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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.
Dad, do you think Mattie preferred Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, or Laurel and Hardy? What kind of a lady do you think Mattie was?
Steve Buetow:I would guess wordplay and so on. I think the Marx Brothers were just a little too goofy for her.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:Laurel and Hardy, I just have the prejudice. My mother just couldn't stand Laurel and Hardy. Really? Yes. She would not watch Laurel and Hardy because she just felt sorry for them.
Steve Buetow:They keep hitting each other with things, and things kept going wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So my guess would be Abbott and Costello, the wordplay, and the repartee.
Steve Buetow:That that would be my guess.
Hans Buetow:Well, this is gonna be a good moment because it is 11/09/1942, and then you've got Abbott and Costello in the news. Oh. Hello, and welcome Hello. To Mattie On The Homefront. I'm Hans Buto.
Hans Buetow:I am
Steve Buetow:Mattie's great grandson. And I'm Mattie's grandson and Steven Buteau, which would be Hans' dad. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:It's about time for us to check-in on what's happening in the world.
Steve Buetow:A lot is happening.
Hans Buetow:What a world, what a world, what a world. And it's interesting, not a lot of that makes it into they don't talk about world events. And I don't know if she's not allowed to or what, but we've done some research. Yes. And let's cover a bit about what's been happening.
Hans Buetow:So last time that we did this was in early October, so it's been about a month. And a whole bunch of stuff is happening, a whole bunch of stuff is about to happen, but we don't know what that is yet. We haven't gotten there. So why don't we start on the Eastern Front?
Newsreel:Russian manpower pours to a critical point threatened by the German advance against Stalingrad, And we see women in the war march of the Soviet fighters.
Hans Buetow:So the Russian army is trying to defend the city of Stalingrad from the Germans who have moved all the way through Russia. I mean, not all the way through because Russia's very big, but to the western part of Russia into the suburbs first of Stalingrad. By 10/18/1942, so just last month, the sixth Army, the German sixth Army had occupied most of Stalingrad. So they had they were winning, they'd gotten across the river, they were really occupying it. There were still some holdouts, though.
Hans Buetow:The power plant was really heavily fought over. And actually just a few days ago, November 5, the fighting got really intense around the power plant and they had to shut the power plant down. So there's no more power in Stalingrad.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:It's not good. But the Russians are massing troops for a counter offensive. So Stalingrad's about to change. But right now, it's not going great.
Steve Buetow:And it's a large city.
Hans Buetow:And it's a very large city. And it's the like big front, just thousands and thousands tens of thousands of people have died.
Newsreel:The German army sustains huge losses of killed, wounded, prisoners. Thousands captured as Stalingrad holds out with iron courage against the Nazis.
Hans Buetow:So what's going on in North Africa?
Newsreel:Just West of Alexandria between the Quattara Depression and the sea, British forces mobilize for a last stand against Nazi marshal Rommel.
Steve Buetow:The German troops, Rommel, the famous general, has been pushing the English back, and they have there are a couple narrow points between the sea and the desert.
Newsreel:The British commander rallies every member of the vast concentration of arms. His situation is the most critical since British and allied forces first faced the Axis in Egypt.
Steve Buetow:And they are pushing toward Cairo in Egypt, and they have been stopped at El Alamein. And this is the the second battle of El Alamein.
Newsreel:The eighth army is a fire eating team of hard fighting demons, and they go only one way forward.
Hans Buetow:So it's the November 9. What has just happened yesterday is that operation Torch began,
Steve Buetow:which is The United States. Which is The
Hans Buetow:United States landing and and making a pincer move. Rommel is retreating, and now they're trying to pincer.
Newsreel:Perhaps British control of the air west of Alexandria may give Vauconelk time to reorganize for really effective resistance. But if these planes fail to hold the line, the situation will be grave indeed. The odds against the United Nations here are great. To beat Rommel is a tough job, but the United Nations are determined to do it.
Hans Buetow:And so Operation Torch is the landing of a 107,000 US and British troops into French North Africa.
Steve Buetow:At Casablanca on the very far end of the continent.
Hans Buetow:That's right. The naval battle for Casablanca has begun at this point.
Bruce Belfridge:This is the BBC Home and Forces program. This is Bruce Belfridge. Here's some excellent news which has come during the past hour in the form of a communique from GHQ Caro. It says, the Axis forces in the Western Desert, after twelve days and nights of ceaseless attacks by our land and air forces, are now in full retreat. It's known that the enemy's losses in killed and wounded have been exceptionally high.
