Letters to America

Monday, August 24th, 1942

Darling Joan,

That’s not a very good start, is it?

I am a little late with my letter to you this week, as it is Monday, and I usually reckon to have my letter in the post to you by Sunday at the latest. But last night, when I had hoped to get this letter written, Mummy discovered that the hot water tank in the bathroom was leaking, and we spent all the evening mopping up water, etc. The water came through the kitchen ceiling, and if it hadn’t been noticed by the twins, who heard it dripping through from their bedroom downstairs, it would have caused more damage by fusing all the lights, because it was running down the electric light wires. So now we have no hot water and it is a very good job that it is summer, because we have had to let the boiler out.

Tomorrow we are going over to Forest Gate to see my Mummy, who hasn’t seen the twins for a very long time. I shall be sure and give her all the latest news of you, she often asks after you. We got a letter from Auntie Mary and you on Saturday morning, and noticed that you had forgotten to put the flags at the end with, “freedom” and “liberty”. We always look for that in your letters.

In this letter you told us all about your garden, and it sounded as though you had done quite a lot of work on it, as I expect you have. We were puzzled about the four o’clocks(2). What are these?

We liked too your description of the hot ironer and the work that you do on it for Auntie Mary. She must find you a great help, and you must keep it up, as I know that you will, because there is so much for the grown-ups to do to help to finish this nasty war, and the more that you children do to help, the more they will be able to do in the more important things. You must be very careful to turn off the heater when it gets too hot, because if you let your attention wander, you could easily spoil some of the things and that wouldn’t do at all, would it?

I am sorry you have no tomatoes on your plants yet, perhaps your soil does not suit them. We have a very fine crop this year if they ripen. As a rule they don’t get enough sun to ripen properly in the open in England, so we have to keep down the number of bunches of fruit.

Mummy has bought you a different kind of book this week as there is no “Sunny Stories”(3). We hope that you will enjoy it. Lots of love to you my dear, from your loving

Daddy
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  1. The flags would be intended to boost morale as these were the values that the war was fought to maintain.
  2. The fours o'clocks were milk and cookies after school.
  3. Sunny Stories was a children's magazine published in the United Kingdom in the first half of the 20th century.