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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.
Hello, dad. Hello. Can you tell us a little bit about what was Mattie like physically? Was she a small woman? Was she a thin woman?
Hans Buetow:She was solid. Okay.
Steve Buetow:And she had a big smile.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that's nice.
Steve Buetow:Yep. Brown eyes, which Ken also had. Yeah. And usually a sort of tight bob, a round face.
Hans Buetow:Oh, tight bob. Really? Interesting. Okay. Which, I mean, she probably would have carried over from the twenties, thirties.
Steve Buetow:Yes. She was advertised and reasonably outgoing, a lot of friends. Mhmm. But was devoted to Matt, her husband. The two of them were, I thought, kind of inseparable.
Hans Buetow:That's nice. Well, welcome to Mattie On The Homefront, where you and I read my great grandma My grandma's letters that she sent
Steve Buetow:To my father. My grandfather When he was in the army.
Hans Buetow:So he was he enlisted sometime in August, and he's just last episode, he was finally shoved off by the army out of Fort Snelling on his way. And he ended up in Seattle and is now, as far as we know, camped in Seattle.
Steve Buetow:We're just engaged with Mattie keeping up the home front, and we have we know about a third of the names that she mentions. Mhmm. I do remember one of the most boring evenings of my life. Do tell.
Hans Buetow:I would I'm riveted.
Steve Buetow:I'm sure you are. Over at grandma's house, where after she moved out of 1691 where I grew up, where my dad, Ken, grew up, and where she lived. She moved to up into Roseville, and we would go visit her, and she had these nifty rocking chairs. But she and dad got engaged in conversation in the living room, and I got sitting in one of those chairs.
Hans Buetow:Uh-huh.
Steve Buetow:And it just went on and on and on. People I had no idea who they I was never part of the conversation. They never even thought I should be part of the conversation. And after you look at the salt and pepper shakers on the wall without touching them and without getting up off of your chair,
Hans Buetow:of course. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. And then the funny clock on the mantle piece, and there's just so much time that you can be entertained by rocking. Yeah. It just works. Rocking because you had
Hans Buetow:to rock gently. You probably weren't allowed to rock furiously.
Steve Buetow:No. To get the chair really
Hans Buetow:no. No. Do you remember any of the subject matter, any of the conversations?
Steve Buetow:I it was people. Okay.
Hans Buetow:It was just checking up on people.
Steve Buetow:Checking up on people. And I don't know if it was relative. I have no idea. Yeah. Don't know if was relatives, who it was, but they were very close in their communication with people and needed wanted to know how a number of people were doing.
Hans Buetow:It's interesting how entwined their lives seem to be. We're gonna hear a little bit more about this today in in the first letter that we're gonna read where there is this constant stream of updating that she does of all of these people. Their worlds overlap with a lot of different people, which is kind of an interesting dynamic for a 48 now 49 year old woman and her 20, 21 year old son.
Steve Buetow:Yes. It's her younger son.
Hans Buetow:So in Mattie and Ken's world, it is now Sunday, September 27
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:1942. Pulling out this letter, we are it's she's sending it from 1691 Blair, so she's sending it from Saint Paul. And this, I would like you to describe describe wow. This the address that they're trying to find Ken at is wild.
Steve Buetow:Oh my goodness. Private Kenneth Buto, and they gave his number 37297849.
Hans Buetow:Mhmm. That's his that's his army number.
Steve Buetow:Company a it looks like it says casual section, but I can't imagine there's a No.
Hans Buetow:That sounds right.
Steve Buetow:Fort Lawton Yeah. Staging area, which almost been crossed out in Fort Lawton, and it just goes to APO O997. Yeah. So there's a number of it's been overprinted, written over a number of different times, canceled a couple of times as it is forwarded.
Hans Buetow:So Sunday, September 27, my darling Kenneth, we were surely happy to get your nice letter on the return from the lake. And notice you surely do get shoved around, don't you? My my, it does sound rather suspicious you being put in that division. I was in the hopes that you might be in Seattle for some time. I suppose it is necessary to give you fellows some fundamental training naturally to defend yourselves should it become necessary.
Hans Buetow:I am surely surprised to hear that your mail has been held up. Oh, he's not getting his letters. Yeah. This is this is a this seems like a thing we're gonna run into where the mail is is good and dependable. I mean, you know, they're sending stuff back regularly, but especially when the troops are moving.
