Mrs. J. C. Bitterman Mason City, Ia. Jan. 17, 1942 Dear Circle: Well, I haven't done much today but wash the dishes from the club supper here last night and straighten up the house. When 29 people try to eat supper in as small a house as this one they have to sit shoulder to shoulder, but we had a good time. Our new neighbors on the south moved in to their new house on Wednesday and our street will look quite neat next summer when they get their yard landscaped instead of the jungle of sumac that lot has been ever since we've lived here. The temp. has been so mild the past few days that our shuffle board court dried off, so much so, that Cal and Will Millington played several games yesterday PM. Cal has planned to try to make a record of games every month of the year, showing IOWA as a winter resort free from air raids, etc. I am planning to do Red Cross work when there is enough of a supply to reach around. We have been short of material at two meetings I attended. Ella, I have two rugs waiting to be hooked & I will start on them if the Red Cross does not provide anything. Do you think you ever run out of material? Rufus, Cal hasn't even offered to wash windows for me this winter. If he will do it when the storm windows come off, I'll be satisfied. We are in our usual health and hope you all are the same. Love to all. Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. Mar. 7th '42 Dear Bros & Sisters: This is the 4th letter today and when it is finished it will be bedtime. I'm sorry to say Myrta is in bed with the intestinal "Flu", for the past few days, but hope she will be back to normal soon. Rufus told me this was the first sick spell she had had since she had her operations at Rochester, years ago. Which is more than SOME of us can say. We have been quite free from colds this winter. Wendell says Theodore is in the hospital at present threatened with pneumonia. It doesn't seem to agree with Ella to live in Eau Claire. She so often gets sick up there. But she surely is a busy person with her rug work at home. I did not get any Red Cross work to do so I hooked a rug since I wrote last to use up some old clothes & make them useful again. Have another one to do but it is coming house cleaning time soon, so may not get at it for awhile. The seed catalogs are coming & that makes one plan our door work in Apr. We are urged to grow & can all we can possibly raise this year; so our little garden patch will have to "sit up & take notice". It always gives us beans & tomatoes to can & green things to cook all summer. Cal has been finishing up a recreation room for a friend this week and says he will paint the outside of our house the second coat when it gets a little warmer. Florence & Earl [Dean] & family were here for dinner last Sunday. The children had just got over the measles, and Janet was out of school two weeks with measles in January. We are sorry that our young men have to be tangled in this utterly useless war, caused by the greed of those heartless dictators. We are in our usual health and have had a comfortable winter. Love to you all from Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Iowa. Apr. 6, 1942 Dear Circle: I see the date above is Father's birthday date, and Ella's letter telling of Wm Steven's two children made me look in my family record to see if I had the name & date of Wm's second child and I do not have it & Myrta does not have it, either. [Sarah Jane (Sally) Stevens, b. Nov 26, 1941.] Rufus left the letter Sun. while we were away, and when I read it, I was glad the pictures I sent came back again, tho' the letter was missing. I wondered if I had unwittingly mentioned something the Gov't though had to be censored or if it was such an elegant specimen of letter writing that some of you wanted it as a keepsake! But Imo solved the mystery, telling me it was overlooked at their house and I could call for it. Easter Sunday was much colder than Sat.'s 78o but no rain till in the PM. We went to church at 10:20. Esther Senior Stinehart played a 20 min. concert on the pipe organ before the regular church service. She is a fine musician. We were invited to Jennie's for dinner and had a fine one. Then at three o'clock, we drove to Plymouth, where Mr & Mrs Stevens had asked us to go to Forest City, Ia. to make arrangements with the Sec. for the Golden Wdding dinner at the Methodist Church in Nora S. on Thurs. this week. Had a tire down on the way home but the two men got it changed before another shower came on. I have just been out in the garden tying the roses to the trellis before the leaves get started. It is too cold to do more out there, today. Tomorrow, a cooking school begins in the High S. during Easter vacation. I shall go to some of the sessions. Cal is putting on the second coat of paint on the house when the days are warm enough, and I have finished house cleaning except some curtains & bedding to wash yet. Cal painted the kitchen again & it looks nice now. We are both well and Myrta says, today, she is better too. Love to you all from A.E.B. