Historical events pop into these letters about personal lives and domestic details very briefly and without explanation. For example, the defecting Soviet chemist, Dr Klotchko, that Cyn mentioned in her August 21 1961 letter, would have been connected in Cyn and Carol’s minds with the defection of the ballet star Rudolph Nureyev in Paris the previous June, but neither bothered mentioning it, knowing that the other would have been interested and informed about it and would make the connexion. In her September 20th letter, Cyn makes a brief mention of the West Indies Federation, which had been formed in 1958 as a political union that would achieve independence from Britain as a single confederation, but was gradually shaking apart in the summer of 1961. Canada, as a colonial power that had achieved independence, was sympathetic and had given the Federation two ships to be a link between all the islands, and in this letter, Cyn thanks her mother for an article about one of them- The Federal Maple. But foremost in their lives was the parish supper that their respective churches were hosting, and those details feature much more prominently in their letters!
3rd Oct. 1961
Dearest Mummy, Thank you for your last week’s letter and the enclosures about the “Fed. Maple” and your supper. I was tickled about the “Dinner – Dancing – Bar”– I can imagine our church advertising that! Our supper was a great success though – and only .25¢ each! We are going to be about $5 in the hole but as it was to welcome the Reverend Pulker and his family we don’t feel that it matters. We had 220 people buying tickets – more than 1/2 children & it was from 5:30 to 7:00. I expected we’d get them coming gradually. We set up long tables with the food on at the top & card tables & chairs all around the hall to seat 92. We had cold turkey & ham, hot casseroles, (mac & cheese, beans, meatballs, scal. potatoes etc.) salads & rolls, then on a separate table desserts – cakes, pies, & little tubs of ice cream. Milk for children – tea & coffee for adults. To my horror everyone poured in between 5:30 & 6:00, so we were kept rushing to replenish the table with food. Cec & the children came just after 6:0 & I was afraid there would be nothing left for them! However, everything was just fine even though we found some of the boys did help themselves to 6 & 7 desserts! Our greatest trouble was water – the pump was broken & I found this out the day before, so you can imagine my agitation. The plumber worked all day & got it going just at 6:30 as the dirty dishes began coming back! I have both children home this week – Charlie with a bad stye & snuffle & Lindy with a real wooshy cold. Two are easier than one though! Made apple jelly yesterday & spiced crab apples & chutney at the weekend – my cupboard looks nice! Love to A. Muriel & lots for you from us all – Cyn.
Dearest Mummy, I can hardly believe that it is really just 2 weeks since the children began school. It already seems like two months and I am sure that they feel the same! They seem both seem quite content with their new teachers though – Charlie has the English teacher, Mrs. Cripwell, that Linda had last year – Cec and I did not think too much of her as Linda seem to get worse in Arithmetic after having her instead of better, but the children like her all right. Linda has Mrs. Tyler and all summer she was moaning and groaning about how much she hated Mrs. Tyler, but of course after the first day she has changed her mind and thinks that she is O.K. now! Of course they both have homework now and so in a way it is easier than when only Linda had it, but they are both still quite slow and what with half an hour’s practice on the piano they seem to have no time for play much to their sorrow! However they both like their piano lessons and Mrs. Scott says that they are doing very well – Linda is more self-confident and goes at it as if she knows all about it, but actually they are both doing just the same so far. I go down and listen to them practising most days, and they are really very cute with it and I am learning something too! They go every Thursday for their lessons – Linda 4:30 – 5:00 and Charlie 5:00 – 5:30 – it is a dollar fifty a lesson, so we’re paying by cheque every month. Fortunately our weather has abated, and is now more like Sept. weather – nice cool nights and lovely sunny days. We had a very slight frost one night but not enough to damage anything – in fact the gardens are all looking lovely and everything is still so green and pretty – hardly any of the trees are changing yet and it looks fresher and greener than lots of our usual summer months. I hear that there is another hurricane heading for the U.S. and might even reach Long Island, so I expect Monie and Margs will be anxiously watching the weather news – it seems to be a bad year, but I hope none of them will be heading your way. In the news this morning I heard all the worry the W.I. Confederation are having about Jamaica – I wonder what will happen. It hardly seems as if they had given it a fair trial yet. I told you in my last letter that I had begun a letter to you, but when I came to continue it today, it was so disjointed and garbled with many interruptions, and not even getting on very quickly, so I decided that I might as well begin all over again, and try and get this written up this afternoon while the children were at school. When they come home what with practising and homework and dinner, and then when that is over scrub Charlie with his soap every night and bandage his legs up, so that I seem to be fully occupied from 3:30 till about 9 o’clock! Did I tell you that just as school began poor old Charlie broke out in a wretched lot of boils again? I took him back to the specialist, Dr. Jackson, and he told me to continue using the ointment he’d given me (it has cortisone in and some antiseptic) and to keep his legs bandaged all the time and wash him every night with a special soap, and wash all his clothes and towels every day – including his trousers. He had some horrid big boils but they did drain and heal quite quickly, and now I am only bandaging his eczema at night so he won’t scratch, but continuing to scrub him and his clothes every day. I took him to Dr. J. again on Mon. and he says he is getting on fine and gave him some type of new treatment for his eczema – like x-rays he says – just for a very short time and we are to go back next week for him to see if it did any good. What with the skin specialist and Linda’s Orthodontist we are really busy these days! We went last week to the new Orth.whose name is Dr. Bradon and he is to do Linda’s teeth- they will take at least 2 years! Fortunately Linda likes him – he is young looking and has a bit of a look of Hugh P. and has a very nice way with children. Linda and I were horrified in a sort of giggly way, because after examining her teeth, he shook his head and said “Linda, you have got everything wrong with your teeth that it is possible to have!” Apparently, her teeth are big and she has a dainty little mouth he says and they are just all pushing each other out of shape. Her back teeth have got pushed forward till they don’t bite against each other and her front teeth are pushed out and her bottom teeth overlap! She is to begin by having bands on the back teeth to pull them back into place and then will have some incisors out to make room for the others and will then eventually have bands on the upper and lower front ones. Isn’t it a performance? Of course this will be done one thing at a time, so she won’t find it bad, but this is why it will take so long, but by the time he told me all the things to do I was relieved to hear it would cost around 750 dollars – I was expecting thousands! Cec and I are wondering if we’ll have to enjoy Linda’s teeth instead of a trip to England! She begins next month with three appointments to make the bands and fit the first one and then after that we go every three weeks – we pay $175 deposit and after that $60 a quarter. Let us hope she will be a raving beauty before she begins High School! Apart from rushing back-and-forth to Dr. and dentists we have done one or two nicer things this month! Before the children went back to school we went to see a film that we all enjoyed very much “The Parent Trap”– a Walt Disney film with Hayley Mills in it – the little girl who played Pollyanna. It was very funny and the children really laughed and had a lovely time. [Linda already had the book the film was based on but decided she could live with the Americanized changes.] Afterwards we went and had a Chinese dinner – or at least Cec, Charlie and I had Chinese and Linda had roast pork!
On the very day that school began Cec and I went to hear the Red Army Choir sing. They were in Ottawa for 2 performances, and of all places they held the performances in the Auditorium – a dreadful old barn of a place where they have Ice Hockey and Circuses etc. Of course it holds a lot of people but it is due to be pulled down and it is dirty and smelly and just temporary old wooden flooring over the arena part and wooden chairs and for this we paid six dollars each. On top of this it was a roasting night and there wasn’t a slightest bit of ventilation! I sat with perspiration dripping off my brow so how the choir and dancers could stand it I don’t know – I was ashamed for Canada! The singing was wonderful and the dancing too – it was really a first class show, but Cec and I were slightly amused at the Russians singing “God Save Your Gracious Queen” and asking to send her victorious! — Cec took Charlie to his first football Game the Sat. before last. It again was a terribly hot day and their seats were on the sunny side of the Grandstand, so it was very uncomfortable, and sad to say, Ottawa lost! Ken and Mr. Watt went with them, and old Mr. Watt thoroughly enjoyed it, sitting in his waistcoat and thick suit, and never minding the heat at all! Cec has been working away at his outside chores every weekend, but it wasn’t until this past one, that the weather was bearable. He has taken down the old clothesline and cemented me in one of those new umbrella type, that can be lifted out of its socket and brought in during the winter. Then he has replaced all the flagstones along there and cemented them and now he is painting the window frames and puttying the windows and painting the black roof trim. He has to do some work on the roof but is going to do only part this year. My big job of course has been the Guild. [Cyn is now President of the Ladies Guild.] Our new rector and his family have arrived and are settling down. They all wear glasses, Linda says! Mr. Pulker seems very nice – a more practical man than Mr. Bowen, but not with the same charm, but I think he will be easier to work with. Mrs. Pulker is a little dark-haired lady, and reminds me a bit of Merle, and she also seems very nice and friendly, and there is a High School boy, a 12 year old girl and a 10 year old boy. We invited her to our first Exec. meeting, but she couldn’t come as there was a choir practice and she is going to help the choir. However both she and the rector came to our first Guild Meeting and seemed very pleased with it and thought the Guild was a busy bee! Both meetings went well I think, but of course I seemed to hear an awful lot of my own voice! Our first big effort is a Parish Supper to welcome the Pulkers and introduce them to the people and I am organizing this with a committee of 4, so you can imagine the phoning and to do. It isn’t only the Guild, but the Parish, so we have had to phone over 100 people and take bookings and everything. We are having it on the Pot Luck idea – each family is bringing something – a salad, pie, cake, rolls or casserole, as well as paying 25¢ per person, and with the money we are buying a turkey and a ham and cooking them and serving them cold with other things, and also milk for the children and ice cream, tea and coffee. It is our first attempt at this so I hope that it turns out all right and we have enough to eat! We are serving it Buffet style from 5:30 to 7:00 with a long serving table and eating at card tables, and by tonight we should know the numbers, which should be interesting! Greta Cooke, the treasurer, nearly made me faint by making 450 tickets, whereas I planned on about 100, but we shall see who is right! What with the Guild meetings and going to send out notices about the supper and committee meetings, my time has vanished, so I will be glad when the supper is over next Wed. and things will be calmer – I hope. However I had coffee with Fanni this morning, and it was nice to be away from Guild for a little while. Also on Mon. evening I went to Scientist Wives Meeting, but I was very disappointed as it was supposed to be pictures of Upper Canada Village, the newly opened sort of village museum of old Canada, but instead the man just talked about it, and I’d already read so much that nothing he said was new. I took Margaret – poor Eddie is back in hospital again, and we went to visit him first. Finally last week they took x-rays of his tummy and found he had a new ulcer, and also the scar tissue on the old one which had healed had nearly obstructed the passage from the stomach so this was why he could take nothing but milk. They put him in hospital right away and are giving him some treatment – tubes down his nose to drain the acid from the stomach and a special formula every hour and are seeing if this will heal the ulcer quickly, but if not he will have to have an operation to remove part of his stomach. Isn’t this dreadful for a 16-year-old boy? Poor Margaret and Peter are so worried, and having to trail over to the Civic twice a day to see him is quite a thing too. I had the car yesterday so I took Margaret in the afternoon, but of course she doesn’t drive and it takes one hour there and one hour back by bus – if you’re lucky! Cec and I still admire your typing and really looking at some of your older letters and then at your last the improvement is immense and I am so glad that you are persevering. I am so glad that at last you got the parcel of shoes and batteries. I always meant to tell you that I was so sorry that I had not had time to get you something for the Bazaar. What happened was that it was all done in a rush to get it off to you as soon as possible, and just after your letter and cheque came I found myself just outside your bank, which is usually out of my way, so I thought “Here is my chance – I’ll go in and cash it”. So in I marched and thought “How much will it all be?” And in my hurry I thought “Oh $10 will be enough – and Mummy said she hadn’t much money in her account!” So that is all I took out. Then when I went for the batteries they came to over five dollars I think and the shoes were about seven, so my guess wasn’t very good! However, Cec and I still owe you $50 on top of the Bond so don’t think about that, but it just happened that with the bank, the batteries and the shoes are being in different places, it took me longer than I thought to get them all, and also I couldn’t see anything much in the way of novelties, so I sent the parcel off and hoped you wouldn’t mind. The two nets were really for you, but I don’t mind a bit if you sell them at the Bazaar if you don’t need them. I just thought they might be something new. I am glad the shoes were O.K. and that hope that you will find them easier to get into as you wear them. I’m glad you approve of my scuffing them up! Linda is now wearing my shoes! She wears a five Missy and I wear a five Adult, but she puts on my slippers and is pleased as punch! I am so glad that your supper went so well – hope that it is a good omen for ours. Ours of course is not to raise money, we just hope not to lose! I see it is 3:30 so the children will be home soon, so I will finish this I think and answer about the Christmas parcels in my next, and now I will get this mailed. Not that I have any bright ideas about Christmas yet! Love to Auntie Muriel & hello to Doris. Lots of love & kisses from us all to you – Cyn P.T.O.
