Letters to America

Monday, September 11th, 1944

My darling Joan,

Daddy seems to always write about all the little bits of news and leaves me nothing to say. John has a craze just now to learn to write in script and has tried to write you a letter. I’m afraid it will take some understanding, but I expect you would like to have it.

This last week has been such a happy one because the news is so very good everywhere and we really do think the war will be over soon. We haven’t had the siren now for almost a fortnight and we are told the flying bomb has been beaten – thank goodness. They were truly terrifying. At the same time, we are warned the Germans may try to send long-range rockets from Germany, but I doubt whether they would reach us. This coming Sunday is a big day for us. From then on “black-out”(1) is turned to “dim-out” for most people, but should the siren go, we must either turn out all the lights or black-out, so we are keeping the windows in the dining room boarded up and also of course the shelter is still up in there and we could go there if necessary. I think the curtains we have at the other windows will be sufficient and we can take all the black-out down. You can’t imagine how excited we are about it and we will probably take a little walk Sunday evening to see a little light from people’s windows. It has happened just at the right time for us as Grandma is coming on Sunday to stay a few days and I hadn’t enough black-out curtain for her bedroom as I had used it for Betty’s room.

Daddy has almost finished painting the kitchen and it does look lovely. It’s a much lighter green than last time and he has used more white too. We said we must start painting up for Joan to come home. What a day that will be!

John and Anne are now back at school and in the juniors now. Their new teacher is Miss Jones and they like her very much. John told Nanny in a letter last week that she had a nice face and nice voice. He is just crazy over train numbering and goes in the train field by himself getting numbers and sometimes is late for tea. I was quite worried one day when it was after 7.30 when he came home – very dirty and tired. Anne usually plays with some little friends with the bikes and dolls pram.

All the Gleadhalls came home last Sunday and Dora came for Judy(2). We miss the little dog – we had her for a month and took her for many walks, and she loved being made a fuss of.

I bought some paint for Daddy this afternoon and I find I’ve got it wrong so I must hurry back and change it before the shop closes. They shut so early these days.

We haven’t had any letters from you for a long time, Joan, so I do hope we get one soon. Mrs. Kemp had one from Aunt Nancy last Saturday and it had taken 8 weeks!

Well cheerio(3), darling. Give my love to Auntie Mary and everybody. Hope you are all very well.

Lots of love and kisses
from Mummy
xxxxxxxxxxxx

  1. Blackout regulations were imposed on 1 September 1939, before the declaration of war. These required that all windows and doors should be covered at night with suitable material such as heavy curtains, cardboard or paint, to prevent the escape of any glimmer of light that might aid enemy aircraft. External lights such as street lights were switched off, or dimmed.
  2. Judy was Dora's dog.
  3. People sometimes say 'cheerio' as a way of saying goodbye, especially in British English.