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Download PDF for SIA-SIA2020-001063 (project ID 23404)
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Nat. Museum, Wash. D.C. 28 Oct. 1947. Dear Doris: I hope your date with Dick Seed doesn't interfere with the G.W. Univ. students - they will be sailing all the daytimes, and have only Sat. night free, I suppose. But that can be worked out, doubtless, beforehand. Maybe D.S. would come later. I must look up his father in the Directory of the A.M.A. I hope he is neither Jewish nor Catholic. The Sunday trip was too much for Dad. He came home at noon yesterday after lying around all the forenoon at Beltsville, dizzy and headachey. He ate a little supper and felt terribly nauseated afterwards but did get in a good night's rest, which I think was what was chiefly the matter with him. We were gone nearly 12 hours on the ride, and while it was pleasant, and the trip across Chesapeake Bay on the ferry, longer than the Newcastle trip, was very enjoyable, still it was awfully tiring. We had only a couple of hours at Rehoboth beach. It is like Virginia beach, with dunes and long waves breaking. The country that we covered in Maryland and Delaware is flat farming country, and in places the ground was covered for acres with great golden squashes. There was a canning factory at Bridgeville, and here they had dumped tons of the squashes in long piles that covered a field. I never saw such a sight. It must be a wonderful summer for squashes. Marion is planning to be married the 13th of December. They have found no place to live as yet. Helen says it doesn't seem to worry them very much, though. She and Geoff will drive up to the wedding which will be at his home. Marion is to be maid of honor at a college classmate's wedding the week before which is to be also in Illinois, and so will leave a week earlier and spend the week with her fiance's people. She will be married in the Catholic church with all the functions of priesthood. It is a bitter pill for Geoff in particular, and I pity him. He said, "It is not the time to go back on your child, when the child needs the help more than ever", but I can see how awful he feels. It may not last - I can't see her buckling down to living in all sorts of poor conditions, on a salary of only $2400. She will have to work, too, in order to live decently, and in a little midwestern town she can't find a job that will pay much. She will be brought up face to face with a hardness of living that she has never had before. Helen is worried too about Geoff's future, - his job here will end shortly and they don't know what is coming. All in all they are not particularly happy. I wonder if that Miss Coffin is of the Nantucket Coffins? It seems as if the Coffins always come from there. We had Myra Coffin for a teacher, and she was a fine woman. Ask this one if her ancestors hailed from that place. You don't say much about what you are doing every day. I hope you get to bed early with that cold. Is your house comfortable? Don't eat too many eggs either. Have you got your money from Louise's mother yet? You can't live forever on $5. Do you ride your bike constantly? I hope it is housed in bad weather. Be careful of yourself. Love, Mother.
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