Bruce Belfridge:Up to date, we've destroyed more than 260 German and Italian tanks and captured or destroyed at least 270 guns.
Hans Buetow:Really? Is this the first one of the first times, I think, that the Germans are moving backwards?
Winston Churchill:A remarkable and definite victory. A bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers and warmed and sheared all our hearts.
Steve Buetow:So Churchill famously said, it is not the end.
Hans Buetow:Oh, no. Wait. Wait. Give us your best, Churchill.
Steve Buetow:Oh. Alright. You're gonna get in a way. But it is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
Steve Buetow:It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Hans Buetow:Winnie, it's like he's in the room. Incredible. Yeah. I'm then gonna play him right after you, just to really sink in the comparison. Just see how you did.
Winston Churchill:No. This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.
Steve Buetow:But another interesting thing about this date, it is within two or three weeks of the middle of the war, the very center of the war.
Hans Buetow:The median point of the war. And this is the European center of it.
Steve Buetow:Right? So if we start the war, the date of the beginning of the war when Germany went into Poland Yeah. And which is September 1939. So the blitzes happened and the conquering of France, invasion of Russia.
Hans Buetow:Right.
Steve Buetow:And then the Japanese attacked The United States.
Hans Buetow:China, Korea. Yeah. Everybody.
Steve Buetow:But not even a year yet has transpired there. But the end of the war will then be three years hence. Okay. And it is three years previous.
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:No one knows this. Yeah. And not everyone experienced it the same way. But chronologically, it's the middle of the war.
Hans Buetow:On a national front, at this point, November 1942
Movie Trailer:This is murder. Murder. Murder. Murder. Are you scared?
Movie Trailer:Don't be. Those masterminds of detection, those terrific sleuths, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, will solve this crime or die in the attempt.
Hans Buetow:Abbott and Costello just released the comedy mystery film Whodunit. Whodunit. Alright. Which I'm sure Mattie rushed out to say.
Bruce Belfridge:I got the foolish feeling that something's gonna happen.
Hans Buetow:Was there movies nearby?
Steve Buetow:Oh yes, there was the Midway Theater, the Hamlin Theater, the Como Theater. There's a few. Yes,
Hans Buetow:there's There would have had access, yes.
Steve Buetow:Easy access, yes. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Well, this is something, 11/06/1942, Abbott and Costello, whodunit came out. Just before that though, November 3, The United States went through midterm elections. Okay.
Newsreel:President Roosevelt voting at Hyde Park, his hometown. The presidential ballot symbolizes the nation on election day choosing senators, congressmen, governors, and lesser officials. In the midst of war, democracy in operation.
Hans Buetow:Do you wanna make any guesses as to how it went?
Steve Buetow:Alright. Roosevelt had just been reelected in '40. Correct. And so this is what we now classically see as the downturn of his congressional majority. However, it's wartime, so I'm not going to bet that that's exactly what happened, and a lot of people will probably want to keep with the consensus and not change horses in midstream.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. You're kind of right. So the Republican Party gained seats, but the Democrats held on to both chambers. They control both of the chambers, and of course FDR in the presidency. Dewey is elected governor of New York in this moment, so he's going to famously lose in a few years to for the presidency.
Newsreel:By this election, we have made it clear to all the world that we in America are solidly united. Shoulder to shoulder, with every resource at our command, we shall carry on this fight to ultimate and lasting victory.
Hans Buetow:So this is what I find really interesting about it. Voter turnout. How do you imagine the voter turnout was? We're talking wartime. What do you think happened?
Steve Buetow:Well, it would depend on what issues they were. There's not an issue of whether to go to war or whatever, and if the public feels the war is being prosecuted appropriately or well, that they would not go to the polls. There's no change that they feel necessary.
Hans Buetow:I have a hint for you. Yeah. In the other Anglosphere war nations, there were so like UK, Canada, Australia, between 7090% voter turnout. Really? During elections at this time.
Hans Buetow:Okay. So does that change how you're thinking about The US? Percentage of voters do you think turned out for this election, this midterm election?
Steve Buetow:All right. If it's really high, then let's guess 74.
Hans Buetow:33.9%.
