new leaf, for he filled a WHOLE SHEET of paper this time. Let the good work go on. I managed to knit new feet on two pairs of wool socks for Cal while listening to the political talks before election, but I don't get much else done but the housework these days. So when they announce "so many days till Christmas", it don't mean a thing to me. I just want Cal to get strong and be able to be up & around all day again. Best wishes to you all. from Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. Dec. 16, 1940 Dear Circle: The world outside really looks like Christmas now. We had about 10 in. of fresh show Sunday & Mon. and the snow shovels are out in force. We have two neighbors children who come over to clean our walks, for Cal can not do anything like that this winter. He has looked after the furnace lately, by going down the stairs carefully & moving slowly, but that is as much as he can do in the line of work. He drives the car all right but is clumsy about getting in & out. Today we had planned on going to Nora S. to the funeral services for Eliza Senior who died last Friday, but it was such a blizzard all forenoon & at the time we we should have been on the way, that we gave it up. The burial was to be in the Reed Cemetery near Theron Reed's farm & I'm afraid they would find some drifted roads. A growth had formed in Eliza's throat and she could take only liquid food, just a sip at a time. The Methodist minister & his wife took her to Rochester but the Drs. there nothing could be done for her because of her age. So the minister & his wife took her into their home & cared for her till her death. She was 82. I had a happy birthday on the 6th and felt like a different person than on Dec. 6, 1938 in the hospital at Madison. Have been feeling well all summer for which I am very thankful. Ruth & Dick have moved into their new house this month. Their address is now 414 Illinois Ave. Pullman. I can realize just how Ruth is enjoying an entirely new home as I did when we moved into our new house in Madison in May 1916. Cal has read 16 books since being around the house. Reads aloud to me when I can listen and I like that, for I've been making some simple Xmas gifts whle he reads, and have them ready to send now. Best wishes to you all for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And love from Annie.