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handwritten by Irene Pfleger Wachdorf to daughter Dolores
People mentioned besides husband Ed (dad), son Larry (mistakenly referred to as "your little brother"):
daughter Dolores & her husband Les & sons B & J
son Art's daughter (name removed)
Carrie = Carrie Baldwin, friend from Chicago & mother of her daughter's friend
Mary my chauffer: Mary Armstrong, I think
Bernice and John Scudder: friends? Also listed in 1961 letter as people to be told that Irene was ill
Mr. Kelly = Leo Kelly, neighbor, & his wife Ruth is obliquely referred to
Frank = Frank Vrzak, neighbor
Aunt Louise = Louise Lift Pfleger, widow of her brother Henry
Lawndale Feb 21---57
Dear Dolores + fam:
So very happy to receive your letters--2 of them came at the same time--and to hear you are all well, glad J**'s cut head didn't leave much of a scar--although it doesn't matter too much on boys anyway.
Got a big kick out of hearing about J** trying to catch the gold fish--too bad he didn't succeed because then maybe you wouldn't have had to buy him one or more and he could have had lots of fun at home trying to catch one and B** would probably have tried to help him too--of course you might have had a lot of water on the floor but so what, boys are only boys once and they might as well have a time while they are young. They are growing up too fast these days anyway.
Just had a picture of you, Les and the kiddies sent to me from Art's daughter and I think the picture is lovely but honey you look so thin it worries me although I know when you have 3 small children to look after you certainly can't put on any weight. I do hope you are taking care of yourself. I showed it to Mary my chauffeur and she thinks you have the most adorable family and good looking children and husband too and I told her he was just as nice as he was good looking too. She too thought you were very thin and she said your eyes looked as big as saucers of course she said being thin doesn't matter as long as you are strong + healthy and by the way are you really feeling good and the rest of the family too?
Received your pkg yesterday and thanks so very much. Everything is fine and I'll start wearing both the stockings and the gloves come next Sunday. Received quite a few other cards already too and 2 pairs of beautiful stockings from Carrie, $10.00 from Bernice + John Scudder along with $5.00 from Art and that little brother of yours went out last night and bought me a portable T.V. set 17 inch Admiral--I was just about furious because he spent so much money and told him he had to take it back as I very seldom look at T.V. because whenever I do I fall asleep and we really wouldn't know where to put it.
You know just last Saturday he had to take his car to the repair shop and have a whole new motor put in it as he cracked the block and had to have more repair work done on it too so far it's costing him $265.00 and he doesn't know yet how much more it will be--he has had to use dad's car all week so far and I don't know yet whether he will get his by Sat or not.
Dad stumbled and fell last Sunday coming out of church and kind of sprained his hand as he landed right on it and although it was swollen quite a bit and very painful too it's almost all cleared up now--the swelling has gone down and the pain is gone now too so he's kind of anxious to go outdoors and start on the outside. Mr. Kelly our neighbor gave us a sweet smelling Jasmine and dad wants to plant it right alongside of our and Larry's bedroom window as they do smell wonderful especially at night. He is thinking very much about buying an orange tree a big one as you know we do have a little one even had 3 oranges on it once + when he starts thinking about it he usually gets it too.
Last week Monday when I washed, the drain on our sink clogged up and I had to carry all the water that came out of the wash machine as fast as I could to the toilet as the sink in the bathroom was clogged up too. Well we called up Frank and he said we should open up the drain pipe on the outside of the house + put the hose in it, then turn on the water as strong as we could and he thought that would do it.
Well poor dad couldn't even take the plug off the drain pipe so Mr. Kelly came over and not only took it off but worked on it until it was time for him to to to work which was 3 o'clock--he works from 4- to 12-midnight I guess, and still it didn't clear up so he said to dad to leave it alone + he would come over early Tues morning and work on it some more and dad crawled under the house to see what he could do there--well anyway he kept working on it until time for work again without any result so he again told dad to leave it alone as he would certainly get it opened up the next morning or know why.
Well Wed morning before dad was even up he was over here working on it again--he went to the plumbing shop and rented a snake and worked as hard as he could on it and finally about 1 o'clock noon it opened up. Well anyway I think he was as happy about it as we were and I don't think I have ever seen a man work so hard for someone else as he did for dad and for nothing. He wouldn't even have lunch here although he did have a can of beer occasionally.
Aunt Louise sent me a beautiful house dress and about 8 very pretty aprons one of them especially is an organdy tea apron and the pocket on it is made of strawberries that she appliqued on it I'm thinking seriously of giving it to her along with something else to at least show our appreciation a little bit anyway. She wants a baby so bad as so far she hasn't become pregnant although she has been married almost 2 years so I'm going to pray real hard for her to St. Gerard and give her a medal and novena book too--she is a convert and a real god one too so I'm sure she will start the novena and have real faith in it too.
Well darling it's almost time to call dad for breakfast and I want to clean out some of my cabinet too so I'll say toodle oo for now
With lot of love + kisses from all to all
I am as ever
Your ever loving + devoted
Mom
Grandmom
Did you + Les and the kiddies get my valentines also Les' birthday card. Don't mention the valentines to anyone else.
To go to next, click here: 1957 Apr 3 Char