Saturday, December 29, 2012

Fred and Elda Are In California


A typed letter
No Envelope

Bell, Cal.
Aug. 1, 1923
 Dearest Mother and ALL,

     We just received your dear letter and were indeed glad to hear from you once more.  It was such a newsy and interesting one too.  You will notice how promptly we are answering it too, about fifteen minutes I guess since we got it.
 
     Everything is going along about the same as usual; the weather hasn't even changed enough to notice.  Elda is still going to school in the city but she will be through a week from next Friday.  She says she will sure be glad as it gets to be quite a chore chasing back and forth every day to the city.  I am still working in the store but expect to quit as soon as her school is out and we intend to take a trip up to San Jose where Elda has an aunt living.  We want to pay them a visit before my school starts in the fall.  Gosh it seems everything in this life depends on school.  No wonder we have that old saying about "whether school keeps or not:.  It seems to be our chief business anyway.

     We were glad to see by your letter that you had been able to get to Kilgore again and see the dear ones up there.  We are surely sorry we could not get to see them before we left.  I certainly wish that you and they could get a glimpse of this wonderful country.  I don't suppose though that they would ever be satisfied here as they would be so much more apt to get a just compensation for their labors.  I am afraid they have been too long used to the slave life of Kilgore to brave the change.  I know it is hard to pull up stakes and hit for a new country, especially when you haven't much capital to start with, but gee any of you have as much as we have and we are not worrying very much.  After you get to the new country and you find it a good one it doesn't take long to settle down again.  Of course we don't know all about this country yet by any means so I wouldn't want you to come for a while that is a year or so until we see what the whole year is like here but at present it looks like a wonderful place to make your home.

     We sure hope everything goes well with you all up there this year and you have a spell of real prosperity again; that country surely needs it if any ever did.  Judging from the automobile traffic and also the railroad traffic it seems that the whole populations of the United States is on the move.  Every train is loaded both coming and going and one the roads the automobiles are as thick as they can stick, so there must be a lot of people on the go.  They all seem to be dissatisfied and are changing their location.

     Last Sunday we went into the city and had dinner with an old school friend of ours and while visiting with them another old friend and her husband walked in so we all had a dandy good visit together.  We also went to the motion picture exposition in the evening and saw quite a show, including the most wonderful fireworks I ever witnessed.  they certainly know how to do things in this place when they take a notion.

     We are going to write to the kids in Kilgore one of these days and tell them all our recent experiences.  Sure wish you and they were all here so we could see you once in a while.

     Not a great deal has happened to us since last I wrote so there isn't a lot of news to tell this time.  We had been sort of hoping that we would get to see President Harding when he arrived; he took sick in San Francisco and has cancelled all the rest of his trip so I guess we won't get to see him this time.  This city is quite keenly disappointed about it but I guess it couldn't be helped as he is only human like the rest of us and has not more control his destiny than we would have.

     No, we haven't seen Lloyd P. yet.  Did you tell us his address?  I don't know where he lives.  Would like to see him.  We haven't seen Martin's wife either, although we go through Huntington Park every time we go to the city.  You know Marie only gave me her post box number and it is pretty hard to find anyone here from that. In fact it is hard enough when you have their complete street address and every thing. So if she can give me that maybe I can find her.

     Well, dear ones, it is bed time and elda is already there, scolding me for sitting up so late, (although it is only a little after nine.)  You see we go to bed earlier than we use ter because we have to get up earlier and besides this is the darnest place to sleep I ever saw.  So g o o d  n i g h t I  a m g ett ing s l e e p y.

      Write soon to your kids  Loads of love to you all.

                        Fred and Elda

 

 
Comments:

Fred's note about seeing the family at Kilgore before they left suggests that Fred and Elda left for California sometime earlier in that year.  Given school year cycles and assuming that Elda was teaching the previous year in Idaho, they would have left after school was out.

 Fred's references to going into the city are interesting.  Bell is immediately south of downtown Los Angeles, only three or four miles.

 His spacing on the getting sleepy in the last paragraph is funny.

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