Steve Buetow:Oh, early in the war, the communication is just becoming established.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Which is her question too because she writes, isn't it possible for you to go where your mail is distributed and pick it up? And now here we go. The great saga of last episode was the watch The watch. That did not get to him.
Hans Buetow:Mattie's next line. You didn't mention your watch. Did you get it? I surely intended to write more at the lake, but it seems to be the one place where it seems so hard to write. Of course, Helen and John were there until Wednesday night.
Steve Buetow:Helen and John, I do not know.
Hans Buetow:Okay. I tried to do some canning and baking, went out to dinner at Ellingwood's, and had them over Friday, and that's where the week went. Ellingwoods, we will discover as we go through these, is the local restaurant
Steve Buetow:Oh.
Hans Buetow:That they go to from time to time that's up near Big Sandy is the lake that they're talking about.
Steve Buetow:Big Sandy is the lake. The town of MacGregor is their address.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:On the way up north to the lake, we always stopped at the Sportsman's Cafe Oh. In Mora 0. For the blueberry pie.
Hans Buetow:Oh. Just the blueberry pie? You just have pie?
Steve Buetow:No. We wouldn't just have pie. Hamburger. I would always that was one of the few chances I had to have a hamburger. And I was kind of indifferent to pie.
Steve Buetow:It was okay. Yeah. But everybody in the family that would always talk about the Sportsman's Cafe in Mora and the pie.
Hans Buetow:It's interesting that you rarely got hamburger. I think of someone of your generation born in '48 that you would be. Well, we did
Steve Buetow:have hamburgers at home, but Yeah. But I guess we we rarely went out to eat.
Hans Buetow:That makes sense to me. I mean, I'm a little surprised that they're going out to eat.
Steve Buetow:That's true. Yes. And it might have been because of guests. It might
Hans Buetow:have been because of guests just not wanting to cook.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. I don't remember. There must have been a gas stove. I remember the pitcher pump in the sink.
Hans Buetow:Okay. So pitcher pump meaning
Steve Buetow:Pitcher pump. It's it's just it was probably had a a sand point where
Hans Buetow:We're both wiggling our arms wildly in the air right now and nodding at each other.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And then there was a there was a large barrel that caught rain out of the valley on the roof, and then it would pour down through a screen. And I had to go out there with Matt every morning, and we had a dipper, and I had a washbasin, and I had to wash up. It was cold.
Hans Buetow:Oh, you had to wash your
Steve Buetow:cell phone. Yes.
Hans Buetow:Not the dishes. Nothing like that.
Steve Buetow:No. I didn't do the dishes. No. I was never assigned dishes.
Hans Buetow:They go to Ellingswoods. The weather was not very favorable, but we find upon our return home that it was even worse. Saint Paul had a real snowstorm Friday. The snow was still on the ground when we got home, and our house was 46 degrees. Oh.
Hans Buetow:Now I'm gonna say the date again. Sunday, September 27.
Steve Buetow:It's an early snow.
Hans Buetow:I don't remember a snow that early. I can't think of one. Like, mid October is way feels way early, but,
Steve Buetow:like I know the the blizz the Halloween blizzard is quite famous. Yeah. But That's October. Yep. Yep.
Steve Buetow:But I there would occasionally be a frost in early September, which would just devastate all the crops and crop farms and
Hans Buetow:And the apples and the Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Pumpkins. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:But this is like she's saying, snow was still in the ground, and the house was 46 degrees. We felt like going back because it wasn't that bad up north. We felt sure we would get some more nice weather in September, and now we're waiting for October. It was really too cold to fish. I went out of doors a while ago to see if I could salvage some green tomatoes, but I'm afraid they are too badly frozen.
Steve Buetow:Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Even even lightly frozen is not good for tomatoes.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. It's true. Yeah. Do you read that to mean that they got home, saw the snow, said it's not snowing up at Big Sandy Yep. Turned around and went back?
Steve Buetow:No. I think they thought about going
Hans Buetow:about it.
Steve Buetow:But I read it as they did not grow tomatoes up at Big Sandy. Yeah. There was
Hans Buetow:not enough sunshine. And
Steve Buetow:so it's con it's a confusing sentence. Okay.