I can’t imagine what you told that poor girl in Toronto about me. I have had a letter from her but haven’t answered as I don’t know what to say. I see no point in her spending her money coming to Ottawa to see me when I’ve never even met the girl. You’d better write & tell her I’ve moved to Timbuctoo! Love Cyn.
I can only think this ungracious Post Script refers to the family mentioned a few letters back, where the mother (whom Cyn apparently knew) was settling her daughter in a job in Toronto with Bell Telephone after another had fallen through. [June 3 1961] I suppose the small circle of relatives/acquaintances in St.Vincent had encouraged Carol to assure the lonely young woman in her 20s to get in touch with her daughter who would be delighted to befriend her- but Cyn, in her 40s, busy with all her responsibilities, was anything but delighted. And I don’t think Carol realized the distances in Ontario- a bus trip to Ottawa and back on a weekend would have taken practically the whole 2 days!
Here we are, back in Ottawa again. It is just over a week since we returned and already we feel as if we had hardly been away and are all involved with home things once more. When we got back we found both your letter and your lovely parcel of Yummies waiting for us. Thank you so very much – we all enjoyed them so much – particularly me! The children and Cec liked the chocolate and I even let Cec have a little of the Burney Sugar Cake, but he isn’t crazy about it, so what is the point of squandering it on him? Believe me I had no trouble at all in eating it by myself and already it is all gone! I felt I had to eat it quickly and then I could get on with my dieting with no distractions! Yes, I am up to 134 lbs again after my holiday, so I must really begin the big effort once more and try to get down again. Of course, I have never lost what I gained when I was trying to fatten you up, so I have a long way to go. Tell me, how is your weight keeping? I hope that you are able to maintain it and haven’t lost any of your good Canadian fat! By the way, Cec and I both think that you are doing very well with your typing and hope that you will keep it up. Now that you are not having lessons you should try to type as many of your letters as you can and also practice once in a while, because it is very easy to forget and you will find that if you keep at it it will get easier and you will get quicker all the time. I know that at first it is very hard to think and type at the same time and you feel your letters tend to be stilted, but already I can see the improvement in yours and think they are quite natural now. Oh, I was going to tell you about the guavas. When we open the parcel we found that the jar of guavas was fine, but sticky, as if it were leaking, so I took it to the sink and washed it off. Then I noticed that it looked a tiny bit bubbly and the metal top was bulging a bit so I called Cec and asked him what he thought, and he took it and very gently eased the top a bit, and immediately the whole thing turned white with millions of little bubbles! He gradually unscrewed the top and it all began foaming over the top like champagne so I dashed and got a bowl and we put it in. Cec and I decided the only thing to do was to cook it again, so I put it in a pan and gently brought it to the boil and let it simmer till the effervescing stopped. I had to add a little water, so it actually it is now more like jam then stewed guavas, but it still tastes delicious and we are enjoying it very much. The guavas don’t seem as firm this time – I don’t know if this is the action of the fermenting or if they were not as firm to begin with. Anyway, don’t let this deter you from sending some more another time – we love guavas, bubbly or not!
The second week at the cottage just flew by of course, and we could hardly believe that there were the same number of days in each week. The Moors arrived about 10 on the Sat. morning – Merle, Dixon, Lorne and Bruce. John as I told you was away, and apparently he is looking after a Mission Church and Sunday School for the summer and gets all his expenses paid and a small salary for it. He is having the time of his life and thoroughly enjoying it, so Merle is very pleased. He has done all right at the University this year, so has one more year for his B.A. then he is going to McGill University in Montreal for his Theology, so we hope to see more of him then. He doesn’t get outstanding marks, but has managed to get by, and apparently the subjects he does really well in are things like Greek which he will need in his Theology, so it sounds as if he will do all right. I was really disappointed to hear from you about Alan not finishing his year at University. I am sure that Marguerite and Bill must have been very upset, and the thing that is so worrying is that having gone through practically the whole year he didn’t stick it out for the exams as now he will get no credit for that year’s work at all. I suppose they will try and get him into a University nearer home. Lorne, the second boy is now 18, and he was anxiously waiting the results of his exams but apparently there is not much cause to worry as he is the Costain type like Cec and Carman and does well. He is going to McMaster University in Hamilton, and although it isn’t too far away he will live in residence. He has a girlfriend that none of them care for very much, so Merle is hoping that they will both get new interests when he is away! He has a job as a Lifeguard at an Open air swimming pool this summer, so he is as brown as a berry, and as he is a fine figure of a young man and has nice curly hair he is quite a sight to behold! He is an awfully nice fellow too, and played with the children, and helped them with their swimming and is just as easy and natural as can be. He had to be back at his job on the Monday morning, and the whole family was going to leave on Sunday evening, but we found out that there was a bus going to Toronto from the main road nearby and he could catch a train from Toronto to Brantford, so he set off home by himself on the Sunday afternoon and the rest of the family stayed until Tuesday.
Merle was very tired, as she had been staying in Toronto attending this course and had had exams at the end of it and of course the weather had been hot and close, so she really was glad of the rest, and so was Dix as he had been housekeeping for the last few weeks! We all had a really nice time – two swims on Sat. which was a lovely day, and then Sun. turned out rainy, but we still swam twice and we adults chatted and the children played card games etc. Brucie was a real dab at what we used to call “Pelmanism” but he calls “Memory”, but L. and C. gradually caught on and didn’t do too badly – even absent-minded little old Charlie! Monday we swam and rowed and the boys fished with no luck, and then on Tuesday Cec set out at 8 o’clock, and drove over to Gravenhurst and brought back Uncle Milton and Aunt Lillie for the day. They arrived before lunch a while, and we showed them around, and then had a Buffet lunch. I had bought a ham, which we had had for dinner the evening before, so we had cold ham and salad and I made a hot dish of Spanish rice with tomatoes and onion and celery and mushrooms and bacon in it, and then afterwards we had watermelon, which Merle and Dixon brought, and fruit cake which I brought from home. We all had a swim in the afternoon, except Uncle Milton, but Auntie is very fond of the water and had a lovely swim. We had tea afterwards, and then the Moors got ready to leave and they took Auntie and Uncle back home on their way. We were sorry to see them all go and of course it seemed quite flat that evening, so I brought out a huge 800 piece jigsaw puzzle I had brought and we set to on that. We should really have had the Moors help with it, but we had to put it on the dinner table and while we had such a big family we really couldn’t do without that table. It was quite a struggle getting it done before we left on Sat. but Cec stuck with it and we got it done on Fri. evening. We didn’t even go back to Minden that week, we found a little store 4 miles away and got what we wanted there, so the children couldn’t even get P.C.s to send to you as we had planned. In fact we didn’t send any at all, as I had just assumed we would be back again. The weather was lovely and we had a lovely time the last few days and had such fun in the water. Linda liked being under the water more than on top and Charlie was getting very keen on jumping off the dock and beginning not to mind getting his head all wet. The last couple of days we began to play a sort of water polo with a ball in the water Linda and me against Cec and Charlie, and it was a riot – we all grabbed and got dunked and had a great time.
Cousins: Charlie, Linda, Bruce.
