I did a few more letters this afternoon. The one from Josephine cracked me up. She spent the whole letter complaining that she was too busy to be messing around with letter writing. Etiquette fail! The one from Fred Reffe is kind of interesting, too. I guess Esther told him it was okay to write to her. He’s kind of a pompous ass, though, and I’d be a little concerned if I didn’t already know that it doesn’t really go anywhere.
October 19, 1921 from Clark
October 21, 1921 from Mamma
October 23, 1921 from Josephine Martin
October 23, 1921 from Fred A. Reffe
Just to show why it takes so long to transcribe some of the letters, here’s a page from the most recent one from Esther’s mother. It was written in pencil–now faded–on what looks like paper from a school exercise book. The paper is pulpy and has darkened so much that it’s almost the same shade as the pencil. When the foreground and background values are so similar, it’s almost impossible to Photoshop it into submission.
Mostly, though, I just wanted to share the little drawing. I think it’s pretty wonderful how much the family relies on the older kids’ input on stuff like their on-going home renovation.
red paper boat 