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Mattie on the Homefront is a podcast about a father and a son discovering their family. After finding wartime letters from my great-grandmother to my grandfather, I get to read them aloud to my dad, bringing together four generations of our family, week-by-week, in an almost daily look at life in the Twin Cities during WWII.
These margins are so it's so tough to tell where the line breaks are. Actually, do you have a ruler or something? I'm imagining you are if anybody has a ruler, you do.
Steve Buetow:Less than three feet? No.
Hans Buetow:Please. Two foot? I mean, small if you got it, but I say the straight edge. Just a small straight edge. Okay.
Hans Buetow:This is why we do this in the shop is you never know when you're gonna be reading a letter and
Steve Buetow:need a tool. Exactly. That's what you And we have it. And we Or can make it. And or can if we
Hans Buetow:need to, we can build it. Welcome to Mattie On The Homefront. I am Hans Buto. I am Mattie's great grandson. Which mathematically would make me your father?
Hans Buetow:Steve Buto, my dad. We take a letter that Mattie has written to her son
Steve Buetow:My dad can.
Hans Buetow:Sometime between September 1942 and October 1945 when she was writing to him when he was in the army. Yes. We go through them one by one and get to know the people, especially her. Especially her. And there's this real sense of her being the center of this little community and family.
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:I remember after your dad died, after Ken, who is Mattie's son, after he died in 2012, I remember coming home from the funeral and and really having a lot of feelings about how he was already starting to be reduced because we were all saying things about what we loved about him at the funeral. Yep. And people were eulogizing and talking about him, and it already felt like he was starting to disappear. It already felt like he was starting to get narrowed. And I just keep thinking about you talking about Max, that theirs were related to Max.
Hans Buetow:And the only things I know about Max are that everybody called him Sport, and he died of syphilis. Yes.
Steve Buetow:Yes. There was a photograph, and that's the way my father described the person on the far right side of the photograph.
Hans Buetow:Exactly. That's those are the stories that get passed down. And, of course, we can't keep all of the stories. I mean, Max lived how many years as a full human being. Ken lived nearly ninety years as a full human being.
Steve Buetow:He lived over ninety years.
Hans Buetow:Over ninety years as a full human being, and, you know, you just there's no way to capture that, and it starts to reduce down. And when you have the ability to stop for a second and take these sorts of stories in and be able to document and capture these things, I just find that that is so meaningful. So to discover this trove of letters has been so deeply meaningful, and sinking into it has been revelatory for me, I think.
Steve Buetow:That's great.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. So as we do, I'm gonna hand you the the envelope. This one's a lot like the others.
Steve Buetow:Yes. $2.03 cent air mail stamps, and it is the same address. Seattle, Washington m the two hundred and thirty fifth MP, military police.
Hans Buetow:And she's at she's sending this from the Blair House.
Steve Buetow:1691. Saying upside down as it is right side up. When you're eight years old, that's pretty cool.
Hans Buetow:Absolutely. So today's letter is Sunday, November 1. So we are jumping ahead because the last time we Monday the past Monday, the October twenty sixth. But this is Sunday, November 1, so we are into a whole new month. And it begins as they all begin.
Hans Buetow:My darling Kenneth, so you're still getting old letters. Well, by and by, they will have caught up, no doubt. Glad you enjoyed your package too. Oh, good. The package.
Hans Buetow:Made it. Whoo. I mean, it's it's I makes sense to be worried about it. You know?
Steve Buetow:Oh, yes. Absolutely. Well but mostly the expectation that it will delight him.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that's nice. That's nice. I mean, I wish I knew it was in it, but that's kinda what we're talking about. Like, the two of them know what's in it. They don't need us.
Hans Buetow:Right.
Steve Buetow:And he probably thinks specifically Yeah. She doesn't need to repeat it. Yeah. Exactly. We do not have Ken's letters.
Hans Buetow:Right. That's right. We don't have Ken's letters back, so we're we're really just getting her diary of what it is. So we get things like this, the next paragraph. I'm sorry you don't seem to be able to get into camouflage, but as you say, we can't all get into something we want.
Steve Buetow:What is that?