Steve Buetow:I was close. It remained
Hans Buetow:the lowest voter turnout until 2014. Wow. No one voted. I mean, 33% of people voted, but like relatively, it's historically low. No other US biennial election has yielded so small of a turnout.
Hans Buetow:2014 is a close second. So actually, I got my facts wrong there, but it is still the lowest biennial turnout. Wow. Ever. So, how do you think things went here at home?
Hans Buetow:Did we go with the tide or against the tide?
Steve Buetow:No, we weren't we were I'm guessing it's either the Democrats or the Farmer Labor Party. It was about the time when they united and became the DFL. It's just before that.
Hans Buetow:So there is a Democrat party and there is a farm labor party. Okay. Yep. So we do have both of those. So we're in the 4th District.
Hans Buetow:Mattie's in the 4th District, which is St. Paul. Yep. For the U. S.
Hans Buetow:House. I'm going give you some numbers here. The votes for 6938. 6,000? That is the lowest statewide.
Hans Buetow:The next lowest number of voters is the 2nd District, and they voted more than twice as many. The 13,000 people voted Democrat in the next lowest. So, the 4th District, St. Paul, is very not democratic. But what are they?
Hans Buetow:Farm labor, 17,071 people voted farm labor.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:It's too much, I think, to get into, but can you give us a shorthand of what's the difference between democratic and farm labor?
Steve Buetow:They were quite liberal. In fact, some ways, very liberal with the establishment of co ops. Yeah. Interesting. And feeling that they had to take control and do things for themselves.
Steve Buetow:There was a farmer labor governor. I can't remember which one it was. Wow. Cool. And their agendas, the Democratic farmer labor agendas, were very close.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Okay. Interesting. So I mean, between the two of them, that's, you know, 20,000, 24,000 voters. Republicans, 45,903 votes.
Steve Buetow:In the 4th District. In the
Hans Buetow:4th District, heavily Republican district. Interesting. At least in this election. Yeah. The big surprising number to me, six fifty communist.
Steve Buetow:Yes. It's
Hans Buetow:the only communist votes in the entire state. They all went to Rose Tillotson. So Rose Tillotson, in 1940, just two years ago, ran for mayor of St. Paul on the communist ticket. Interesting.
Hans Buetow:And so I read in the In
Steve Buetow:a Republican city.
Hans Buetow:In a Republic, heavily Republican city. Yeah. And so, I read in the Socialist Appeal, which is a socialist news bulletin from that time, 1940, March 1940. They say, the Stalinist candidate, Rose Tillotson says today she stands for peace. Up to the time the Stalin Hitler Pact was signed, Tillotson was an ardent admirer of Roosevelt, whooped it up for a third term, and argued in favor of the government's huge armament expenditures and pro war policies.
Hans Buetow:Okay. She does not appear to have done a lot of politics after that. So 1940 ran for mayor of St. Paul, 1942 ran for the 4th District, US got six fifty votes and called it
Steve Buetow:a day. It's a steep uphill to the 45,000.
Hans Buetow:A lady communist in the early 1940s does feel. Yeah. The winner, of course, as we all know, was Melvin J. Maas, was the Republican winner for the congressman of US House in the 4th District. Okay.
Hans Buetow:So Mattie doesn't talk about voting. Do you think Mattie was a voter? She was definitely involved in volunteering and doing things.
Steve Buetow:My intuitive feeling is she was, that she would vote, yes. And she could well have been Republican.
Hans Buetow:Well, doesn't mention it in this letter or the previous ones, but let's review where we're at on the ninth now. So we have closed down the cabin up north for the season. That's done. 14 inches of snow was just too much. There's been no news from Bud, who is In
Steve Buetow:the Marines.
Hans Buetow:In the Marines, Mattie's stepson. So Matt and Mattie, Matt's son Bud, nobody's really heard from him in a while. Matt's been very worried. Yes. And there's still no news for him from him.
Steve Buetow:And they do they
Hans Buetow:know where he's stationed? They I don't think that they do. Okay. It's that's unclear to me.
Steve Buetow:It would be terrifying. You send your son off to war and know nothing about it.
Hans Buetow:And then there's the letters stop. Your only mode of communication.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Oh, it would be terrifying.
Hans Buetow:Yeah, I totally understand. So I understand why these letters are a complete lifeline. So I think we should get to one. Oh, other thing is Mattie's having a dress form made. We learned a lot about fashion and Mattie's having a dress form made.