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hawthorn Cottage. May 10, '42 Dear Circle: Our guests have just left for home. Dale's family were here for Mothers day & Jean's birthday (21) dinner. Jean has been at home with the MUMPS for two weeks but Dale & Janet took her back to Ames just after dinner. Rena and her mother (Mrs. Johnson) stayed later & Rena's brother called for them & took them home. Our neighborhood has been in blossom the past week or two. All the hawthorn trees are a mass of bloom, and the lawns are so grren & the tulips so bright. All so peaceful and such a contrast to the other side of the world. Our garden grows slowly for the temp. has been well down toward a frost. We have rhubarb and some asparagus but it needs more warmth. We have had a gas heating plant put in, and have had it running each day since May 1st. We ordered it in April. The next day a man came & said the Gov't had "frozen" all such things that morning, so we got some wood from the farm when Cal fixed the pasture fence & was content to go on as usual. Then in a few days, he came again & said they could install all orders that were booked before Apr. 15. So they put it in. Then the next day, we read of a break in the pipe line in Ark. but the Mason C. Co. has a big tank full; in case something happens, they make their own. We gave our wood to a neighbor, who has a FIRE PLACE! We can't burn even a match now! We are wondering if there will be a family picnic this year with gas & tire rationing. We think it might be called off for the duration. Well, I haven't shopped for a thing this year so far, Ella, so I am being economical of both time and money. I hope I found the lace I needed for that dress, Ella, but Amelia & I have had only about 1/10 of the dresses you have had, so had to be careful in buying. We are well and find something to do each day. Love to you all. Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hawthorn Cottage. June 10, 1942 Dear Circle: A little more rain after a few days without it. Cal was at the farm today and yesterday planning to lay some more tile to drain a spot that is too wet to cultivate. He said the tile they will join to was running half full. We had a busy week in Madison that we enjoyed. We went to a luncheon of the Wingra Park Aid society honoring 50 years of service on Tues. noon. Then on Tues. eve, we went to the 40th anniversary of the Mozart Club. On Wed. we were at Ella's 85th birthday party from 2 PM to 10 PM and that was some party! and the lady herself was the handsomest 85 yr old lady I ever knew, and she STOOD nearly all that time from 2 to 10 PM, and the next day was as lively as ever & her rug club gave her a birthday cake & a handkerchief shower of about 35 handkys. She could pass for 20 years yonger than she is. We were glad to have a chance to visit with Amelia, also. Grace wrote the week went by so fast, it was as if it had never been. Thurs. this week we expect to have Rev & Mrs Wirt of Pullman, Wn. Cong'l church, a minister friend, two Univ. girls & Alice Jones who is Pres. of the Young Peoples group, over night on their way to a biennial Convention of Cong'l churches at Durham, New Hampshire. They are diriving through. We hope they get there & back safely. The garden is growing fast but the sugar shortage slows up the canning some. Love to you all. Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Harthorn Cottage. July 23, '42 Dear Circle: I wrote my last sheet on June 10, but with that spell of hot weather we had a week ago, one didn't feel like writing letters or doing any thing else. But this week has been grand & Dale has finished cutting his oats & has the shocking done. Iowa is beautiful just now. The grain is cut, the corn is tall & green & the beans cover the ground like a carpet. When we left the farm, we had never heard of soy beans and now they are one of the important crops raised. Today, Rena called up & said they had many string beans that should be used, so I got out my jaloppy & picked a lot & spent the rest of the day in cold packing them. In my 52 years of making garden, I had come to believe that string beans and zinnias were "fool proof", but there are exceptions to all rules, it seems. This year my own beans yield 2 pts. of beans & my zinnias have so far offered me not a single blossom, and the soil & treatment are as usual. The Shasta daisies and the platycodon are doing what they can to make up the deficiency. Cal has been waging war on some thistles in the pasture on the farm for part of two days but finds time for some shuffle board almost every day. One needs some amusement to counteract the gloomy world situation. Our neighbor across the street has gone to Nebr. as an electrician in a Gov't plant. He came home over Sun, rented their house & took his wife with him for the "duration" & draws $91.50 per WEEK. He said there was nothing doing in his line here in Mason C. Alice Jones & the group she was with got home on July 4th having been away from June 7th. They found tire & gas rationing at Rochester, N.Y. and had to leave their car there & go the rest of the way to Durham N. Hampshire by bus. Then picked up their car again at Rochester on their way home. They enjoyed the trip & the convention. There have been several family picnics here in East Park, Mason City, the past month, but Cal & I think it is more sensible to save the tires & gas for necessary things. Hope this finds you all in your usual health as we are. Love to all from Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hawthorn