We left on Sat. about 12, and this time went home a more direct route through Peterborough, and a better road too. We had a picnic lunch and got to Peterborough afterwards, and called up Joyce and Les Hayward who live there. Do you remember them? They are old Sask. friends of Cec’s and have 3 girls – Linda, Carol and Lois. Joyce told us to come over but said Les was just a week home from hospital after an operation, and when we saw him we were shocked. He had lost 25 pounds and still looked a very ill man. He had had an operation for the removal of his large intestine (polyps growing in it) and then he had had a stone removed from his gallbladder, but this had gone all right until about 4 four days later his whole incision split open and he went into deep shock and nearly died. For two weeks they didn’t know if he would live and he was very low, but thank goodness he has got through it. We stayed and had a cup of tea and a chat really longer than we had planned, but we were so glad that we had called. We had dinner en route and drove through a most torrential thunderstorm and arrived home about 9 o’clock. Apparently the evening before Ottawa had had an even worse time – a baby hurricane they called it, so we missed the big one. Nicki appeared very soon after we put on the lights and we all had a nice reunion! Last week seemed to be spent mostly in coping with all the dirty clothes! I cleaned up on Monday, and then on Tuesday we took Cec to work so that we could have the car and went to the market and had fun there. We can got all the usual meat and fresh veg. and also peaches, blueberries and tomatoes, and then at the fishmongers I got fresh tuna! It was a curiosity of course, and I can’t say I would repeat it as it is very solid and rather tasteless, and we all agreed we preferred the canned! In the afternoon we took all our personal clothes over to the coin wash (4 machines full) and as there is a nice one at the McArthur Shopping Plaza now we went along and looked at the shops and I bought Linda a pretty little dark cotton dress for school. It is a slaty-grey colour with a little red paisley pattern on it and it has a red belt and a yolk with red piping and then pretty red smocking. It has a little white collar and 3/4 length sleeves, so it is very cute and she looks nice in it, but of course she had her eye on a much paler grey plaid with white lace trimming and mauve velvet bows, so she was quite disappointed! It was a very pretty dress, but more expensive and definitely a ‘Best’ dress – also a bit big for her – I wonder how long before I don’t manage to win these arguments! The next day I canned some of the peaches and blueberries, and made dill pickles for my two men! I still have strawberry jam left from last year, so I won’t make any jam, but I will try and do some more fruit I think. On Thurs. I went across to Emil’s and had my hair done as it was quite a wreck after all the swimming. I meant to tell you the last time I went to him before I went away, I just trotted over with a sweater and told the children I would be an hour and a half and left them playing with Jimmy. Just as I was ready to leave, all beautiful and curled, it began to pour with rain so Emil went to see if he could find me an umbrella and I was looking out at the downpour, when out of our house emerged two little figures in raincoats with umbrella and carrying my coat! They troddled over in the rain to my rescue – wasn’t it sweet of them? On Friday I went to the Coinwash again with all the bed clothes this time (5 machines full) and while they were washing wandered down along the shops again, and this time bought a dress for myself! Cec says this Coinwashing is really expensive! It was in that dress shop Reitman’s and you remember what bargains they have at the end of the season, and I thought I would see if I could find something in a dark cotton too, as people wear darker cottons in Sept. and there I found such a pretty black cotton dress in an 11. It was a nice fine cotton with a silky sheen (but not a glazed cotton) and it had a full skirt but the fullness was in flat inverted pleats, and the top had a kind of double breasted effect with a collar and two buttons. The buttons are white and on top of the black collar is a white linen collar which you can take off to wash, and it’s sleeveless. I didn’t know if an 11 would be too tight for me, but it fit very nicely except for the length, and it cost 5 dollars reduced from 14.98, so I got it! The Savics got back on the Tues. so on Fri. afternoon she asked me and L. & C. over to tea. They had been to England you know – Peter on business, and Margaret to see her sister and family who are in London, but poor things they really didn’t have a very good time as Eddie’s ulcer acted up all the time, and he was sick and in pain, and living on crackers and milk nearly all the time. He is so thin now & he used to be a plump boy. They went to Paris and he was so bad that they flew back to London the next day and really the whole trip was ruined for them as well as the constant worry about Eddie. They couldn’t get him to a specialist in London – it is really hard for visitors to get much medical attention at all now because it was so abused by foreigners previously, so they were all glad to be home. Peter and Margaret came over and had a drink with us on Sat. evening and then yesterday evening we drove over to see the Ganders and return the sleeping bags which they lent us, and get back the case we lent them! They had been to Edmonton to see Jim’s family and to Vancouver to see Lee’s and got back about the same time as we did. They have bought a lot up on a lake in the Gatineau and are having a cottage built this fall, so they are very excited about it. It is near McGregor Lake where we were that time.
Our big excitement this week is Lindy’s birthday of course. I was so tired of the usual party that I talked her into inviting 2 smaller groups of girls this time, and going out for a little expedition instead of games etc. so tomorrow the girls are coming at 10:30 and we are driving out about 15 miles to a place called Clarence past Orleans, where they have started a little Zoo, and then we will come back here for lunch and birthday cake. Then on Thursday we are taking a few more at the same time to the park at Hog’s Back for a picnic, and I only hope that it is fine! On Thursday there will be 4 little girls, but tomorrow I think only 2, as some are still on holiday, but I think this will be a good number to cope with. I thought I would just let them play by themselves at the picnic and perhaps have a Treasure hunt for various flowers and leaves etc. which I would list and give a prize to the winner, but otherwise no effort from Mamma! We had such a job getting Lindy a present this year – in the end after trailing through town all day on Sat. I found a thing Cec and I had thought of – it’s called ‘Pitch-it’ and is a bouncy net in a frame which you set up on the grass and it bounces the ball back when you throw at it.n I also got her ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ which she dearly loves, a doll’s dress and petticoat, and a new pair of shorts and a top to wear at the picnic. Charlie is giving her a little Dolly’s Toy Shop, and I have your parcel and one from Nan that looks like a book, so she will do very well. She got Auntie Muriel’s card and hankie and was very delighted and will write later. I gave her your card too and she got one from Charlie Stainthorpe, so she has an array already.
This is also the week of the Exhibition [a summer fair with rides, midway, and food, combined with the exhibition of prize animals, veg, etc] so we will be going one day, and on Friday we are having a sort of Farewell Party for Alex and Phyl who are going to McMaster University for a year. This is a new Council policy to have people go and take the place of Profs. who are going away on sabbatical leaves, and Alex is the first one and will take the place of a Prof. McClay. They have rented their house and will leave next week to get settled before the children begin school. We will miss them. Talking of the Council you will have heard of the Russian Scientist, Dr. Glotchko, who defected to Canada last week? Well, he and the rest of the Russian group were at the Council the day before and saw round, and had lunch there. Boris and Alex were at the lunch and Boris sat next to Dr. G. and said he was very nice and seemed perfectly normal, except that he was just dripping with perspiration all the time, and it wasn’t a hot day. Then the next morning he just walked out of the hotel early and went to R.C.M.P. headquarters. Don’t we live in the midst of the world news? I must stop now as Linda has Joanne here and it is lunchtime, so I must feed them, and then make a birthday cake this afternoon – not to forget all the ironing still left! My love to Auntie Muriel, and hello to Doris. Thank you again for the lovely parcel, With lots of love from us all, Cyn.
This letter features family rather than friends, so a quick review of Costains! Cec and Cyn, Linda and Charlie live at the east end of Ottawa, in a duplex with Myrtle Rothwell in the other half, which had a ground floor apartment at the back, now occupied by the Knights, who will feed the cat Nicki while the Costains are away. As they start out for their holiday they have to drive west through Ottawa, and then go up Highway 17, which goes through Carp where Cec’s sister Lea and family live- so they stop for coffee. They find and enjoy their cottage, and make an expedition one day to visit Cec’s Uncle, Milton Costain, and his Aunt Lily, who normally live in Toronto but are also doing the Ontario summer thing- going to the cottage. What they really are looking forward to is the visit on the weekend of Cec’s oldest sister, Merle Moor, and her husband Dix, with as many of their 3 boys, John, Lorne, and Bruce, as are available. Bruce is 11 at this point, Lorne 18, and the children welcome these cousins, and miss the oldest one.
Gull Lake
4th August
Dearest Mummy, Well, here we are at the Cottage! I can hardly believe that we have been here nearly a week and we are all having a really lovely time. The weather has been warm & sunny but not too hot & only one evening after dark we had a heavy shower, otherwise no rain at all. The lake is a very big one but we are on a small bay off another larger one called Deep Bay, so actually we only see a small part of the lake but it is very beautiful with wooded hills and rocky outcrops, and all the trees are so gloriously fresh & green this year. Our cottage is not right on the beach, but up a little rise across a field with trees at one side & a rocky hillside behind.
There are only 2 other cottages & the owner’s house (Mrs. Forster- very obliging) & our cottage is nicely off on our own. It is very comfortable with running water, inside toilet, refrigerator, electric stove & light, & a wood stove in the sitting room for heating. We actually just light it in the morning, although it’s not very cold, but it quickens up breakfast if Cec cooks the bacon and eggs on the fire & I do the other things on the electric stove. We have organized a wonderful system – I cook meals (except Cec lights fires & does most of breakfast) & make beds; Linda sweeps the cottage; Charlie washes the breakfast dishes; then Linda washes the lunch dishes & then Cec washes the dinner dishes, so isn’t that a lovely holiday for me? Just knowing I haven’t a dish to wash makes me feel very carefree! So far we have swum twice every day & 3 times one day – usually about 11:30 a.m. & 4 p.m. The water is very nice & warm & is grand for the children as the bay goes out very gradually – the beach is sandy but actually the bottom is mostly mud, but it’s not too gooky & unpleasant! Linda is a complete waterbaby & will stay in hours without a shiver, but poor little old Charlie is still as skinny & gets cold as quickly. Lindy is doing very well with her swimming – she swims very well on her back & floats & does somersaults in the water & touches the bottom etc. On her front she swims a crawl stroke & does very well, but she swims with her face in the water & and has difficulty getting her head up & getting her breath without a gulp of water, but it is coming gradually & she already can swim further than when she was in the swimming pool. Charlie seems to have no buoyancy at all! He still doesn’t like to get his face & head wet, but he tries & it will come sometime I expect! I am trying to do the things Lindy learnt at her lessons – the Jellyfish Float etc. so I am being quite venturesome! We are all getting healthy & sunburnt but not to excess! We have rented a rowboat & we row around & go walks & are really quite energetic – Cec took us a hike over the hill one evening which turned out to be quite an expedition, up & down ravines & through bushes etc. & poor Lindy thought we were lost forever! However we turned out exactly opposite our cottage, so the guide wasn’t far off! Cec bought a fishing rod in a little town nearby & he & Charlie have been fishing in the boat, but had no luck. We all went last night & I rowed them around but Lindy said all the fish had gone to bed! I have said that anyone who catches a fish must clean it himself, so I don’t know if this has dampened their ardour!
