Thursday noon

[June 17, 1943-jlt]

Dear Mavis,

I was coming through Malvina yesterday afternoon and I stopped to see if you had taken time to write me along about Sunday or Monday. I was not disappointed for a letter and a couple pictures were waiting for me. It is with great pride that I look at Johnnie's picture. I have just about worn the other pictures out looking at them so much, maybe these two will last until you return to Mississippi. He looked like a proud and smart little fellow standing with his mouth open, he looks as if he is about to holler or say something. You have been saying all along that he could stand holding a chair but it seems impossible for him to be able to do it. I am going to expect a lot out of Johnnie when he gets home. Sonny is quite a boy himself, he looks a little larger than Johnnie, but not as pretty and cute as our Johnnie. (That is only for you.) If Johnnie's hair was as long as Sonny's I would carry him to a barber shop. Hope you all had pictures made of all three of the youngsters for they are all very pretty babies. They will certainly be nice to have and compare in later years. This looks like enough about babies doesn't it?

This is another one of the days when nothing goes right, it is usually me I suppose. I could write a letter telling all my troubles but it wouldn't help you or me either, so I will pass on to more pleasant things. I will be getting worried about you if you don't send some cheerful news on down this way, for it has been a month since you were operated on and you should be well or just about it. Hope by the time you get this letter you will be OK. If you ever have another operation as serious as the one you just went through with I am going to be close around to see for myself.

It seems as if I have a dim remembrance of carrying a girl to a Horse Show in Shelby about this time of year two years ago. I wish she was here at Malvina and we could do the same thing again. Tonight is the last night of it. Two short and very eventful years have passed since we attended that event. Just think, where was Johnnie then?

It is still dry and hot here in Mississippi and everything is growing and looking good. We are just about to get everything clean, for I have been hauling choppers from the Kelley place. I have to get up before daylight to go after them and carry them back every night.

We haven't started harvesting oats yet, it was late when we fertilized them and they didn't ripen as fast as they would have if no fertilizer had been used on them. I plan to start Monday, for I have the combine ready to go. I did a little work for Josh Williams, but it didn't take long for he didn't have over twenty acres of both oats and wheat. Mr. Dorroh called me across the street in town last Saturday and wanted me to finish his for him. He must have fooled Buddy Souter into starting to help him, but he quit for some reason.

It has been about two weeks since Mama has heard from Hiram or Evelyn. Suppose Hiram is on his way across and Evelyn wrote Mary Emma that she was coming by there and visit for a few days. [Dad's brother Hiram was in the Army and was sent to Europe where he was involved in the invasion of Italy-jlt]

Ruthel is still here with us. She didn't intend to stay very long when she came here but Zora and Mary Emma wanted her to stay with Mama. She is a big help and it isn't so lonesome here with her. She has been offered some good jobs teaching next year but she intends to go back to Horn Lake.

I have just been writing at random and have just about run out of anything to write about so I will close and carry this letter and Ruthel's letters to Malvina. The mailman comes by along about four-thirty in the afternoon. All the letters you write are post-marked 4PM, so you see your letters are almost a day old before they leave Concord. But there is nothing you can do about it for you are not as fortunate as I am about mailing my letters.

Lots of Love,

Ruel

If you continue to feel bad, why don't you go back and see the doctor, for I am getting worried about you.