Hans Buetow:I did did did he say that? Was that a
Steve Buetow:I I never heard him.
Hans Buetow:As we have all heard him say many times.
Steve Buetow:Can't get into camouflage.
Hans Buetow:You can't all get into something we want. Okay. Yeah. So he had changed into olive drab, a letter from maybe a month ago. Like, oh, you've changed into olive drab now.
Hans Buetow:And so he wants to get into camouflage and apparently can't, which he's been talking about being frightened, we think. Mhmm. He's told you about being frightened, being on guard duty.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. But I think as an artist, camouflage is an interesting idea. It's to break up the mass, the visual mass of an of a person or a thing like a ship Yeah. So that it cannot be spotted because it takes an unconventional shape just through the medium of color paint form. And I would think that that'd be a fascinating thing to him.
Hans Buetow:So maybe that's what he's looking for.
Steve Buetow:I have no idea.
Hans Buetow:Either way, he's not getting it. Okay. It's not happening for him. Or milk because she says, yes. You no doubt miss your milk.
Hans Buetow:Wish we could do something about it. This is the second time she's written about milk, and I'm guessing he's doing powdered milk.
Steve Buetow:No refrigeration.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not his and and feeding that many guys.
Steve Buetow:Oh, powdered milk is old powdered milk.
Hans Buetow:Old powdered milk.
Steve Buetow:No. Powdered milk. There there was an instant powdered milk in the sixties, which was which is a big improvement. But but it comes in these huge bags, and it just it's lumpy, and it just does not taste good.
Hans Buetow:I mean, it's notable enough for him to write home multiple times about it. Okay.
Steve Buetow:So what else have you got besides the food?
Hans Buetow:Well, he's talking about his friends because she goes on to say, I'm glad also that you will have some of your pals with you, especially one that you can go and worship with. That does help, doesn't it? How fortunate you are that you can go to church of your faith. I thought of you taking communion today when it was also served in our church. That is a privilege we must be thankful for.
Hans Buetow:So he's able to go to church, and he's able to to a Lutheran church, it sounds like.
Steve Buetow:Right. Sounds like it. Excellent.
Hans Buetow:Well, now should we get back to where she left off on her life? She wrote to us last Monday, October 26, and now she's going back there. She says, well, I must go back to where I left off. Last Monday, I wrote that we were heading for the lake on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, after having everything loaded into the car just as we were going out the door, dad looked first into the mailbox, and there was a card there from Lobdell's at the lake telling us not to risk coming as they were snowed in and that we wouldn't be able to get to our cottage.
Hans Buetow:Oh. What a letdown. Well, dad unpacked, and I proceeded to the fourth district meeting of federated clubs, of which I am the chairman of stamps and bonds. Wow. I'm gonna pause for just a second.
Hans Buetow:This is the the the first organization of hers that we're gonna that we are hearing about, we will hear about more that she belongs to. So do you know this? No. So she calls it the fourth district meeting of federated clubs.
Steve Buetow:Federated clubs. Okay.
Hans Buetow:So that's actually not the name of it. The name of it is the Minnesota Federation of Women's Clubs. Oh, okay. The MFWC.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:It was founded in April 1895.
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. So it's been around for a while. This is according to the Hennepin Library website. Members participated in, quote, social service, public health, legislation, community service, industrial, and conservation work. They lobbied for better forestry laws, worked to establish vocational schools for boys and girls, and started rural libraries across the state.
Steve Buetow:And they couldn't vote when it was
Hans Buetow:When it was founded.
Steve Buetow:When it was founded. Yeah. Yeah. Lobbying would have been interesting without without a constituency that you can say, all my members are not gonna vote for you if you don't Yeah. Do this.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. 15 clubs from around the state were the original founding clubs.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:But by the nineteen forties, by the time that Mattie is writing, 40,000 members in 500 clubs. Wow. It was big enough that they had to subdivide it down so they would they divided it out into smaller district branches Okay. Which corresponded to the congressional districts of Minnesota, which is why she went to the fourth district meeting of federated clubs because 4th District, Saint Paul.
Steve Buetow:City Of Saint Paul.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. And so she is the chairman of the stamps and bonds. She's not the chairwoman. Chairman.
