Dear Heart,
Well, this is Tuesday night and this morning I went to the abstract company and put the $3000 in escrow. The papers are going to be made out but the owners, Mr. and Mrs. S, are engaging in mortal combat because Mrs. S does not wish to sell the property for she thinks if they hold it a while they will get more for it.
She phoned Mr. Neal last night that she did not want to sell, but Neal says they cannot get out of it. Today when they were supposed to sign they couldn't be found anywhere. The property is Mrs. S's separate property.
Wednesday P.M.
Angel,
Just received your book-like epistle and read it twice. I laughed so because your drawing of your little mother looks so much like Tooki.
I'm glad you are making some headway with your studies and getting adjusted. Glad you had a good meal at the cafeteria.
It is hotter here now than in the middle of summer and my school room is hot and suffocating. The children were just about dead today after a day at the fair yesterday. We didn't have school. That was why I attended to the lot purchase.
Tooki gets so excited and looks so pitiful when I say "Where's Grace?"
I am feeling fine now only I don't like the hot weather. I hope for a change soon.
Get your rain coat Saturday, darling. Don't put it off.
Tuesday evening I drove down to Tom to see if I could get him to work out the $10, then I wouldn't have to pay out to get the hauling done or the yard cleaned up. I considered it a great scheme. Their place looks so terrible I hated to be seen stopping here. Tom and that brother looked very well and fat. Tom said his health was too poorly he couldn't do any hard work on account of his back and a great series of ailments. In short he flatly refused to budge. I was so disgusted. He said he wanted to sell out and go into the Lord's work. He never again wanted to own anything. He is worthless. I hope I get my ten back.
Darling babykins, here is much love from
Tooki and Mummie
Sunday, August 8, 2010
September 16, 1949
Matrilineal
Linda's Note: These are the letters of my grandmother Lillian. Lillian wrote to my mother Grace as she began classes at the University of California at Berkeley as a junior transfer. Lillian was 60 years old, an elementary school teacher with an interest in commercial real estate. Grace was 20.
September 16, 1949
Mother's Girl,
How surprised and happy I was to get two letters from you today! I read and reread them. I was delighted with your handling of the sneering adviser. Don't worry about how long it takes and don't take more than you can do without breaking down your health. Remember what I've told you.
The real estate man, Mr. Neal, said the man would absolutely refuse anything less than $3000. However, I'll phone him Friday after school. He may have changed his mind.
About a mile or so nearer Visalia there is a 3/4 acre lot with a well and shack on it and 150 feet frontage for sale for $6000. I looked at a lot almost across the street from those two stores in the peach orchard. It is $4000 for a lot (not a corner) 100 feet frontage by 200 feet deep - $40 a front foot. This is what the property owners are all holding their frontage for - $40 and $50 a front foot. It is terribly steep but they say if they can't get it now they can in the next two years. And the subdivision next to the college on the south side wants $100 per front foot for the business property! There is no water on this property. That $3000 place has a swell pump and gas is piped to it. It will not go up in value or be as easy to sell again as that nearer the college. What do you advise?
At any rate, the afternoon I found out about the $4000 lot, I continued on my way to the Visalia pet shop and got a dollar's worth of horse hamburger for Tooki. Only at pet shops can we buy horse meat now. That slaughter house we used to go to has closed down because the government would not let it sell any more meat because it was not government inspected.
The Visalia proprietor of the pet shop is a gentle man. He told me he sold 4000 lbs of horse flesh a month. I told him I didn't think his location was very good. He said he knew it wasn't and he would have liked to have located on a highway. I told him I was thinking of getting a lot there. He said he would like a little store there. The location is excellent. Said if and when I purchased the lot to contact him. So I won't have trouble renting any building I put up, if and when.
I hope for selfish reasons you come home, but unselfish reasons compel me to write "Stay there and rest for your work will soon begin."
Get a rain coat. Radio says that damp air is accumulating in Oregon. Moisture may come any time.
It has been very warm at school this week, just stifling. I have 21 pupils, all very good and some quite intelligent.
There is a very heavyset, large, imposing young man, bet 30 or 40, who teaches 4th grade. His wife comes for him at noon to take him home for lunch. His kids disturb the other rooms because they make so much noise. He can't discipline.