We had quite a long drive up on Sat. – nearly 300 miles, & not nearly such easy driving as the Thruway! We had to take food & bedding as well as clothes, so you can imagine how packed little Rosie was. We set out at 8:45 & as we passed right through Carp we had phoned & told Lea we would stop for 1/2 hour for a cup of coffee. We found them all well, but as usual in some sort of flap. Over the prospect of a move to Edmonton this time – goodness knows how it will turn out. Afterwards we went on up the Ottawa River Valley. We had a picnic lunch – in a slight shower of rain, but we were under trees! – & then on up to Algonquin Park – the big National Park you know. Linda was all set to see bears, but we just drove through on the highway of course so there wasn’t much hope but we did see some deer with whole crowds of cars stopped to watch them! We visited the Park Museum which had exhibits of the wildlife of the park – some like bears etc. stuffed, & fishes & frogs etc. in glass cases! Then we drove on through & arrived at our nearest small town, Minden, around 5 o’clock. We shopped for milk & bread & then after wandering around back roads for a while found the cottage. We are about 15 miles from Minden & are going in this afternoon to get meat & groceries for the weekend. The 2 children are so funny & different – if we lose the way in the car or walking Linda gets so agitated & upset & worried whereas Charlie gets all philosophical in adversity & tramps on cheerfully saying “Oh well if this isn’t right we’ll just have to go back!” I had brought a cold roast turkey with me & rolls & salad, so we had a nice supper all ready. Mr. & Mrs. Knight are looking after Nicki for us. It worked out very conveniently as their daughter and her husband & 3 children were due back from Germany (with the Army) on the day after we left, & of course the Knights wanted to have them to stay while they looked for a house (they are now stationed in Ottawa), but Myrtle was being very difficult about it all. When I heard this I suggested giving the Knights our back door key & Mr. & Mrs. K. could come in & sleep in our Recreation Room each night & we loaned them the chaise also as a bed for one of the children, so they were overwhelmingly grateful & immediately suggested that they would look after Nicki. As Mrs. K says, the family might be with them a week or only a few days depending on how long before they get a house, but it will be pretty close quarters for them, & I said to let the children play on our swing & slide etc. as Myrtle has been so disagreeable they are determined they won’t set a step on her path even! We left food for Nicki & her bed in the washroom & if it rains the Knights will let her in our basement. Since we arrived here we have only been on one expedition & that was to Gravenhurst in the Muskoka area where Auntie Lily & Uncle Milton are staying for their holidays. It is about 60 miles away & we drove over in the morning & had lunch & then back home in the late afternoon. Poor Charlie still doesn’t get on well in the car & the country around here – rather like Mill & Ford’s camp – all hills & winding roads & up & down etc. doesn’t suit him at all, so we are going to just enjoy the cottage and not drive around more than necessary as it bothers him so & the pills make him very dopey. His eczema is improving but not gone all together, but he seems in much better shape now & is eating well. We are expecting the Moors this weekend – probably not till tomorrow morning. Merle has been attending a Course in Toronto & finishes today & Dixon has had a summer job marking exam papers, but it is finished too. Lorne has a job as a Life Guard at a swimming pool but he can get the weekend off & we hope Bruce will be home from Camp & come too. John has gone in the “Mission Field” for the summer, so we won’t see him. I don’t quite know what this means, but he has apparently gone somewhere in connection with the Church, but will let you know when I find out more. Well, Lindy has just about finished the dishes, so we will be on our way to Minden soon & I had better stop & mail this. Charlie has learned to play Patience & is very engrossed in it. They both can row now. Must stop – big hugs from us all. Much love Cyn.
Dearest Mummy, This is the Lemon Loaf recipe I told you about – I think it is very nice. I was served at sliced & buttered, but really it is quite cake-y I think, & I hope you find it a success at your tea parties. We have been hit by our summer at last – it descended with a real old humid Ottawa heat wave & last week we suffered! The temp. was 90° & the humidity 90% & everything was so damp & horrid. This week has been quite a bit better, to our relief. Poor Cec has been asphalting the driveway in all this heat & last weekend he had hired a machine to spray on the tar, so had to continue despite the temp. However it is done now & looks very nice – we are still not allowed to walk on it! One night it was so hot I made a bed for the children downstairs but they didn’t really care for it! They said it was spooky & Charlie rolled onto the floor! Yesterday was our 12th wedding anniversary – aren’t we getting on?! We had to celebrate on Tues. evening as Cec had a friend in Ottawa for 1 day & night on his way home to Saskatoon from Paris, & we put him up last night. His name is Gordon Shepherd & he is an Ass’t. Prof. at the U. of Saskatchewan & Cec had met him at the meeting in Amsterdam & told him to stay with us in Ottawa. He is a nice, a rather quiet shy fellow, looking forward to getting home to his wife & little boys after 3 mths. in France. He arrived at the Airport at about 7 last night & left again at 7 this evening, so Cec & the children enjoyed two jaunts to see the planes! He knew Boris at the U. of Toronto so we had Boris & Joan over last night for drinks & then coffee & fresh raspberry pie. Cec & I went out to dinner on Tues. evening to a new French restaurant in Hull – Le Diplomat. It was very nice & we had a good dinner in romantic candlelight! This latter was very popular with me, but you know men!
I am enclosing some snaps so will close now & write more on ourholiday! We go on Sat. & are all looking forward to it hugely – will tell you all about it soon. Lots of love from us all – Cyn.
Dearest Mummy, As you will see from the children’s letters your birthday parcel arrived in good time and of course caused huge excitement! I asked Lindy if I should put it away and she said “Well – it’s such a long time. How about opening it & if Granny has put in more than one thing, we could save one & open one!” so that is what we did! The children were delighted with their gifts – Charlie was a little dubious of the shirt at first – did boys wear such bright shirts! – but he tried it on & it looks so nice & fitted so well that he was reconciled! Thank you so much for my gloves – they are so nice & I am delighted to have them as I have so few nice gloves. I also got your letter with the cheque & will get the shoes & batteries & send them off this week. I was over at the Coin wash at McArthur Plaza last week, so went to Bata & asked about the shoes. They have the exact shoe but in a very ugly yellowy brown, but he has another pair which he says is made on exactly the same last & which looks very much the same to me. This is in the same beige-y colour as yours & he says they don’t come in white. I had no money at the time, so didn’t get them, but will do so this week. Tomorrow we take Lindy to this Dr. Hargadon to see about her front teeth, & then I must begin getting ready for our holiday, as we leave a week on Sat. The weather is still very changeable & has been hot & humid with violent thunder showers, so I hope it gets it all over before we go. Cec is asphalting the driveway – such a job, but it begins to look nice.
This is a bit of a change, because after Linda’s Birthday Parcel arrived a month early from St. Vincent, both the children wrote to Grannie and their letters were included in Cyn’s next. The book that she sent is a guess on my part, but ‘Black Beauty’ seems to fit, the sort of English classic that Grannie might have been able to get in St. Vincent, and certainly guaranteed to make me cry, even though I was not a mad-about-horses girl reader. I’m not sure I ever re-read it, which was not the usual pattern, but the 1957 edition I have could easily have been with me for 60 years!
Dear Grannie,
We went to swimming lessons all last week and the week before, I didn’t learn to swim but I got the idea.
Daddy went away on a trip as you probably know. He brought me home a Royal Mail coach for my train. You should see it. You put the mail bag on a hook. The mail coach comes along, picks it up and throws it out again in a little box.
The other thing I want to tell you is that I won a prize at Sunday School. It was a picture to hang on the wall.
And thanks for the shirt you sent me.
Love from Charles
XXXXXX
Dearest Grannie,
I am writing to tell you that we received your birthday parcel and opened it right away. Mummy took one parcel but I opened the one with the book and doll skirt in. It’s very cute. All the afternoon I was crying over the book but I like it in spite of that!
Now that I have finished swimming lessons I can swim. I can swim beautifully on my back but I don’t do half so well on my front which is rather a pity I think! We go to the cottage next week and I hope I learn to swim well there. Love Linda
P.S. Say hello to Doris and Luenda do for me. L.C.