Hans Buetow:And so that brings us up to Monday, 11/09/1942 at noon. This is
Steve Buetow:the envelope. It looks as the others. Airmail, Northwest Airlines Incorporated. I feel like we
Hans Buetow:have to ritualize it just because we do it, but they all look the same. So it's noon on Monday, 11/09/1942. And she starts, My darling Kenneth, a Monday morning without a letter from you would be a disappointment. So happy you liked the little assortment I put into the case. Though it would be pretty small, the soap in itself took up most of the space.
Hans Buetow:But since we must come clean, I thought you might appreciate it.
Steve Buetow:See, she loves WordPress. She loves WordPress! She's an Evan Costello gal. Who's on first?
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Complaining quote. I love that she puts quotes around all of her jokes. It's just it's very charming. Yeah, it's like, It's a joke.
Hans Buetow:It's a joke. Yes, she says, Yes, I can imagine that sentry duty must get monotonous. And doesn't it seem spooky to be out in
Steve Buetow:the dark all alone? That is one of the few things Ken talked about. Yeah. Being afraid. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:In the dark, marching, and every noise was the invasion.
Hans Buetow:So she follows with, I suppose the reason for being entirely clothed is so you are ready to follow just in case. Do you have many bad boys in your camp? Can you tell us just how many there are in the camp? I suppose not.
Steve Buetow:She wants to able to picture it. I mean, it a big crowd? Is it just a couple people in the woods?
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Right? That curiosity of it is, and the wanting to connect really shines through in a lot of what she says. So she continues talking about Rothschilds again, which is of course the department store. Where Ken worked.
Hans Buetow:Exactly. My, my Rothschilds do certainly shower you. They all said how much they enjoyed your letter. Ken Razey said it was the best letter of any that came into the house. It was so newsy.
Hans Buetow:I'm sorry you never received Chuck's letter, but then you probably will. This is the letter that she'd sent with another letter that just will not arrive.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:In Mrs. Gertson's last letter from Chuck, he said that he was glad you were in the army. Oh, I believe I told you about that in your last letter. I just love that little like, Oh, God, geez, I told you that already. No erasure.
Hans Buetow:No erasure. Yeah, yeah, she's not. She's just keep moving, keep moving. Anyway, he had received our letter. They told me the post office your place didn't have the facilities for developing V mail.
Hans Buetow:There really isn't much advantage, is there, since it takes only a week to get mail to you?
Steve Buetow:V mail. Tell me. V mail is a weight saving strategy. It's an old technology where they would photograph the letters.
Newsreel:One letter doesn't weigh an awful lot, but you GIs overseas add up in the millions.
Steve Buetow:So you would go to the post office. You were allowed two a day of the blank sheets.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:And so you would get a V mail sheet where you addressed it at the top, and you could fill it in. You could type it. You had to write it to a certain size. Then it would go to Chicago, and there were there were three places within the country where it would go through a great big machine Woah. Kodak, and they would photograph it.
Steve Buetow:They would photograph every single one, and that then they could ship just the film, and then it would be developed again at its destination and printed. Interesting. And it would so that 37 bags of mail became one.
Newsreel:On this table are 260 reels of film in which are recorded all of the 605,000 of email letters contained by the 150 mail pouches behind. 70 pounds against 37 tons. Facts that have a special meaning for the planes by which V mail is always carried to its overseas destination. The quickest, lightest army navy mail service in history, it's V
Steve Buetow:So it left a tremendous amount of space for war material.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. And I have no idea what film's being made of
Steve Buetow:or how I mean, it
Hans Buetow:sounds expensive to convert to film and then convert back.
Steve Buetow:It does sound like it, but the space is so precious.
Hans Buetow:The space is so precious. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Shipping point. Right. And then one of the corollaries is the Scarlet Scourge. What? -When lipstick on the letter -Oh, that's so good.
Steve Buetow:Would jam the machine because it was all machine fed. And so it's like a Xerox when the staple's gumming up. The Scarlet Scourge. I suspect that was not a problem with Mattie.
Hans Buetow:Oh, no. No, I suspect you're right. But that is so you kiss the envelope.
Steve Buetow:Kiss the letter, yes. Kiss Right, they would open it.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that's del And it's happening so much that it's a scourge. Mean, was prepared for transmissible diseases. Was prepared for insects. Was like, Oh, boy, here we go. No, no, no.
