[Written by Clarice, mentions many names but not all are familiar.  Dot in the greeting is Dorothy (Miller) Woodbury, Victor’s wife.  Victor is Woody’s brother.  Mother on the first page is Clarice’s mother, Goldie (Sweet) Jensen, also referred to as Grammie on page 3.  David and Ann are Victor’s first two children who were ages two-and-a-half and one at the time of this letter.  Dot on page 4 and page 7 is Woody’s older sister Dorothy (Woodbury) Kinney.  Ginnie (Woodbury) Norris is Woody’s next-older sister.  Grammie C. is Bertha (Curtis) Woodbury, Woody’s grandmother and first wife of George Woodbury who is mentioned in the previous letter, WRW letter 13.  Bertha remarried after her marriage to George and is Bertha Cochrane in this letter.  Dad on the last page also refers to George Woodbury, who had just died in February.  Dot in the very last paragraph is Woody’s widow, Dorothy (Rutledge) Woodbury.  Others remain unidentified.]

1.
Dear Dot and Vic:
Monday and I’m home have many things to do and its raining but I’ll answer letters first or I’ll never get it done —
Received your letter when I got home Sat.  Tell the children I thought their Easter card the prettiest one I got.  Mother is in F. [Farmington] comes home tomorrow so I’ll give her hers and I know she’ll like it.  Tell David he wrote a nice letter and I understood it much better than I do most letters I get —
I have a bad case of the blues today so shouldn’t be writing at all but it’s raining so I

2.
thought I’d get caught up on all my back letters — I owe so many probably never will
I thought from Ann picture she was much larger then David.  I have some pictures to send up if I ever can remember to pick thru them —  By the way what is Ann’s birth date I know she didn’t come when you expected her and I’m not good at remembering anyway?  I sure feel ancient regarding how Vic feels about me — my eyes have failed so fast I had to have double vision glass and that with every thing else the years are sure doubling up on me —

3.
Guess you forget Grammie [Goldie Jensen] does her own driving now, but you would never get her that far from Nick [her daughter by second marriage to Walter Jensen].  I’ll see how I come out financially before I plan any trips I find one has to have a little cash to eat and sleep now days and I blew myself to a pair of glasses which I have needed for five years.
Elsa [dog] and Minie [?] went to Farmington with Mother so I expect they had the time of their lives —
What a crowd you had Easter but how nice to get together it i hard now days to do that sort of thing with autos and

4.
all no one has time to visit it seems —
Got a nice letter from Ginnie today hasn’t heard from my Dot for a long time something must be bothering her.  That’s why I hate to write letters seems as if someone is always trying to make something of them I never can put on paper what I think and feel —
I expect they’ll be putting Woody to rest again soon I so wish it had been done befor.  I hope I know in time to go up — He also is

5.
to be awarded the Bronze Star don’t know as I’ll get an invite to that or not. time will tell —
We have had rain nearly every day for so long its so depressing I’m just looking forward to some sun —
When we have a winter without much snow we make up for it somehow —
That snap of David in the kitchen was so cute. I’ve seen him look like that so many times They were all cute —  They grow up too fast believe me I know —
Next time I write I’ll try being in a better frame of mind —

6.
I see Pat Pauletts mother once in a while Pat is married and works in the Globe office (laundry) —  Have seen Johnnie K. one since Woody went —  Saw Adams she looks bad hear that Bill is tipping the bottle too much (thats probably the reason) but she should know she went with him 22 years before is wife died.
Hatch baby sits for Eileen so she is working + going to get a new car has been working since baby was eight weeks old.

7.
Anyway it keeps Hatch out of mischief.  She was in shop Sat. as E. had the day off.  Boy I’m glad shes working I don’t want her around my neck all the time —  I don’t know any news about the rest of the people you know as I don’t go much have been to F. just once since Nov. and wasn’t sure as Dot was pleased to see me or not.
Miss Quigley (Belmont) wrote me a nice letter when she heard about Woody — She must be very old by now — I hope

to look her up sometime I go to Boston also Grammie C.  I haven’t been up since Dad passed way — Dont know when I’ll get courage again.
Hope I’m in a better mood next time I write.
You planted the seed we’ll see if it grows — anyway thanks for the invitation —

Lots of love to all
Mother

Included is a card I should have sent it in Feb. but had hoped Dot would send me one for a keepsake I didn’t put my name on as I didn’t feel a brother expects thanks he is on the thanking side

Woody start page – (previous) WRW letter 13 – next page (WRW letter 15)

[In this as with other letters in this series, I have attempted to transcribe the written text while faithfully retaining the writer’s peculiarities and errors of spelling and punctuation.  Sometimes, though, the aggressiveness of spell-check prevails and a correction gets past me.  The errors in preserving the errors are strictly my own.  -DAW-]

=David A. Woodbury=