Dearest Mummy, It was two weeks ago today that I posted my last letter to you in Montreal when I was with Mary Egan, and it seems more like two months ago! Cec has been home for more than a week and we are beginning to feel that he was never away, although my goodness, we were glad to see him! I might as well begin right away and tell you of our doings and then I can answer your letters and say thank you properly. I think I told you of Flora W. coming to tea one day with the baby, and then the next day Mrs. Bowen invited me to tea- this was really because of “My Position” and she also invited Marjorie as Past President and Gertrude Pierce who is President of the Altar Guild, but it was very nice anyway. Marjorie’s Mother was there too and Mr. Bowen and we all had quite a chatty time. The next day (Fri. 9th) I took Ruth Lockwood to Almonte to the Woollen Mills Shop. Of course when I suggested it to her before Cec ever left I had great plans to buy all sorts of things, but after my great dress spree I had no money, and Ruth wasn’t much better, so we really went for fun! Ruth actually took a piece of material and matched it, so we didn’t completely waste their time, but actually I was very glad to see what they had and how the prices compared so that in the Fall I can plan what to get if I want to go again. They have very nice sweaters of all shades as well as woolen material, and also blankets. The latter of a mixture of rayon and viscose and something else, as well as the pure wool ones, and I was thinking that for Charlie it might be better as he finds the wool too hot. We had a picnic lunch on the way back, and although it wasn’t warm enough to make us want to get out and recline on the grassy sward, it was very pleasant sitting in the car with the windows open! During the week I had a phone call from Lila who is back in Ottawa for two months, so I invited her to come to dinner on the Sunday. It turned out to be a nice hot day – one of the few we’ve had – so we had it out in the garden and I cooked meatballs and chicken livers in bacon on the little grill. They got a bit burned, but Lila is a polite girl and said she liked the charcoal flavour! Myrtle annoyed me immensely by peering at us, and talking and as she had laryngitis we’d all have to stop and listen and say ‘Pardon’ and in the end never know what she was talking about. By the time Cec got home I could hardly be civil to her. She was in and out and on the phone every day and she’d be saying “What are you doing now?” and “Where are you going today?” until I felt I had an inquisitor on my heels. The day I went to Montreal she phoned me after 10 at night and demanded very indignantly “Where were you all day?” As you can imagine this did not go down very well with me! Next day- Monday- was the day Charlie S.[Stainthorpe] was to be in Ottawa. So after the children set off to school I dashed around and made beds etc. and then about 8:40 a.m. I phoned the Château Laurier and asked for him but they said he hadn’t come yet, so I left a message with my phone number and about half an hour later he called me. He had just arrived after a night in the train from Toronto and hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I suggested that I would come for him at 11 o’clock, and if he felt like it he could stroll up and look at the outside of the Parliament buildings as I knew I would never find a place to park there. I’d given the children their lunches, so I got organized and set off in my new blue patterned dress and black hat that Mary and I made and we duly met at the right time and place. Charlie is just the same – a little more paunchy, but full of pep and enthusiasm and having a wonderful time. We went to the car at once as he had been up to Parliament Hill, and I set out to show him Ottawa. I can’t say it was much of a success as a guided tour, as he was having so much fun telling me about Ruth and the boys, and all the things he done on his trip and the things he’d seen that I didn’t have the heart to keep interrupting him and saying this is this and that is that! However, we went around the Driveways and Dow’s Lake so he must have had a favourable impression. Unfortunately the tulips had just completely finished and not much else was in bloom and the same applied to our garden, but everything was beautifully green and springy looking. We got to the Champlain Island in the Ottawa River just around 12, and I showed him the rapids, and the log booms higher up, which interested him very much, and then I suggested that we have just a light lunch in the restaurant there, and he thought this was a good idea. We had toasted Western sandwiches and coffee, and he’d not had such a sandwich before and he thought it was a beautiful restaurant so it was nice to please him. Afterwards, I took him over the bridge and down through Hull and he saw the view from that side of the river, and then we went down Sussex Drive, past N.R.C. and the Prime Minister’s and Governor General’s etc. and through Rockcliffe Park. On the way home we passed Steinberg’s and Loblaw’s and I told him I shop there, and then I suddenly thought he might like to see one, so back we went and I took him through Steinberg’s much to his amazement and interest! He bought some cherries to have on the train next day and then saw some corn and asked if that was what it was, as their Courier had said they hadn’t lived until they had eaten corn on the cob, so of course I got some, although it was not in season, so it wasn’t very good, but at least he’d have some idea of what it is like. We got home around 2:30 I think, and we sat chatting for a little, and I noticed that he was looking a bit droopy eyed, so I suggested that he should lie down and have a little nap, so I think he was very happy to do so. I was happy too, as I shut myself in the kitchen and managed to get the dinner well on the way. I had a chicken casserole with bacon and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, fresh asparagus and corn on the cob, and then afterwards a strawberry shortcake. I found it very hard work with both Lila and Charlie being both host and hostess and missed Cec so much – it is really hard to entertain and cook and serve dinner at the same time! The children came in from school while Charlie was still asleep, and we crept around for a little while, and then he stirred so we made tea and I introduced them. They were very tickled at some of Charlie’s English expressions and of course we got so muddled up with the Charlies that we had to say Big Charlie and Little Charlie! Big C. brought them both pretty little egg cups and spoons with the arms of London on, so they were very pleased and I was glad that I had the things to give him for Ruth’s boys. I was quite glad that he had grandsons because whenever the children suddenly got uproarious, or were particularly child like he would say “Just like Richard and Michael!” and look quite pleased!
Charlie (in the back) with Ruth, Richard, Michael, and Peter Haynes in England.
He was tired after his night in the train, and they were off to Montreal early in the morning so we drove him back to the Château soon after 8 o’clock, and this suited me fine as I didn’t want to keep the children out too long. It really was nice seeing him again and he seems very contented with his life now. I suggested he try a trip to the West Indies, and he said that you had said so too, and he seemed quite interested so you might be seeing him next! On the Tuesday Fanni had very kindly invited us all to a barbecue supper, so this was a lovely free day for me, without even dinner to prepare. Unfortunately it was as changeable as all this peculiar summer has been, and about 4 it clouded over and began to pour with rain, so we couldn’t sit outside doors after all. Teddy has built a lovely new fireplace outside and we were going to christen it but we had a nice time anyway. Talking of christenings the Bowen’s smallest girl, Patty, aged four had me very puzzled the other Sunday – she kept telling me that she was going to – – – – and that I should come to this – – – – and there would be nice things to eat! I couldn’t make out what the word was and asked her again and again and finally got it – a “bastism”! Next day, Wednesday, I set out on my trip to Montreal. I gave the children their lunch and arranged for them to go to Mrs. Lockwood’s after school, and then dashed around and did a few chores before I set out at 9 o’clock. It was really a perfect day for driving, as it was sunny but quite cool, so I wore the navy and white checked outfit you helped me buy before you left, and my pink straw pillbox hat. I took just about the three hours to drive the 120 miles, and felt very proud of myself as I only got lost once in the city, and then I drove in onto a side street and found myself on the map! I found a parking lot very near the bus station and was there at 12:05 to find Mary just arriving. She looks practically exactly the same – no gray hairs and just about the same figure, but of course her complexion is 10 years older, like mine! We set off and found an Italian Restaurant nearby, and decided to take our time, and ordered a bottle or rather a half bottle of white wine and sat there sipping and talking and eating for two hours. We showed one another pictures of our children and told one another about our families, and caught up on our friends and their children and had a thoroughly good time! Mary had stayed one night with Olwen and Noel in Vancouver (3 children) and I was wrong – I thought Noel was a teacher but he is with an advertising firm. I was very amused because apparently they loathed Canada to begin with and a few years ago went back to England, and although they both worked there they couldn’t make enough money to live on! Not, I gather, in the style to which they would like to be accustomed! So they returned to Canada, but for Mary’s few remarks it sounds as if Owen is still quite affected. Mary’s mother and Gerard were meeting her at Prestwick, and Gerard was lending her his car, so she hopes to get around and see everyone. She is then going home via Rome, and Gerard will go there with her, and then she goes on to Singapore and so home. She has left the 2 girls in a convent boarding school where Ann already goes, but the young one just for the term, and the three boys and Michael are looking after each other. She seems to have very much the same kind of life as I do I think, and seems very contented. After our long lunch we went and looked at the shops a bit and I got some candy to take back to the children and Mrs. Lockwood, and then before long it was getting on for 4 o’clock. I wanted to leave before the evening traffic rush began, and Mary wanted to be back before too late as she was staying with a young English couple, so we had a cup of tea and said goodbye and I was home soon after 7. My activities still weren’t over though, as this was the evening of Mr. Bowen’s presentation, so I got tidied up a bit, and then went over to the Lockwood’s and took Mrs. L and Linda and Charlie down to the Church. There has been a great mix-up over the parish letter telling the people about the Bowens’ leaving and asking for subs. etc. – in fact it was never sent, and in the end the Wardens had to ask some of us in the Guild to phone everyone, so we were quite relieved to find there was quite a nice crowd there. The Guild served tea and coffee and cookies, and then the gifts were presented – very nice leather briefcase to Mr. Bowen and a set of dishes to Mrs. Bowen and a cheque ($100). The dishes were exactly the same as my blue Wedgewood, but yellow as Mrs. B wanted those, but I didn’t think they were as pretty as mine. We also gave a cheque to Mr. Trumbull the organist (Mrs. Rothwell’s lodger – remember?) as he wouldn’t accept a salary apparently. He is leaving Fairfield School so of course leaving Mrs. R and the Church too. I didn’t stay to the end of the social as I had the children, but it was quite pleasant and I think that the Bowens were pleased. Next morning I blessed Mary Orr, as this was the day that she had talked me into going and helping her with this lunch. The Save the Children have a Dog Show every year apparently at Ashbury College and Mary and some of the other women provide and serve lunch for the dog show judges. It really wasn’t hard work, as I had to be there at 11, and about 4 of us set up card tables and then one long buffet table table with the food on it – all cold- in the gym. We served about 25 people and then had our own, but had no washing up or anything, and as they all trickled in a few at a time there was no rush. I left about 2, and went to the Coinwash and did my washing! Did I tell you that the washing machine had passed out? Cec says the motor has burned out and we don’t feel inclined to spend $50 or more for it, so we have decided to leave it until after the holidays, and then decide what we’ll do and in the meantime I take my washing down to the good old Coinwash. The