Hans Buetow:It's it's very gendered. Yep. I'm not I'm not just saying that. She's saying that.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. So she's a chairman of the stamps and bonds. So stamps would be these stamps that are on this letter. No. They would be different stamps from what is on this letter.
Steve Buetow:There there's ration stamps? Oh, of course there are. That you're allowed to spend. So it was a means of codifying spending or being able to spend or had value. Like, you could save save green stamps in the fifties and so on so that you would get a book full of stamps, and then it it had a value.
Hans Buetow:And stamps and bonds were the war bonds.
Steve Buetow:Right. And you might have been able to accumulate stamps that became a bond.
Hans Buetow:That became a bond. Right. Because you'd have in in the in World War two in this time, they're they have different levels of stamps. Right? They have, like it's it's by letters, like a, b, I think, c, like, all the way down, and the different level of stamp gets you a different level of food, essentially.
Steve Buetow:Oh, for rationing.
Hans Buetow:For rationing.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yeah. For for that particular set
Hans Buetow:of stamps. And so I just I really wonder, and I don't know if she's gonna explain it to us or if it's just understood, what it means to be the chairman of the stamps and bonds Committee for the fourth district meeting of federated clubs. What does that where do they meet? What does that look like? What is what are her duties as this?
Hans Buetow:What do they try to accomplish as a group? Fascinating.
Steve Buetow:It is interesting.
Hans Buetow:Yes. Fascinating.
Steve Buetow:And she's the chairwoman. Chair.
Hans Buetow:And she's the chair. Chairman. Yeah. So we'll try to find more information about that because I'm very interested in all of her volunteering in philanthropy.
Steve Buetow:She is not the breadwinner in the family. Correct. She is a homemaker. Yeah. So her days are occupied with social activities.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. And she is very social. I mean, she's drawing people to the house. She's seeing people all the time. She's visiting with people.
Hans Buetow:She's calling people. Yes. But we're also gonna get a window into this volunteer life that she has. Yep. I'm very excited to learn more about what these organizations
Steve Buetow:And she's been doing it for a while if she's the chairwoman. If she's the chairwoman.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. And this isn't a war thing. Well, I mean, the the stamps and bonds might be a war committee.
Steve Buetow:Buy bonds is a big thing in the during the war.
Hans Buetow:But the but the organization itself is much older than that. Right. It predates the Spanish American war. Right. Right.
Hans Buetow:Still goes back.
Steve Buetow:It's as old as she is.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. It's as old as she is. It's as old as she is. Yeah. That's right.
Hans Buetow:Well, so that's what she did. So she they went on Tuesday. So they didn't go up to the lake, and instead she went to this committee meeting. Snow. Too much snow.
Hans Buetow:That well, they got the letter that there was too much snow. On Wednesday, she says, missus Schmitz called to say that she had some dope on the lake. And then if we went, they would take a chance also as the two cars going, we felt would be a little safer. She said that Olsen's, parentheses, in the yellow cottage back of us Okay. Were pulled out Monday at Albinson's place, parentheses.
Hans Buetow:Remember the big old log cabin near Lavalli's? So they felt if it hadn't drifted, we could still get through. So we started out about 11:00, and we got along fine. It was a nice day, quite warm too. Just at Albinson's, though, dad decided he would shovel before we would get stuck.
Hans Buetow:And then around the corner, just close to the lake, he shoveled some more. So from there on in, we got through just fine. It had snowed about 14 inches.
Steve Buetow:And we still don't know what kind of car they have.
Hans Buetow:And we still don't know, but they can't go over 35 miles an hour no matter what, but they probably wouldn't be anyways if it's 14 inches of snow. We surely were glad we went as one of our windows had blown open in the front, and that would have been a mess. Yes. I had also left so much food stuffs that I hated to see it go to waste. Nothing but some water and a pail and the pump was frozen.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:But that was soon thawed out. But that night, it rained and sleeted. And the next morning, we felt we had better hightail for home as he really didn't know what to expect next. We drove in a heavy fog until about twenty miles out of McGregor. After that, it lifted, and the sun even came out for a little while.