Hans Buetow:Jam. The army loves love. Oh, that's fascinating. So, when she says, Your place didn't have the facilities for developing
Steve Buetow:Yes, okay. And so, I would guess it would take the inverse machine. So there's probably a great big machine that has the microfilm running through it, which goes print, print, print, print, and then through the development. And I think they are smaller as well, so that the print is not the same size as the original image. Fascinating.
Steve Buetow:Other corollary like invisible ink didn't work. Were they trying it? Well, and spies.
Hans Buetow:I mean, yeah. Or at least children imagine there were spies.
Winston Churchill:But it didn't work. Didn't work? Invisible linkers. It's invisible. You can't photograph it.
Hans Buetow:Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, you can't do it. So they tried to do invisible ink and photograph it.
Steve Buetow:No, they just felt that this was one of the many advantages. Mostly it was the weight saving.
Hans Buetow:That makes sense. V mail. Victory mail? Victory mail. Probably Victory mail.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that's great.
Newsreel:You may not be able to get a clip from your local newspaper or smell Susie's perfume, but brother, V mail saves space and time, and that means you're going to get home sooner. So use it.
Hans Buetow:Well, Mattie continues, That was a sweet tribute you paid me, Ken. But guess you are the only one that thinks I'm pretty good. Thanks, dear. I miss your kind compliments you used to give me. Why wait until we're dead to say nice things about one?
Hans Buetow:There you go. So we don't have Ken's letters, so we have no idea what that compliment was. Correct. I really love this next paragraph. No, Bill Waller hasn't brought the battery yet, but I will take care of it when he does.
Hans Buetow:That's it. That's the that's the paragraph.
Steve Buetow:The battery.
Hans Buetow:Yep, the battery, Bill Waller. I do actually kind of love sentences like that, paragraphs like that, thoughts like that.
Steve Buetow:Just non sequiturs, almost conversational, over a period of weeks.
Hans Buetow:And it's the stuff that would have meant something and mattered to them. I mean, that's what these letters are not meant for posterity and history. We are doing something with them
Steve Buetow:That's illegal.
Hans Buetow:That is illegal. I hadn't thought about it like that.
Winston Churchill:You really escalated. I was just gonna say not what they were intended for.
Steve Buetow:Yeah, not even inappropriate. It just, yes, not what they were intended for.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Like, I really do think about and wonder what Mattie would think about us doing this. But, you know, she's been dead since 1974, so I'm not super worried about it. Yes.
Hans Buetow:So the second half of the letter starts with Today is a typical rainy fall day, the kind you used to enjoy, remember? When it drizzles all day, not cold, and hope it doesn't decide to freeze up before we drive to the wedding on Wednesday. So that wedding is Gweny and George.
Steve Buetow:Gweny and George. Yes, my godparents.
Hans Buetow:Your godparents, Ken, his cousin Gwen, getting married to the tallest man in the universe. Yep. Before I read this, next sentence, can you tell us who on Ella is?
Steve Buetow:Ella is her older sister.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:The two were apparently very close. Ella outlived Mattie by many years. She was 106, I think.
Hans Buetow:She died in 2000. Yes. 1893 to 2000.
Steve Buetow:Yes. But she'd had a lobotomy probably within four or five years of this wedding.
Hans Buetow:Woah. So she hasn't had it yet.
Steve Buetow:She has not had it yet. The late 40s were fairly common, and I never met Ella.
Hans Buetow:Did you not meet her because she was was she an institution or something?
Steve Buetow:I'm assuming that by the time I might have known her in the 50s, she was institutionalized.
Hans Buetow:I was going say if she died in 2000, it's a wonder I didn't meet her,
Steve Buetow:you know, and would have remembered her
Hans Buetow:and known her. Okay, that's incredible. Do you have any sense or knowledge of why that was, I hate to say it, but
Steve Buetow:prescribed for her? Genevieve, Ella's sister-in-law, Walter's, her younger brother's wife, extremely embittered about it that Ella's husband took her into the doctor and said, fix her. And so it had a lot to do with women's agency. And it just it was a woman problem. So I'm not exactly sure.
Steve Buetow:It sounds horrible. It sounds really horrible.
Hans Buetow:Oh, my goodness.