next excitement that week was the Sunday School Picnic, which was at the same place as last year – the big park at Hogs Back. It was a lovely day, and it was really very nice. It began at 10, and I took Joanne with L. and C. and they ran races all morning and then had lunch- hot dogs and pop and ice cream! Afterwards there was a Treasure Hunt and some silly races for adults. They had made me join in the throwing the raw egg business as they had last year and I gave a great heave up into the air and it nearly came down on a man’s head! It was all over around 2, so that gave us a nice time to get home and have a great bath and hair wash do for Daddy coming home! It was rather a pity that we had to miss this Sunday in Church as it was Children’s Sunday with all the presentation of Sunday school prizes etc. Not only that, but the Service was taken by the children too, and they had asked me if Linda would read one of the lessons. I had to explain that we wouldn’t be there, and I didn’t tell Lindy as I knew how disappointed she would be, but her Sunday School teacher told her and of course she was quite sad. They both got prizes, but someone else had to take them for them. On the Sunday morning we were all set to leave at 10, as Cec’s plane was due in at 1:35, and I thought we’d get there in good time and have some lunch and watch the planes. However I decided to try and check before I left Ottawa, so I phoned BOAC, but after a lot of hoo-ha they told me if I called in 2 hours they would be able to tell me when the plane got in! This was ridiculous of course, as we’d be nearly in Montreal by then, so off we set anyway, and had quite a nice drive, though the children got a bit bored! We stopped by the side of the road and had picnic cookies and milk and coffee, and we got to the Airport just at 12:30. We parked the car, and went into the Terminal and to the BOAC Enquiries, and asked about the plane and the girl said calmly “Oh, that flight has been cancelled.” I was so infuriated, particularly as it turned out that they had known for hours, and must have known when I phoned in Ottawa. However, they said Cec would arrive at 4 o’clock, so we had lunch and resigned ourselves to a nice long wait. Fortunately there were a few drug stores etc. open in the concourse, so we bought Linda a book and Mummy a book, and Charlie 2 little matchbox cars, and amused ourselves as best we could! Watching the planes was very disappointing, as they arrive and take off behind another building, and although they have a lovely terrace and viewing deck, one can see nothing! Time passed and who should I see the George Lindsay, off to Halifax, so we chatted a little while – by the way, I don’t think I told you that they have been posted for 3 years to the Italian Riviera! For once, June has nothing bad to say about this move! Getting on for 4, we went and checked on the plane again, and this time they told us 4:30, and of course, we finally saw Cec at about 5! But it was worth waiting for him!! We drove home, and on the way Charlie began to wilt, so I gave him a car sickness pill, and he dozed and slept most of the way. When we got home though he didn’t feel like eating any supper, so I took his temp. and it was 102, and the eczema behind his legs was a mess – all broken out in yellow pustules, and looking so sore and inflamed. So that was a sad ending to our day. However, we were all so happy to have Daddy home, and he brought Linda a lovely little Dutch doll with wooden shoes which take off, and for Charlie from England lots more tracks for his train, and a dear little Royal Mail Van. Also all sorts of souvenirs – a model of the Little Mermaid from Copenhagen – a carved wooden statue of William Tell from Switzerland, – a Delft tile from Holland,- some table mats with views of Cambridge. My big present was a seascape by Van Gogh from the Modern Art Gallery in Amsterdam, and of course we had the children’s pictures waiting to surprise him, so we are going to have some framing done! Cec and I have always wanted a sea picture and I like this one very much – I told Cec I had to laugh when he wrote and told me he had bought it as he carefully said he had bought this picture by Van Gogh and then added (reproduction)! Poor old Charlie got to bed, and to sleep and Cec and I talked our heads off. He saw Charles Courtois in Belgium, Langseths and Boks in Copenhagen, Klemans in Stockholm and Fischers in Lucerne – all people who have been over here at the C.ouncil – and they were all so kind to him and gave him a wonderful time. In England he visited Miss Lefroy and Chris as I told you, and also Gunborg and the girls as well as 2 ex-Fellows of NRC, then he went up to Birmingham University and stayed there with a Prof. whom we had met here, and then onto Cambridge where he stayed as a guest of St. John’s College. In Cambridge he visited his friend Dick Chapman who was our best man, and also various scientists he knew, and then on the last evening he found he was free, so he phoned Anne Winnick. She was out, but he finally got her old mother to realize who it was and she told him that Anne was at the Arts Cinema, so he went there and nearly gave Anne apoplexy to find him waiting there for her to come out! He went home with her and her friend (the new Headmistress of Coleridge) and saw the children, and then to the friend’s house for supper. I just wish I’d seen Anne’s face of amazement! Didn’t he cover a lot of ground and people though? And what do you think – he wasn’t home two weeks when he got an invitation to attend an International Symposium next year in JAPAN and give a paper! He is not at all keen, but it is a great honour and he is definitely among the Greats of the Physics world. Dr. Herzberg and 2 other famous scientists are to give long papers, and then about 20 scientists from all over the world give shorter ones – these including Sir Gordon and Dr. C. C. Costain! It isn’t until the Fall of next year, but he is disgusted because he has to write this month and say what his paper will be on and he doesn’t know what he will be doing all that time ahead! We only hope that this won’t put a spoke in our plans for 1963. Poor little Charlie was still very poorly on the Monday so I kept him in bed and had Dr. Whillans. He had a very sore throat, and Dr. W. said it was a strep throat, and that he wondered that he could be so cheery as it looked so sore. His legs were a bit better, but he gave me some ointment for them and some penicillin pills for the throat, and really, they worked like a charm, and by Tues. he was feeling so much better. I was glad as I had a big Guild Coffee Party on the Wed. morning. I had invited the past executive committee and the new one and various people like Pat Tomlinson and Mrs. Martin – making about 20 altogether, so it was a relief that Charlie was feeling better. It turned out to be a pouring wet day, and everyone was saying “What a day to have a party”, but they all came just the same, and everyone seem to have a nice time. Charlie was well enough to go back to school on the Friday, and work with him at home, and not having a car and staying quietly at home it was quite a nice change from my wild dashing about! A little goes a long way when all the other jobs are piling up just the same. Cec began working around the garden that weekend, and it really has been lovely, but the weather this summer has been so strange for Canada. We never seem to have had more than one or two fine days in a row, and we have had so much rain – heavy thunder showers, and sudden drenching downpours, and then sunny but cool – just ideal for the gardens, but not settled summer weather at all. Actually, Cec was saying the perennials have done wonderfully this year but the annuals are doing very poorly – however the tomato plants recovered and although they haven’t much in the way of fruit yet at least they are alive. The people who are on holiday now will be very disappointed as we have had a lot of rain and it hasn’t been swimming weather at all.
The next week was the children’s last week at school, and I took them to the dentist one day too. Both with small holes, and Linda is to go to a periodontalist (?) to see about her front teeth coming to a point. She is quite resigned the thought of wearing “bands” as most of her pals in school do anyway! They both did well in their reports, and now Linda is in Grade 6 and Charlie Grade 5 – big kids!
Cec has now started work on the driveway – first of all he is lifting all those big flag stones at the front door and putting fill underneath and levelling them out and now he is going to put new asphalt on the driveway itself. He then has to re-tar the roof – both such horrid messy jobs. I can’t remember if I told you that while Cec was away I finally booked us a cottage for the first two weeks in August. We had looked over the literature previously, and decided on one or two that looked nice, and I wrote and one of the places was booked up and the other had a cottage, so I booked there. It sounds good – on a lakefront, with a sandy beach, indoor plumbing, refrigerator, and electricity of course, inner spring mattresses and boats to hire, so I hope it turns out as good as it sounds. It is due west of here and is north of Toronto in a part of Ontario called the Haliburton Highlands, and it is supposed to be very beautiful country, so I hope we’ll have a good time. We leave here on 29th July and stay there for 2 weeks, then we plan to drive down to Stratford to see the matinee of “The Pirates of Penzance” and then go on to Merle for the weekend before coming home. Last week was the first week of the children’s holidays, and I had booked them both for swimming lessons at the YWCA. Charlie’s lessons were from 10 to 10:30 and Lindy’s from 10:45 to 11:15 so they fit in very well. They were both quite excited about them and then of course on the Sunday poor Charlie’s eczema all broke out again, and he had a temp. once more. I called the Dr. on Mon. and he sent out some more penicillin pills, and I kept putting the ointment on them, and then suddenly he threw up his breakfast. However, he wasn’t sick again and by the evening I could give him a pill and he was feeling fine and hungry! Of course he couldn’t go to his swimming lesson though but, I took him along to watch Lindy’s and the teacher suggested he come and watch his own classes and that is what he did until Friday when he was O.K. and could go swimming himself. His legs cleared up and I came to the conclusion that it must have been a slight tummy flu because on Thursday and Friday I was quite off, and very achy and tired. They are both loving the lessons though and on the very second day Lindy took off and swam across the pool! I am not allowed to watch but she says she can swim on her back and that they are going to learn to dive and can hardly bear to come away from the lesson. The teacher is a young teenager, but the classes are nice and small – not more than 12 and Lindy’s has now dwindled to 4, so they get lots of attention. Of course I spend my whole morning in town spending money and drinking coffee and getting no work done!
The previous Sat. we had Chris Møller out to dinner as his time here is getting short, and then last week Boris and Joan had a Cocktail Party as a farewell for him. I hadn’t been feeling too good that day, but I was able to sit and drink a little reviver and felt better. On this Sat. I had a dinner party and had Teddy and Fanni and Alec and Phyl and a young Portuguese couple from the Council to a cold buffet. I had soup first – crab bisque – then I had cold Gaspé salmon, cucumber sauce and then a salad plate, and a Hawaiian chicken salad with hot French bread- oh yes, and I forgot- a plate of cold meats and stuffed eggs, then after, a strawberry cake. Everyone seem to enjoy it and afterwards we showed some of Cec’s pictures – he hasn’t got them all yet- and Teddy showed some of his, and then we went downstairs and played darts and did jigsaw puzzles! It was really fun though and I had a good time too! Yesterday I washed up! Well, at last I have caught up with ourselves – I have been writing this letter for three weeks, but what with Charlie being sick, and swimming lessons and one thing and another the time has flown. I am so sorry that it has been so long, but I know you will forgive me. I still haven’t answered your nice letters but I think that I will have to leave that till my next or I will never get this away. As Guild Pres. I am now on the Church Advisory Board, and they have been putting me to work with regard to the rectory. We are getting it all painted inside for the new rector, and today I had to go and get the painters and show them the place and see about the paint and take down the curtains and send them to be cleaned. Tomorrow we begin swimming again – 4 more lessons this week – and so I will be off on the spree again! Must stop – will write soon again and we all send much love to A. Muriel and lots of love and hugs to you, from Cyn.