Hans Buetow:But the closer to home we got, the cloudier it got, and it drizzled some too. Yesterday and today, however, are grand, and we really could have stayed. But then we wouldn't have had the ample supply of oil, and, of course, one can't stay without fuel.
Steve Buetow:Yes. So they had an oil space heater.
Hans Buetow:So that's really interesting. I for a cabin that doesn't have plumbing, he says questioningly Yes. To have an I I just expected that it would be wood fired. Would they would just have fireplaces.
Steve Buetow:Fireplaces are very inefficient and would not heat the bedroom or some of the other rooms. Okay. So I've had a couple of freestanding oil heaters. Sometimes they can have a tank on the back of them. You have to have a chimney.
Steve Buetow:Once you get it started, you put some paper in and get it going. It'll burn fairly efficiency. It burns fuel oil.
Hans Buetow:And not when they would need they need a big truck to come in. Right? They're they would bring oil themselves.
Steve Buetow:Carry gallons at a time. Yes.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Okay. That's really interesting. So that that means well, now they don't have the supply of oil. They've fixed everything up, and so the last thing she says about it is, so we are locked up.
Hans Buetow:Excellent. So that's it for the for the cabin.
Steve Buetow:Actually, there is there's a somewhat sad end to the cabin many, many years later. When everything was cold and winter came, snowmobiles would allow people to get around and the entire cabin was cleaned out. They could spend days just coming back and forth with snowmobiles. The furniture was gone. What?
Steve Buetow:The tools, the crockery, the kitchen equipment, everything. People took it? Took it. What? I believe that was after Matt had died.
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:Well, at least for 1942 now, as of the October, they are locked up. That cabin is put to bed for winter.
Steve Buetow:And safe.
Hans Buetow:And safe. So she says, we had the last two crappies for dinner today. Excellent. Graham is over. So Graham is her mom, Julia.
Hans Buetow:Graham is over, and we divided them. They were grand, even if I do say so myself.
Steve Buetow:Oh, yeah.
Hans Buetow:So she continues. Ruby Moe inquired about you today. So Ruby Moe was a teacher
Steve Buetow:At Central High School. Central High School.
Hans Buetow:So you went to school where I went to school.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And she was still a teacher when I went to school. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:She was still a teacher when I went to school. She was no. No. She wasn't. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:She was a ghost. That's who teaches Latin. That's what I assume. Well, Ruby Moe's inquiring about Ken. Wanted to be remembered to you, and she will call me for your address.
Hans Buetow:Dear Ruby, she looks quite chipper, just as, quote, unquote, youthful as ever. Wow. I mean, I'm gonna take that as earnest as her giving a compliment to
Steve Buetow:her neighbor. Yes. I would I would agree.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. 100%.
Steve Buetow:We could look her up in the yearbook.
Hans Buetow:We could look her up in the yearbook while we're doing that later. Oh, that's great. Because we do have his yearbooks. Oh, oh, boy. Ruby Mo.
Hans Buetow:Oh, this is great. Well, big news. Okay. I got a card from Gwen yesterday. Gwen being Ken's Ken's cousin.
Hans Buetow:So I got a card from Gwen yesterday. She will be married on armistice day at 05:30 and dinner at hotel Hudson at 06:30. That's in ten days.
Steve Buetow:Gwen and her husband were my godparents. Mhmm.
Hans Buetow:Well, not husband yet.
Steve Buetow:Her husband to be.
Hans Buetow:To be. Yeah. Gwen George. George.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. That's wonderful. Yeah. So we're getting She and Ken were very close.
Hans Buetow:They were very close. Yeah. There's a lot of photos of the two of them. One of my favorite things about the photos of the two of them it's actually not usually the two of them. It's one taking photos of the other one.
Steve Buetow:That's true too.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. But there's a lot of Ken writing little jokes on the back of the photographs to her. Just little cute jokes. Uh-huh. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:You know, I mean, him when he's, like, 17, 19 in his little muscles and shorts and, you know, just cavorting around.
Steve Buetow:Yes. That always seemed to be in some bucolic They do.