Steve Buetow:I don't remember anyone making an effort to visit Ella,
Hans Buetow:so I don't know. So I bring this up because Ella is also Gwen's mom. Correct. So Gwen, who's getting married next Wednesday in two days, Ella is her mom, and Ella's the next person who gets brought into our world and into this letter. I did get a chance to get in my nickels worth to Aunt Ella the other day when she called and told me that Herb and Dolly weren't coming.
Hans Buetow:And I said that I knew that, and that I wouldn't go either were it not for the fact that I wanted to see Gwen get married. Well, she said if aunt Dolly hadn't made such an ass of herself and had neglected to invite Gwen and Jimmy, they would have gone. And I said, Well, old girl, you are just getting a dose of your own medicine. Now you know how it feels to slight a child of yours. My goodness.
Hans Buetow:What a paragraph. Wow. So let's unpack that a little bit. So there's a couple of sibling relationships in here and sibling and parent relationship, and parent child relationships So in Mattie is kind of the middle child of five. So Ella is her one older, and that's who she gets her yelling in at, who's also the mother of
Steve Buetow:the bride. Herb is her brother.
Hans Buetow:Herb and Dolly. Herb is her younger brother by one.
Steve Buetow:And it was always Herb and Doll.
Hans Buetow:Apparently Herb and Doll are not coming to the wedding. When I knew them,
Steve Buetow:they lived in Duluth. He was a dentist. But it still seems odd that they might not. Although with wartime, I don't know if rationing why. Well, I mean, the next part
Hans Buetow:of the sentence here when Mattie says, And I said that I knew that, and then I wouldn't go either were it not for the fact that I wanted to see Gwen get married. Sounds like bitter blood. It sounds like there's anger at, like there's affection for her niece, but not her sister.
Steve Buetow:Yes, it could be her brother-in-law, Frederick, may have been the problem.
Hans Buetow:I mean, he sounds like a problem from what he did
Steve Buetow:to Ella. Ella, yes. He was imperious. Really? Okay.
Steve Buetow:But I, again, never met him. I'm projecting.
Hans Buetow:So, Mattie then says, well, she said if Aunt Dolly, so Dolly being wife. Herb's wife, the younger one who's not coming. Well, if Aunt Dolly hadn't made such an ass of herself, and had neglected to invite Gwen and Jimmy, they would have gone.
Steve Buetow:It's quite puzzling, but it seems like a family spat in the Zabel family.
Hans Buetow:It sounds like people didn't get invited to things. Other people are now not getting invited to things. People going because I like you, but I'm going in spite of you. A whole lot of this sounds like name calling is happening, getting a dose of your own medicine, how it feels to slight a child of yours.
Steve Buetow:And it's such an ass.
Hans Buetow:So, like, people are slighting siblings' kids. Yes. It just sounds messy. It sounds messy.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And it it I don't remember it from that, but but, you know, that wouldn't have been something a 10 year old would have been exposed to. We visited Urban Doll a couple of times in Duluth, and you know, we stayed cordial, but that would happen if you were just going through the motions as well.
Hans Buetow:I think there's also the thing to talk about about how much Mattie seems to stand up and be a little imperious in this moment.
Steve Buetow:Well, she was married to Carl.
Hans Buetow:Carl, yeah, which is Ken's dad, who she's no longer married to, they divorced.
Steve Buetow:Right, who was terrible, imperious person. And so I'm guessing that had to have pretty good chops to stand what she did. And then I'm assuming she just decided she had to end it and divorced him.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. I got my nickels worth into Aunt Ella. Old girl, you're getting a dose of your own medicine. Wow. Well, it's a lot of drama, but there's not drama with Virginia.
Hans Buetow:So Virginia is Ken's, probably, fiance. And Mattie continues by saying, I had quite a chat with Virginia Saturday. She said how pleased Esther was with the silver dish you sent her. That was very thoughtful of you. She treasured it especially coming from such a long way off.
Hans Buetow:And she said the simplicity of it was made it all the more desirable. However, I know you have such good taste, just like my bracelet and my earrings. I have had ever so many compliments.
Steve Buetow:It sounds like Ken. Careful, observant, and tasteful in his choices and was deeply involved with modernism.
Hans Buetow:And generous. Yes. Yes. So then Mattie follows up with a couple of different updates. Somebody's address, a bunch of things.
