Monday, May 16, 1949

Dear Mother,

I received your letter last week - glad you received the money in time to give it for Mother's Day.  I suppose you are still working with the strawberries.  I bought a crate and put 22 quarts in the locker.  It wasn't such a big job and Beulah Mae helped me.  By getting a crate they were about 27 cents a quart.  I had been buying them for 49 cents a quart.  One of the tenants brought me enough dewberries for a pie one day.  The boys both like any kind of berries so well - in fact I wondered if Johnnie was going to leave me enough dewberries for a pie for he likes them raw.

They are chopping cotton here in front of the house today.  Most of the cotton on this place had to be replanted because the cutworms and armyworms ate the first plants.  Ruel says he is afraid they are going to eat the plants that are coming up now.  We need a rain badly now.  Ruel has a new haybaler and put up hay on shares for a man last week.  His share was 289 bales.

Joe Lee spent last Friday night with Ruthel.  They were over here and asked him to go back with them and he wanted to go.  They said he got along fine.  They took him fishing and when he came home he had a little bird in a box that had fallen out of a nest.  Johnnie says he has to go over there when school is out and stay a week because Joe Lee went without him.  Johnnie is so restless at home.  I don't know what he will do when school is out.

Jane has learned to crawl even before learning to sit alone.  She pushes herself on her stomach.  Jan doesn't even attempt to turn himself over yet.  He is the placid type while she is always moving and trying to get into things.  I believe she will walk early as Johnny did.  She is getting to be very pleasant most of the time now and tries to say "my-my".  I have bought them each a folding strollette.

Our church group of women are going to bring their children and lunch and have an all day meeting at Mrs Dorroh's Wednesday.  We are studying "Women and the Family".  I'm wondering if we will get any studying done with all the babies.  They are organizing a Home Demonstration Club in Rosedale that I would like to join but unless they have a nursery I'm not even going to attempt it.

I must close and get Jan to take his bottle.  He sometimes won't eat unless I hold him.  Jane ate a whole banana awhile ago. She really does like to eat.

Love,

Mavis