Hans Buetow:Setting. It's always outside. It's always in this lovely scenario.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Gwen's dad was a owned the Ford dealership in Baldwin, Wisconsin.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:And so they would go out there and visit. And their moms were very close. Yeah. They were very close from tiny from childhood. They're the ones that were sitting in the front row, saying Stefan is graduate holding hands.
Hans Buetow:Oh, cute.
Steve Buetow:There, they're probably about 14. Yeah. And these with the bows and the white dresses. Oh. So they were very close for a very long time.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that's lovely. So there's a wedding coming in ten days of somebody very close to Ken and very special to everybody. That's something I'm very much looking forward to.
Steve Buetow:It makes sense that they didn't know ahead of time.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Tell me why because
Steve Buetow:He's a soldier.
Hans Buetow:He's a soldier. I didn't put that together. Of course.
Steve Buetow:He's just about as tall as you can be. He is probably six six, six eight. He's really tall. And Gwenny Gwenny is not as tall.
Hans Buetow:And he was Air Force? No. Army. He was the Army So the
Steve Buetow:Army Corps.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. And so he would have like, this probably indicates some sort of change in deployment or something.
Steve Buetow:Exactly. So I think that weddings got planned very quickly
Hans Buetow:Very quickly.
Steve Buetow:Depending on the soldiers' schedule and deployment.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that makes so much sense. Because I was thinking it was a cultural difference of then to now. And in some ways, it is. It's a wartime culture Yes. Versus a peacetime culture that plans for a year in advance.
Hans Buetow:Right. Right. Yeah. Well, fantastic. She says she's writing to me in advance, so in case dad was out, he could make some arrangements to be in.
Hans Buetow:Quite important, we are ahem, exclamation point. Woah. It's too bad you have to make
Steve Buetow:a joke.
Hans Buetow:So that's a joke. That's a joke. I love she's not funny, but she's got a sense of humor.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I knew I knew that.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. That's great. It's too bad you have to miss all the important events such as weddings, etcetera. Speaking of important events Okay. She immediately pivots.
Hans Buetow:We celebrated Halloween at Genrich's last night, and we had the usual amount of good time.
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:Which is just what a good phrase. The usual amount of good time. Okay. I feel like I'm gonna start using that. We had the usual amount of good time.
Hans Buetow:How was it? Yeah. We had the usual. The usual amount of good time. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:What is usual amount of good time? I will tell you.
Steve Buetow:Because
Hans Buetow:she tells us, I lost 3¢. Bob lost 3¢, and Glad lost 1¢. Dad won the loot. Oh. Gambling.
Hans Buetow:That's how I take it. Right? Yes. So probably cards?
Steve Buetow:Yes. Like it be gin rummy. I mean, there was there was a game that we would play with different family members, which was they'd have these pots and chips and and started out with a poker game, and there was all it was very complicated. I would pay very close attention to the whole tablecloth Yeah. Was laid out.
Steve Buetow:It was the tradition at New Year's.
Hans Buetow:Okay. So I'm wondering if she says the usual amount of good time is that she always loses and dad always wins. Matt always wins. I wonder if that's what she means
Steve Buetow:by that. So he's probably very, very sly
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And very quiet.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. And yeah. Yeah. So so basically telling Ken, like, it went the way it always is.
Steve Buetow:Yep. Yeah. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:We all lost you to to Matt. Yeah. She says, we enjoyed a good football game over the radio yesterday, and Minnesota won against Northwestern 19 to seven.
Steve Buetow:Interesting. She listened to the football game.
Hans Buetow:So listening to the football game at that moment may not have been such a strange thing, because the Minnesota Gopher Golden Gophers football team was coming off of two straight years as the national champions.
Steve Buetow:They were big.
Hans Buetow:They were real good.
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:So that was all 1940, 1941 was all under the coach. His name was Bernie Beaman. He did ten years with the Gophers, won a lot, including two, his last two years being national champions. Yep. The in '41, they actually won the national champion just days before Pearl Harbor happened.