Cyn’s birthday was April 3rd. In her letter of June 3rd, she had told her mother that there still had been no sign of the birthday parcel that Carol had no doubt mailed in early March! Not only had there been her birthday presents and treats for the children inside it, but Carol had also included some items she thought would sell at the Anglican Bazaar that Cyn’s Ladies Guild had held in May. And just days after that last letter, Cyn sends another one because the parcel has finally turned up!
2043 Montreal Road, Ottawa 2. Ontario. 8th June, 1961
Dearest Mummy, At long, long last your birthday parcel has arrived! Many, many thanks! I am delighted with my petticoat and panties, and you should have heard Linda’s squeal of delight when she saw your old red poppits! She is going to wear the yellow hair fastener tomorrow with the yellow dress you once sent her. Charlie has been walking around in his sun glasses although it was a nice rainy day! The baskets and hats are fine – the hats are a bit squashed but I have just been steaming them and they are all right now I think. It is such a pity we didn’t have them for our handiwork stall as I think they would have looked very gay and attractive, but I am having a coffee party in a little while and will show the girls and if anyone wants to buy I will sell the things, and if not I will put them away for next year. It was very sweet of you to send so many things for us and I know all the girls will appreciate it. Ruth Lockwood just phoned me after dinner to say that she had had such a nice card from you, so I don’t know if it took as long as the parcel. I also got your typed airmail of June 1 and think that you did very well. Don’t worry about mistakes – when you type letters to me just try to buzz along and you will soon find it not such a chore and you will get quicker. Obviously I don’t worry about mistakes! But if you are being too careful it slows you down unless you are an expert. I wrote to you just on Monday and already it seems long ago. One thing is piling on another, and unless I am careful Charlie will be coming to dirty floors and dusty house! On Tuesday morning I went over to the N.R.C. on Montreal Rd. and helped at the Blood Donor Clinic. There were 6 of the Scientists Wives there including Sheena and me, and we served orange juice or coke to the people before they gave blood (my job) and some checked cards and helped the nurses, and then the others served coffee and cookies and doughnuts afterwards and gave them little tokens. It was interesting and quite fun, particularly as I met all sorts of our neighbours! I took Sheena home with me for lunch and she stayed chatting all afternoon until tea time. She is expecting, did I tell you? We had a nice time, but of course I got nothing done. On Tues. evening it was the Guild meeting and I had asked Eddie Savic to sit with the children, but he got a stiff neck, so kind Peter came instead. I went to the meeting and was duly elected president. We also presented Mrs. Bowen with a nice aluminum tray and six coasters to match. It was very pretty – quite big with a handle at each end and a design of pinecones beaten into the polished aluminum. She seemed very pleased with it. On Wed. a.m. I dashed around and then at 10 o’clock set off for Mary Orr’s with all the paraphernalia to make my hat! It was very intriguing to watch her swathe the tulle and try it this way and that until we were satisfied. It is a small turban shape and made of a kind of nylon lace stiffened. Then over this Mary has draped black tulle with velvet spots to give a slightly bouffant look! I have some pretty little mauvy-blue flower clusters which I am to place hither and thither! I think it will look very pretty, but since then I haven’t done a thing to it, but I must finish the creation for Sunday. When I came home I got the children’s lunch, then washed all the windows in the house and washed and polished down the stairs and the downstairs bathroom. Then, at 4 o’clock Flora Wansbrough came to tea with the baby! She had left the little boys at a party, but Linda and Charlie were very amused at watching the baby get her cereal – and of course the baby loved the attention and laughed and chuckled and splurted cereal and was a riot! She is a lovely chubby little thing now and Flora is looking well. Flora left at 6, and we ate dinner in a rush and then Charlie was off to Cubs, and I had to go and pick him up at 8.00 so that’s how the time flies. This morning I decided I had better go downtown to the bank as I wouldn’t get another chance before next Wed. and I wanted to have a decent amount when I go to Montreal. I took Mrs. Martin down and dropped her there and then did a few things, and I got a pretty handbag with your five dollars for my birthday – thank you very much! It is black patent leather with sort of tapestry sides with a rural scene! I wanted black to match my black patent leather shoes and both my new coat and my pink suit are trimmed with black, but I felt that plain black wasn’t very summery, so I am delighted with this – it is quite plain inside, and nice and roomy. So I am now really well fitted out. I certainly am glad I got my coat when I did as it has been cold and rainy so much since, and I have worn it practically every day and got so many compliments.
After being in town – by the way I got some small things to give Charlie for Ruth, and the boys as I hadn’t sent them any birthday presents this year. Ruth, a very pretty brooch – I would like to keep it myself! – Richard a small pocket knife with a Mountie on it, and Michael a pair of those slippers socks. Then I went to the coinwash and as well as my wash did a blanket and the loose cover off the sofa- I found I had enough material to replace the entire seat, so I put it in and then washed it to make it all the same colour! It was after 2 when I got home, and I was to be at Mrs. Bowen’s for tea at 3! Rush, rush, rush! Tomorrow Ruth Lockwood and I are going on a little expedition to Almonte – a place near Carp where there are woolen mills and a mill shop, and we are going to look over the woolens. I suggested it to Ruth before Cec ever left, and now I really have no money for material but we are going for the fun of it anyway and will have a picnic lunch. I only hope it is a nice day – today poured solidly till about 3 o’clock. Lila phoned up the other evening and is back at N.R.C. for 2 months, so of course I asked her out, and we are collecting her at 3.00 on Sunday afternoon, and she will have dinner with us. The children think this social life is wonderful – when Cec gets home I will be glad to be carless and forced to stay at home for a while! I must stop now as I am tired and as you will see the mistakes are increasing! I am enclosing two hair nets, and hope that they are all right. I didn’t know if you preferred nylon or hair or what – you will have to let me know when I get you some more. You have me full of curiosity over this mysterious expensive birthday present you thought of sending Linda! I am glad you found something more reasonable, but do tell me what it was! Much love to Auntie Muriel, hello to Doris and big hugs and kisses from the children. Linda is very pleased with herself this week because 1.) she has lost 2 of her 8 year old molars – one of which she pulled out herself! and 2.) there was a Dominion Test at school in Vocabulary and Comprehension and she was top of the class in both. Out of 75 words she got 72 correct and she got all the other test correct – clever girl. Charlie says “Well, I wasn’t the best in my class, but I wasn’t the worst either!” Lots of love from Cyn.
Dearest Mummy, You seemed to approve of the type written letter and feel that it encouraged you and your typing out effort, so I am very happy to continue that way, as it really is much quicker than writing and I do get so much more on the page. The children enjoy getting your typed letters and think you are doing very well. I do too, but you mustn’t peek – better to have mistakes, because otherwise you will never get any speed if you stop to look and see what you are doing! Thank you so much for both your letters -14th and 26 – I am very sorry that I have been so long in writing, but I have had a kind of cold, or rather a sore throat, and I felt rather ‘punk’. Charlie had a bit of cold and sore throat the weekend before Cec left, and I kept him home from school on the Friday, but it cleared up quite quickly only unfortunately I caught it and it turned into real hanging-on thing with me. It didn’t develop too much the first week – I had a sore throat and kept expecting it to turn into a real cold but after we saw Cec off at the Airport it went up into my sinuses and I got earache that night and puffy all round my eyes and felt miserable. I don’t know if I got chilled standing waiting for the plane to take off or if it was just developing but all weekend it was just the same so on Monday I phoned your friend Dr. Kastner and he told me to come in that afternoon as there were a lot of strep throats around. He gave me a penicillin shot and penicillin tablets to last a week, and I have been gradually improving, and feel pretty well back to normal now – not very energetic though! Dr. K.’s nurse was enquiring for you and I think it was that same day that I had a phone call and here it was Basil’s wife, Win is it? We had quite a little chat and she seemed very nice and said that they would come and see us if they were in Ottawa. She was very complimentary about you too, and said how much they had enjoyed meeting you. She told me that Helen Hadley had been there but was now in Toronto after settling Sally in a job with Bell Telephones – apparently she couldn’t get into – was it T.C.A. she wanted? – and they had quite a time getting her something, but it was all fixed now. Helen was to go home soon I think she said so I don’t expect that I will see her. Next week Charlie arrives, and what do you think – it never rains but it pours – I am also meeting Mary Egan! I had heard from Nan that she was visiting England this summer [from Australia] but thought nothing of it until last week I had a hasty airletter saying that she was flying via Canada, and after stopovers at Vancouver (where she will see Olwen and Noel – remember?) Banff, Calgary and New York, she was going to Montreal to stay with someone for two days before flying to England. She went on to say that she understood that Ottawa was close to Montreal so could she pop over to see me or could we meet somewhere. Of course she barely gave me a week to reply as she was leaving on the 3rd and didn’t tell me her address in Montreal or anything so I dashed off a reply and said I would meet her in Montreal bus station at 12:15 by the bookstall on 14th June, as Ottawa was 120 miles away and by the time she reached Montreal she might be glad to stay still for a day or so. So – I only hope that she gets my letter and that we do manage to meet – it seems very haphazard somehow! It will be fun seeing her after 13 years, and I must look my best! Last week my hair was long and straggly and I felt a wreck, so I went over to Emil and had a hair do. He cut it quite short and straight and trim across the back and gave me nice fat curly bangs and short sides, and everyone has been complementing me on it. Except the children that is -they just groan and say ‘But it doesn’t look like you it’s awful!’ I must say that I feel quite happy not to look like me for a change! (P.S. Mrs. Emil doesn’t make the flowers – she just sells and rents them – they are plastic. [This is a reference to their Bazaar decorations mentioned in the last letter. They were successful there but Cyn would not have been a customer!]) I had determined that the first week that Cec was away I would do some sewing, so despite my indisposition I began on my pink suit on Monday and was able to wear it at a dessert party of Marjorie Graham’s on Wed. afternoon. The lining wasn’t too much extra and it does make it look much nicer I think, and it looks nice – not homemade I presume, as quite a few people asked me where I bought it! I still have quite a lot of material so I will make Linda a skirt and also the suit pattern has a pattern for a blouse – a kind of tailored one with a round neck and zip at the back and it shows a picture of this worn with a skirt and made in the same material it looks like a dress, so I have cut this out and will make it this week. I have also got Linda’s flowered cotton cut out, but no further and I hope I will get it done soon. Somehow I seem to have got involved in all sorts of things these next two weeks – going to the Blood Donor Clinic tomorrow to serve coffee and juice – next week going to help serve a luncheon in aid of the Save the Children and what with both Charlie and Mary coming next week and each taking a whole day is as it were, I can see I’m going to be hopping! I was listening on the radio this morning about the Kennedys in London, and that reminded me that I am sending you a LIFE about their visit to Ottawa. It really doesn’t have any very good pictures but I thought that you would be interested. Lindy, Cec and I went to see them the evening they drove from Gov. House to the Am. Embassy in Rockcliffe. Charlie was at Cubs so he couldn’t come, but I don’t think he minded too much. We got a good view standing on the flat stone walls at the gateway, but you know how quickly they seem to go by even if the car is going slowly, so I don’t think poor Lindy got more than a backview and she was so excited about Jackie! I got a quick glimpse and saw that she had a big strawberry pink organza stole around her shoulders, but the main impression was that they were both laughing and seemed to be having such a good time! Very natural and informal and it is such a nice change from some of the old stuffed shirts.