Cottage. Sept. 9, 1942 Dear Circle: I would have had this sheet written by this time this eve but Cal wanted me to listen to an article in the Sat. Eve. Post on how a man cleared the mosquitoes out of a suburb of Chicago with a spray that harmed nothing but the mosquito larvae. We have but little trouble with them this summer when playing evenings at shuffleboard for some reason. It really seems like fall for so many trees are shedding their leaves now. We raked up three wash tubs of acorns out of the pool & under our one oak tree lately. Now the hawthorn trees are bright with their red berries. I have all but two of my fruit jars filled tonight. But when I go down to get more empty jars & look into the fruit cupboard in the basement, I hear "z-z-z-z" and I know another jar of tomatoes has spoiled, so I dump it out & fill it again when more ripen. I never had any trouble to keep tomatoes before this year, and I used new covers & rubbers, too. I did what I could for the Fair last week & got one second & two third premiums = $1.25. We went on the Golden Wedding Guest day. Our next neighbor said WE looked like ADOLESCENTS compared with some of the couples. Cal has a birthday on Sept. 12 & will be 76 years young. We are to go to Jennie's for dinner that day. He finds odd jobs to do about the home or for the neighbors & his insurance work for the Farmers Mutual Co. is about all he cares to do now a days. Arthur came over for the day with us last Friday & we took him to Rock Falls to the cemetery and also called at Mebel Bliems awhile. Jean is at home between summer school & opening of College on Sept. 21, and Janet is a senior in High School, here. We have such a cunning pair of twin girls 4 mo's old at our next neighbors. They are identical twins & look SO much alike, and a new baby across the street also, only three weeks old. Up to now there have been no children on our street. Grace's & Ruth's families are in their usual health, and all are busy. Love to you all from Cal & Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Ia. Oct. 13, '42 Dear Circle: I have been to the first meeting of the Woman's Club this PM and because the cylinder in my car is cracked and Cal was working at the farm helping Dale get his husker and elevator ready for use, I walked home from up town, which is about a mile. It took me 40 min. and it is nearly all down grade. So I do not think I shall try to walk up town very soon. We may have to lay up one car during the winter any way, but neither of us are much good at walking these past few years. Cal thinks that he may be able to run the elevator to unload the corn Dale husks, but I am afraid it will be too strenuous a job for him. Dale's man has moved to Mason C. to work at the Sugar beet Co. We saw several train loads of beets on the tracks waiting to be used yesterday. So there will be SOME sugar from them. We went to Madison the latter part of Sept. to keep house for Grace, so she could have a short vacation with Noel F. in northern Wis. He was sent to do some research for the cranberry growers up there, and when he told us how they raise the berries up there, we decided whatever price they asked, it wasn't too much for all the work they do for them. I am doing the fall house cleaning by spells, but letting myself off lightly. Cal is riding down to Des Moines tomorrow with Will Millington who is going down on business for the day, and he has asked me to go, too, so I am going as far as Charles in Nevada & they will stop for me again on their way home. Charles, you will remember Theron Reed. He was buried a week ago. He was 83. We had our Golden Wedding Club at the M.E. church in Plymouth last Thurs. About 50 present. The ladies served us a fine dinner & program afterward. One couple had been MARRIED 69 YEARS! Must go to bed now. We leave at 8 AM tomorrow. Love to you all. Annie. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mason City, Iowa. Dec. 1, 1942. 8 PM Dear Circle: The thermometer says zero, and winter is really here. Cal has been doing some plumber work for a neighbor and tomorrow he is to put a hand rail in her stair way. He really is a jack of all trades, that do not require too much muscle. He even made the TOOL that he used to open the clogged sink pipe in her kitchen. Janet is staying with us tonight as she is practicing with the chorus at High S. for their Christmas operetta. They have not learned just how these out-of-town students are going to get to school on 4 gal. of gas per week. The farmers also are unable to find out how much gas they will be allowed for tractor & trucks, so far. We really will be obliged to live more like we did 30 years ago. Think what we need for a week ahead & get it all in one trip. I am busy sewing carpet rags for some rugs for Grace for her up stairs rooms but the weaver says she will not be able to weave them until in Jan. We have several inches of snow. So much that I don't care to drive any way. A man dented Cal's rear fender today when he struck him on a turn in the street. We hope Charles is back to normal health again by this time. We keep as well as usual, but Cal has to be careful when he shovels the walks or walks much. Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. With love from Cal & Annie.