Hans Buetow:Oh. Also in 1940, two years earlier to this, the captain of the team, Bruce Smith, won the Heisman Trophy.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:He's the only gopher to have ever done that. Oh. So you can imagine in 1942, you know, there's only, I think, eight games, nine games, or something like that. You can imagine that, like, after two years as champions, it's a it's a local you do. That's what you do.
Hans Buetow:You cheer on the gophers.
Steve Buetow:But the big ten was actually 10 teams.
Hans Buetow:It was actually 10 teams. Yeah. Michigan was the big rivalry. Really? Yeah.
Hans Buetow:At that point, it was.
Steve Buetow:Okay. Now it's be Iowa or Wisconsin.
Hans Buetow:Exactly. At that point, this was, I think, our eighth year in a row beating Michigan. We had just beaten them, like, two weeks beforehand in front of 55,000 people at That's the little
Steve Buetow:wrong jug.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Is that the name of the stadium?
Steve Buetow:No. That's the trophy Oh. For winning the game. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Little Brown Jug. For Wisconsin, it's Paul Bunyan's axe. Wow. And for Iowa, it is Floyd of Rosedale Yeah. Which is a sculpture of a pig.
Steve Buetow:Of course.
Hans Buetow:I mean, that's what I was assuming.
Steve Buetow:But I remember I had a photograph, a photograph of a football team from probably about 1909, 1910.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:Matt. Really? He was a football player. All of them had these had sweaters on, numbers.
Hans Buetow:Oh, I love that. Maybe the leather helmets?
Steve Buetow:They were not they not for that portrait.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Not for the portrait. Sure.
Steve Buetow:But that's what they would have been at
Hans Buetow:that time.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. But he was a football player.
Hans Buetow:So it's doubly unsurprising that they would have been consuming football. But this is not a way that you knew them? No. The sports were with my other grandfather. It's interesting how many of these things that feel like just a regular part of their lives seem to have disappeared by the time you knew them well.
Hans Buetow:So within the next twenty years, they're gonna stop hunting or not meaningfully hunt in front of you, at least. They're not she's not gonna fish even though she's a champion fisher at this point. Right. She won't be doing all the volunteering she's doing, football and sports and stuff, which just gambling.
Steve Buetow:Right. You know?
Hans Buetow:I mean, the next line that she's got after after talking about Minnesota beating Northwestern, who you? She says, we miss our usual jackpots. Remember? Oh. So many things we miss that we all did together.
Steve Buetow:Oh, they must have Brackets. Yes. Bet many bets on who's gonna win which game.
Hans Buetow:Which Yeah. Concerning the golfer's gone eight and o for the past two years. You know? Yep. But it's just it's really interesting to me that those things seem to have fallen away from their lives or it was just a different season in their lives for them, or it's just not a thing that they chose to share with you.
Steve Buetow:With grandson.
Hans Buetow:The other thing about that is I did a little bit of looking into the Genriches. So the Genriches were not somebody that you knew. Right?
Steve Buetow:I don't think so. Okay.
Hans Buetow:So the Genriches are are some friends of theirs, and I think we should call them the Minneapolis friends. Oh. So the Genriches lived on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis. Really? Yeah.
Hans Buetow:So when they so this party happens over 2427 Chicago Avenue.
Steve Buetow:That's lake in Chicago? Yeah. Or just just past lake?
Hans Buetow:Yeah. So it's Bob and Gladys Okay. Or Bob and Glad, but it's actually Bernhardt is his name. So he's born in Germany in 1891 and died in 1974. She died in 1994, so outlived him by twenty years.
Hans Buetow:He worked because I have his World War two draft card, and he worked at George l Hulbert company, which is up in North Minneapolis.
Steve Buetow:Don't know.
Hans Buetow:I don't know what it is either. I was I tried to look it up, couldn't find it in a quick search. So I don't know how they knew each other. He was born in Milwaukee. Obviously, they get mentioned quite a bit.
Steve Buetow:Right. So it could have been church. Yep. German speaking churches. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:I know that this church that Mattie grew up in all the way till 1915 was still publishing their annual reports in German. In German.
Hans Buetow:So that's the Gennrichs. So we're gonna call them the Minneapolis or the Chicago. We'll call them Minneapolis. The Minneapolis friends. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:So that's a lot better. Because they're all in Chicago, but they're not from Chicago. So they're the Minneapolis friends from now on. So those are the Gennrichs. Now she's gonna pivot to the Gertsons.