The next day I did go out to Carp – just set out from here around 9:30 and got there in less than an hour – had a cup of coffee and then came home. I gave the children their lunch at school so I didn’t have a rush and stopped at Simpson-Sears on the way home but saw nothing enchanting! Lea looked pretty well and seems to be getting on all right, but of course their odd ways and method of living amazed me as much as ever! The house was in even a worse mess than usual! Poor Lea! We had a nice holiday weekend for the Queen’s Birthday – you are amused at me saying this and not Whit. but Whitsuntide is not recognized publicly in Canada or the States, and it just so happened that the Monday nearest to 24 May, Victoria Day, happened to be Whit. this year. We had Cec’s birthday on Monday and gave him a sports shirt, a key case and a new cigarette lighter and a big bag of fireworks! We had a steak and apple pie for dinner and then lit all the fireworks and had great fun. The weather was not bad most of the weekend so we got quite a lot done in the garden but since Cec has left it has been weird – we had frost a couple of nights and half of our 18 tomato plants are dead I think, and it has been wet and cold with just two nice days I think. We haven’t had any really nice weather since that hot few days I told you about earlier. Of course the lilac and tulips have lasted wonderfully and the garden still looks lovely with them although the tulips have been out for about 3 weeks, but none of the seeds are doing a thing. Do you remember Monie sent some Morning Glory seeds and one or two others last year? I planted them more than two weeks ago but there isn’t a sign – probably rotted in the ground! We are having an awful time with crab grass in the flowerbeds as the new soil we got last fall must have been full of it. Cec and I weeded all the beds and got them clear before he left, and they are just as bad again. As you can imagine we are all missing our Daddy very much, and that first weekend seemed a week long – particularly as I had the cold. However, on the Sat. morning I had made an appointment to take the children to have their portraits done in pastels! One of the stores in town advertised this artist giving sittings – 2.50 a black-and-white sketch and 5.00 for pastels, and so I went and looked at some of his drawings one day and thought they looked quite nice, so decided to have the children done as a surprise for Cec on Father’s Day, which is actually June 18th – the day he returns. The drawings took about 30 – 40 minutes each, and I think they have turned out very well – at least you can tell who they are! They are in profile and Lindy’s is very good I think – she looks quite animated and although not actually smiling she has a pleased look on her face, whereas Charlie who sat like a little statue the whole time looks very serious and so less like himself to me, but Myrtle thinks that his is better, so who knows! [I always thought it was lucky I had long hair, because Charlie’s showed the artist couldn’t draw ears!] I must get Cec to take a picture of them to send you so that you will get some idea. The colour is very good and he sprayed them with a fixative so they won’t smudge at all. After the portrait business we went to the Library and then on to Rockcliffe Park for lunch – hotdogs and ice cream cones! I just sat in the car but the children ran around and as usual thought R. Park the most wonderful place! The Sunday was a rainy day so it was very dreary, but this weekend was better although it rained both evenings and it’s pouring today (Mon.) Lindy went on her Brownie Picnic on Sat. and Charlie played with Jimmy, and then yesterday kind Margaret Savic asked us to dinner, so the time passed quite quickly. Oh, I forgot to tell you – last Thurs. I had a real spree. Before Cec left he said while he was away I should buy a coat, as the black bengaline one I had is very old now and is no longer waterproof, and this year one has really needed a spring coat, though some years it gets too hot very early. Anyway, I thought I would have a day in town, so I gave the children lunch and then went to town and to the bank. I began looking in the shops in Sparks St. but found that the season for spring coats was about over, and there were very few to choose from. I had thought I would get what they call an ‘all-weather coat’ – that is a coat which is waterproof, but not just a raincoat, and earlier they had some nice ones in brocade or tapestry, some reversible and so on, but I couldn’t find a thing I liked. So I thought perhaps I would get a nice silk print dress with three-quarter sleeves, because most of my summer dresses are very summery and sleeveless or pastel colours, and by this time I was down on Bank St. and prowling around some of the little dress shops, so I went into one and got into the clutches of a very charming gentleman! He was really very nice, but of course a great salesman, and when I asked for coats first he brought out some and I tried them on but didn’t care for them, then he brought out this one – lilac coloured and quite plain but with a small collar bound with black braid continuing all down the front. I tried it on and it looked so nice – it is waterproof and the material is a new thing- backing laminated onto a kind of plastic foam, which insulates against heat and cold. I hadn’t wanted mauve, but in the end I liked it so much I said I’d have it and then I looked at dresses and tried on such a pretty cotton satin in just the style I wanted and it fitted me and suited me so I took that too! Bang went $50! I wrote and told Cec I would be spreading the housekeeping money thin this two weeks! I am sending a piece of my new dress to show you as I shortened it to wear to the Savic’s yesterday.
I needed a new summer hat to go with all these, but felt I’d been extravagant enough for one day, so I got a hat form in a small turban shape, and some black tulle and some mauvy- pink flowers and Mary Orr is going to help me make a hat on Wed! So what with my new mauve coat, new pink suit, new flowered dress and the navy and white outfit you helped me buy, I am doing pretty well but I was very low in clothes as I got nothing last summer except the cotton dress you gave me and the cotton skirt and blouse to wear around the house, so I really needed quite a lot – oh yes, and I made myself that white and blue cotton dress too, but it is quite ‘bare’ and hot weather. I still have some tissue gingham to make Linda and me sundresses, but then I think we will be well set up. I feel that if we are going to go to England in two years, I had better begin to gradually build up a suitable wardrobe, as I won’t be able to suddenly dash out and buy everything I want at once, and I think this coat will be very good for travelling as it is very light but warm, and is loose enough to wear over a suit or a dress. The children were most impressed with my rashness, because after buying all these things I took them out and bought them both new sandals, and Linda a new pair of blue slacks, and they felt I was really going wild!
We had three nice postcards from Cec last Wed. from Belgium and then just now we got two airforms from Holland. He seems to be having a hectic time, but to be enjoying it and all his friends are determined that he should see every bit of their countries available! He was only in Belgium from Sat. morning till Sun. afternoon, but the things he did and places he saw with Charles Courtois would be enough for a week. Charles took him to spend the night with his uncle, a retired judge, and aunt and their family, at a lovely manor house in the country and he said they were all so wonderful to him. He was busy at the meeting at Holland, but was having the day off after he wrote and going to the Zuyder Zee.
Now he is in Denmark and as today is a Danish National holiday he will be sightseeing I expect. The weather had been mostly sunny but cool although it rained the day he wrote but that is better than too hot. We wrote to him this weekend and sent it to London as we are not sure of reaching Sweden in time and have no Swiss address. We wrote once to Holland, and talk of trying to keep things quiet, of course Linda wrote a poem “Mummy had a shot In the bot For her cold She’s getting old.” and of course I hadn’t intended to mention it! Also Charlie told him we let the well run run dry on Thurs. and I had to get Ken to come and prime the pump! No use trying to keep secrets! I am so glad that you and Auntie Muriel enjoyed your holiday so much at H.B. Cottage. Even we have had some hummingbirds on our lilacs lately! I am glad too that A. Muriel’s cough is better and I hope that you both feel quite rested and well again. Don’t forget that you have to go and have your blood checked every now and then. I will try and remember to get the white hair nets when I am in town this week and will send them as soon as I do. I will willingly get the shoes at Bata but you must be sure and give me the number on the shoe and the size and all particulars, because I can’t remember a bit what they looked like. I will send the recipe for the Lemon Loaf with the hair nets – I just had a piece with my lunch and it is delectable I think! I was just busy writing this this morning when here I saw Charlie strolling along the road! I dashed to the door thinking he must be ill or something, only to find that a boy had pushed him in a puddle at recess, and his pants were soaked, so his teacher had sent him home to change! Of course he was taking as long as possible over it! How wonderful that Monie and Owen are coming next year, and imagine bringing Hugh and Ginny [their nephew and wife]! Lucky, lucky people! Particularly Ginny – marrying a man with such a generous godmother! They will all have a wonderful time I’m sure and the young couple will have a real dream holiday – can’t you imagine Hugh getting the biggest kick out of everything just like his Dad! You were telling me about making the Java plum jam for Monie, and you sound as if it were quite a job, with all the big stones, but I am sure Monie will be delighted. I am looking forward to my stewed guavas when they are in season – any burny sugar cake or coconut candy?!! I must stop now and get this posted or you will think that I have collapsed. I shall rush down to George’s and mail this and then do the vacuuming I should have done this morning!
Lindy and Charlie have been home for lunch and send big hugs and kisses. Much love to A. Muriel and lots of love to you from Cyn.
A Family History in Letters 