The teacher, Mrs. Clark, who is teaching 4th grade is young, fat, and dirty looking. She wears very short dresses exposing fat club-like legs and that slip, dirty white, which is always showing. She is from San Francisco and complains about the heat but wears winter clothes.
Miss Linquist says stockings cost too much, so she wears none, after all her criticizing of other bare legs. Her shoes are soles with just enough straps to hold them on.
Much love,
Mother
Eliza lived into her eighties. Lillian died in her seventies. Grace lost her life to colon cancer at 63. Linda is not superstitious. Linda is not superstitious. Linda is not superstitious. The Matrilineal Decade Death Curse is not real.
Linda's Note: These are the letters of my grandmother Lillian. Lillian wrote to my mother Grace as she began classes at the University of California at Berkeley as a junior transfer. Lillian was 60 years old, an elementary school teacher with an interest in commercial real estate. Grace was 20.
September 16, 1949
Mother's Girl,
How surprised and happy I was to get two letters from you today! I read and reread them. I was delighted with your handling of the sneering adviser. Don't worry about how long it takes and don't take more than you can do without breaking down your health. Remember what I've told you.
The real estate man, Mr. Neal, said the man would absolutely refuse anything less than $3000. However, I'll phone him Friday after school. He may have changed his mind.
About a mile or so nearer Visalia there is a 3/4 acre lot with a well and shack on it and 150 feet frontage for sale for $6000. I looked at a lot almost across the street from those two stores in the peach orchard. It is $4000 for a lot (not a corner) 100 feet frontage by 200 feet deep - $40 a front foot. This is what the property owners are all holding their frontage for - $40 and $50 a front foot. It is terribly steep but they say if they can't get it now they can in the next two years. And the subdivision next to the college on the south side wants $100 per front foot for the business property! There is no water on this property. That $3000 place has a swell pump and gas is piped to it. It will not go up in value or be as easy to sell again as that nearer the college. What do you advise?
At any rate, the afternoon I found out about the $4000 lot, I continued on my way to the Visalia pet shop and got a dollar's worth of horse hamburger for Tooki. Only at pet shops can we buy horse meat now. That slaughter house we used to go to has closed down because the government would not let it sell any more meat because it was not government inspected.
The Visalia proprietor of the pet shop is a gentle man. He told me he sold 4000 lbs of horse flesh a month. I told him I didn't think his location was very good. He said he knew it wasn't and he would have liked to have located on a highway. I told him I was thinking of getting a lot there. He said he would like a little store there. The location is excellent. Said if and when I purchased the lot to contact him. So I won't have trouble renting any building I put up, if and when.
I hope for selfish reasons you come home, but unselfish reasons compel me to write "Stay there and rest for your work will soon begin."
Get a rain coat. Radio says that damp air is accumulating in Oregon. Moisture may come any time.
It has been very warm at school this week, just stifling. I have 21 pupils, all very good and some quite intelligent.
There is a very heavyset, large, imposing young man, bet 30 or 40, who teaches 4th grade. His wife comes for him at noon to take him home for lunch. His kids disturb the other rooms because they make so much noise. He can't discipline.
The teacher, Mrs. Clark, who is teaching 4th grade is young, fat, and dirty looking. She wears very short dresses exposing fat club-like legs and that slip, dirty white, which is always showing. She is from San Francisco and complains about the heat but wears winter clothes.
Miss Linquist says stockings cost too much, so she wears none, after all her criticizing of other bare legs. Her shoes are soles with just enough straps to hold them on.
Much love,
Mother
Eliza lived into her eighties. Lillian died in her seventies. Grace lost her life to colon cancer at 63. Linda is not superstitious. Linda is not superstitious. Linda is not superstitious. The Matrilineal Decade Death Curse is not real.
Copyright © 2009 - 2012 Linda Riggle Davis. All Rights Reserved.
mother daughter letters
old family letters
genre epistolary nonfiction
California history 1950s
historical letters
unpublished memoir
mother daughter letters
old family letters
genre epistolary nonfiction
California history 1950s
historical letters
unpublished memoir
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