Hans Buetow:The Gennrichs and the Gertsons. So the Gertsons are more best friends. Yep. Chuck Gertsons is one of Ken's really close or best friends. Yes.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. So Mattie says, I sent Chuck's Christmas box yesterday as it was the last day that would promise delivery for Christmas. Even then, it is doubtful, of course. It certainly is hard to know what to send. You can't send any more candy bars or nuts as they claim the ships are so hot down where the mail is kept and the rats get into them too.
Hans Buetow:They told me at the industrial station they are frantic with changes. Every day they get new orders. They say they X-ray the packages now, and they must not be packed in tin, as they said first they must be.
Steve Buetow:This is the war effort learning as they go along. Yeah. They're not even a year into the war.
Hans Buetow:Not even a year in, and they're saying, you know, first, it has to be packed in tin. Wait. Wait. Wait. Don't pack it in tin.
Hans Buetow:We gotta X-ray it. Yep. Yeah. But go ahead and send those fighting boys some nuts and think, wait. Wait.
Hans Buetow:Wait. You're feeding the rats. Which that makes sense.
Steve Buetow:Right? Makes perfect sense.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. She says, you can only send hard candies and gum. I sent some tobacco, although I couldn't remember the brand. Chuck used to be so fussy about tobacco, but I felt he mustn't be at Christmas this year. I couldn't remember what kind of razor he had either, or I would have included some blades.
Hans Buetow:Why would she know what kind of razor he had ever? I mean, this that feels like it's indicative of the kind of person she is, though. Like, that's a that feels like a very motherly, like, your son's best friend. Yeah. She would care of
Steve Buetow:him.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. I just knew him with a
Hans Buetow:great big curly mustache. So facial hair is a big
Steve Buetow:deal for him.
Hans Buetow:That's Yes. What we're learning.
Steve Buetow:At some point.
Hans Buetow:Yep. Yeah. And it's lovely that she made up a Christmas box for Chuck Yes. Which just tells you the level of intimacy and the level of relationship that they have with the Goertzons. Yes.
Hans Buetow:But as for Mattie in this one, she says, well, honey, guess you have all the news up to the minute. Nothing else of importance has happened. I haven't talked to Jen for a while, Jen, of course, being Virginia, which is Ken's fiance, we think. I must get in touch with her soon. Tell us more about the flowers that are blooming there.
Hans Buetow:God bless you and keep you safe from all harm always. With love, mom. And then we have our handwritten Wow.
Steve Buetow:Hef it
Hans Buetow:just takes a from Matt.
Steve Buetow:Yes, who signs it as dad. How's the MP? Are you dragging in all the bad boys? Or maybe there ain't any in your outfit. Drool, old Norwegian.
Steve Buetow:We're glad to get your letters and get all the dope and on what you are doing. It must be kind of interesting to get around the country and learn something about what other people are doing. He writes so big so he doesn't have to write a lot. It is a wonderful experience for you fellows, but too bad it must be under these conditions. I hope you are keeping good hours and taking good care of yourself, dad.
Hans Buetow:Love it.
Steve Buetow:I do. He was an affectionate man, but not a talker.
Hans Buetow:That is Mattie's World for Sunday, 11/01/1942. Thank you so much for joining us. We're, only gonna skip ahead a couple of days. We're gonna go to the middle of the week, You read a letter from Wednesday, November 4, and this is a pretty special letter. Something was sent inside of it.
Hans Buetow:Little pieces of colored fabric.
Steve Buetow:Okay. There's a lot
Hans Buetow:to be said about what that fabric is. So that's next time. We would love to hear from you.
Steve Buetow:We would love to hear from you.
Hans Buetow:Head on over, moth.family. Take a look at some of the photos of the folks and places that we talk about. Our theme music is by Matt Buto, and our logo is by Amy Kirkpatrick. I am Hans Buteau.
Steve Buetow:And I'm Steve Buteau.
Hans Buetow:Thank you so much for being here. We will see you next time.