Clarices Letters 1:3
A word before: See this is one of those proberly with alother less errors, but it’s also long.
It’s a serie of three letter from a little girl in the beginning at the great depression, check the dates and be open to the harsh world she live in. Notice her change too. But enjoy!
November 1929
Dear Mama P
See how pretty your little niece here back in Saint Louis learned to write! I just turned 13 and I can now both read and count to 20! Mom, your dear sister, is so proud, and I am just glad to make her glad. And it’s not only my writing that’s pretty, mom says I’ve become a real little beauty, and I’ll add a picture. It’s not very good, but at least I got one. The neighbor kids have never tried to get their picture taken, at least Jimmy and I tried that.
It’s our newest member of our little new town that been teaching me, his name is Sam and he’s a real teacher. I don’t know how he got the education though, he’s black as the ashes fresh from the firer, even darker than me, but somehow he succeeded and leached black kids in a little school, just with one room. But when things started getting bad the school lost the house, like we lost ours, and Sam lost his job. Now dad has built him a real nice shed, no rain will poor in there as long he keeps it nice, and as payment Sam been teaching me. Jimmy would have gotten lessons too if he had time and wanted to. But Jimmy’s still busy working, or at least trying to get work. He get some small jobs here and there and get some money that helps a lot, but he got no real job, though he says that right now “any work that pays is the best job you can get” whatever that means. Dad still helps in our little shit-town (that’s what everyone calls it, I don’t really like the name but shed-town or shit-town, it surely is familiar) but the thing that we really survive on is moms job. She’s still standing for the cooking and cleaning in that fine family like always, but now for keeping her job and getting just a bit more of pay she has to do three times as much work, so she now lives at the house and only comes home once a week with the money for us to live on. The days are long and hard on her; she looks so much older now that I don’t even think you‘ll remember her! She has always been so pretty, but now being nanny, maid and cook her hands are worn out and she got nervous wrinkles around her once so pretty dark eyes.
When things started going badly mom said it would soon get better and that we where not the only ones having a harsh time. She was right about the last thing, every week there’s new people in town and it has grown twice its size since we moved in not that long ago.
But now things can’t get much worse, so things must soon get better, and then we’ll get money for moving back in a proper house where there’s not as cold at night, and don’t smell that bad. It must be nicer at your farm at the country, with all the animals and such. I almost don’t remember it, but I dream of how it must be, and how my cousins play at the fields. Jen must be quite big now, right? When we get money again we’ll come visit you all, and we can have apple pie in your sunny garden like when I was little! Take care!
See how pretty your little niece here back in Saint Louis learned to write! I just turned 13 and I can now both read and count to 20! Mom, your dear sister, is so proud, and I am just glad to make her glad. And it’s not only my writing that’s pretty, mom says I’ve become a real little beauty, and I’ll add a picture. It’s not very good, but at least I got one. The neighbor kids have never tried to get their picture taken, at least Jimmy and I tried that.
It’s our newest member of our little new town that been teaching me, his name is Sam and he’s a real teacher. I don’t know how he got the education though, he’s black as the ashes fresh from the firer, even darker than me, but somehow he succeeded and leached black kids in a little school, just with one room. But when things started getting bad the school lost the house, like we lost ours, and Sam lost his job. Now dad has built him a real nice shed, no rain will poor in there as long he keeps it nice, and as payment Sam been teaching me. Jimmy would have gotten lessons too if he had time and wanted to. But Jimmy’s still busy working, or at least trying to get work. He get some small jobs here and there and get some money that helps a lot, but he got no real job, though he says that right now “any work that pays is the best job you can get” whatever that means. Dad still helps in our little shit-town (that’s what everyone calls it, I don’t really like the name but shed-town or shit-town, it surely is familiar) but the thing that we really survive on is moms job. She’s still standing for the cooking and cleaning in that fine family like always, but now for keeping her job and getting just a bit more of pay she has to do three times as much work, so she now lives at the house and only comes home once a week with the money for us to live on. The days are long and hard on her; she looks so much older now that I don’t even think you‘ll remember her! She has always been so pretty, but now being nanny, maid and cook her hands are worn out and she got nervous wrinkles around her once so pretty dark eyes.
When things started going badly mom said it would soon get better and that we where not the only ones having a harsh time. She was right about the last thing, every week there’s new people in town and it has grown twice its size since we moved in not that long ago.
But now things can’t get much worse, so things must soon get better, and then we’ll get money for moving back in a proper house where there’s not as cold at night, and don’t smell that bad. It must be nicer at your farm at the country, with all the animals and such. I almost don’t remember it, but I dream of how it must be, and how my cousins play at the fields. Jen must be quite big now, right? When we get money again we’ll come visit you all, and we can have apple pie in your sunny garden like when I was little! Take care!
Yours Clarice
Posted by in 22:08:51