Hans Buetow:Carl Knutson left last week, Bob Hughes going next week Wednesday, that's this week, and Harold's family is getting along fine now, period. All in one breath.
Steve Buetow:That's
Hans Buetow:a funny joke, Mattie. All in one breath.
Steve Buetow:Oh, she said that.
Winston Churchill:She wasn't you.
Hans Buetow:No. She wrote right after that really complicated. Just got to get this stuff out. Harold Nagle is now the second petty officer at Norfolk, Virginia, expecting to be sent any day and was home with a furlough. Carl Knutson left last week.
Hans Buetow:Bob Hughes going next Wednesday. That's this week and Harold's family is getting along fine now. All in one breath.
Steve Buetow:Bravo.
Hans Buetow:That's funny, Mattie. Sewing update. I have moved my sewing machine into your room, as I feel I can then close off Bud's room, as you know, are supposed to cut down on living space. Mattie The Homefront:
Steve Buetow:Which is a reference to herself.
Hans Buetow:Have I told you about her? Is the next sentence.
Steve Buetow:Oh!
Hans Buetow:Well, she is me.
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:I had a shape made of myself. Oh, that's Mattield. Mattield is her dress form. She got it. And she named it Mattield.
Hans Buetow:See, she's funny. I had a shape made of myself. And while I'm a little disappointed in myself, as I really have not such a big stomach, Nevertheless, that's the way I stood. So, I will now have to put up with her. I will have to fit her a little tighter.
Hans Buetow:I know I will enjoy fixing my things with her to fit on.
Steve Buetow:That's great.
Hans Buetow:Isn't that delightful? Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And I don't know which room is Bud's room. And which is Ken's. And which is Ken's because I know the room.
Hans Buetow:This is the house you grew up in.
Steve Buetow:Yes. I was had that was my both of them were my bedroom at some point. Right. But I don't know which one is which.
Hans Buetow:Oh, it's so exciting. Do you know Wally, Larsen, Harvey Beck and Katie Deech?
Steve Buetow:Do not know them.
Hans Buetow:We're gonna skip them getting married. Okay. All three of them? Last Saturday, Wally.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Maybe we won't see her.
Hans Buetow:Last Saturday, Wally Larson and Harvey Beck and Katie Deech got married. Yeah. That's literally what it says.
Steve Buetow:Okay. This is more progressive than I expected.
Bruce Belfridge:She didn't
Hans Buetow:vote Republican. Don't know. Maybe she's communist. She's one of the six fifty. Well, I guess I'd better ring off now and finish my dress.
Hans Buetow:We'll write you and tell you all about the wedding. God bless you and keep you safe from harm always.
Steve Buetow:Lovingly, mom. The dress for the wedding.
Hans Buetow:The dress for the wedding. Excellent. Oh, she's making it. So this one has a long for what it is, PS from Matt that I want to have So you
Steve Buetow:now handwritten in the most perfect script, as it always is. Hi, Ken. Here I am again. Everything thoroughly covered and I am supposed to write. You know, I think mom and I had better write separate letters, then you can have two versions of the same news.
Steve Buetow:Anyway, this minister that you get to hear once in a while is an old friend of the family, that is, if it is who we think it is, Reverend Meirvang. Meirvang? M
Hans Buetow:y r v a n g.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Meirvang. Some of the old gals down at the party for the Simonsons told me about him being your man up there. And his wife, who I think is not there now, miss Margaret Stang was her name, was a very close friend of our family. She is a year or two younger than I.
Steve Buetow:We used to go to Sunday school together and stuff like that. I would like very much to be remembered to them. So here it is, the end of the sheet. Be a good boy, and we'll see you soon, I hope. Dad.
Hans Buetow:That is Mattie's World for 11/09/1942. Next time, we are going to be able to talk about The wedding. The wedding. Oh, I cannot wait. It's going to be so fun.
Hans Buetow:Thank you for joining us. If you have a story or corrections or context about anyone or anything that we covered in this episode, please. You can compliment us too. That's fine. We love that.
Hans Buetow:Head to moth.family to get in touch with us. See photos, and we're gonna put up some of the letters also so you can read a few of them for yourself and see what these look like. Our theme music is by Matt Buto, and our logo and art is by Amy Kirkpatrick. I'm Hans Beutto.
Steve Buetow:I'm Steve Beutto.
Hans Buetow:See you next time.