Hans Buetow:Paragraphs are always really interesting for Mattie because she does these wild topical shifts. So new paragraph. Warning. New paragraph. Viv says she was glad to see someone else spelled sergeant wrong.
Hans Buetow:You too spelled it with an a.
Steve Buetow:It's s a r g e n t.
Hans Buetow:So Mattie has it spelled capital s e r g e a n t,
Steve Buetow:which is the correct spelling. S e r?
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Sargent. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Sargent. I love that she's correcting it, being like, you spelled it with an a. But you know what? She did too, and she admits it.
Steve Buetow:But this is Ken is a private.
Hans Buetow:So Ken is a private.
Steve Buetow:Yep.
Hans Buetow:This is what I find really great about these letters is we don't have Ken's letters. The best we can get is to glean a little bit about what he wrote her by what she's answering in any of these short paragraphs. Right. Because they're often they seem to be directly addressing something that he wrote to her
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:To respond to them. Okay. And it's a dynamic I really enjoy start to enjoy about these of wondering what it was that he said to prompt this kind of random paragraph that happens.
Steve Buetow:So he's complaining about a sergeant.
Hans Buetow:We're assuming he's complaining and misspelling a sergeant.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And
Hans Buetow:then the next paragraph is now she's gonna pivot into family news. So she says that Bud, who is Matt's son. Ken's stepbrother.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Matt junior.
Hans Buetow:So Bud, who he shared the house with, Bud has been transferred to the third marine division. Yep. Which means he says that he will be in this country that much longer as the second hasn't left yet. Okay. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:I hope you get your box from Rothschilds. Some lady called the next day after your first letter came asking for your address, and she said they were mailing a box.
Steve Buetow:He worked at Rothschilds.
Hans Buetow:That's interesting.
Steve Buetow:I think he was a sales clerk at Rothschilds.
Hans Buetow:This is the first of two mentions of Rothschild in this letter. So okay. So that's good great information. He he worked there. Okay.
Hans Buetow:When mister and missus Peters came to the cabin, I don't believe I told you they presented dad with three wild ducks made of some sort of composition, inexpensive, but good looking, and I got a set of numbered cocktail glasses. Viv brought an unpainted shelf, so we have added to our collection there. Please unpack that paragraph for me. Tchotchkes. You think?
Steve Buetow:Yes. Oh, they they Matt and Mattie, by the time I knew them, collected salt and pepper shakers. And they had walls full of little tiny shelves with lots and lots of salt and pepper shakers. Okay.
Hans Buetow:Do you think that's what those are? Little well well, three wild ducks isn't a salt and pepper shaker.
Steve Buetow:No. I'm guessing it was it was a decorative thing. There there was a mantelpiece. Yeah. Ken had sculpted it's not really a bust.
Steve Buetow:It's a relief of the face of a Native American with a full headdress in concrete. What? As part of the fireplace. Woah. And then always on the side of the mantelpiece, there was a sculpture of a male Native American in a breech cloth
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Which can just arrive one day and carved out of a piece of firewood. How interesting. And that those two, I Warhol is very dramatic. The stare Yeah. Of of the concrete Native American and then the the beautifully carved pine.
Hans Buetow:And you're saying Ken did both of those?
Steve Buetow:Ken did both of That's really I didn't Ken was in art school.
Hans Buetow:So would Ken have done so doing concrete that is inside of a fireplace, though, implies that he was there when the fireplace was being built.
Steve Buetow:Correct. It does. Yeah. And so I don't know when the cabin was built. We have photographs of them in dated 1938.
Steve Buetow:I don't know if Matt and Mattie had it built for them, if they were the first occupants. It was a fieldstone fireplace, you know, so those little round granite. Okay. The little ones.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With mortar in between them.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And then above the mantelpiece as part of the chimney was this this Native American.
Hans Buetow:I like knowing that because I've been imagining this old ancestral home of a cabin, but, of course, it wouldn't have been because it's own it would be now if it was still around. Yep. But in 1942, it may have actually been pretty new.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yes. Which had not occurred to
Hans Buetow:me at all that they hadn't been doing this for years and years and years and years years and years, and it was, you know, Mattie or Matt's parents cabin or something back in the 1890s.
Steve Buetow:And it had a very distinctive smell to it, which I can still basswood, a dusty, just very distinctive smell that I remember as a child. Yeah. The walls were just bare studs. So you could see the outside sheathing and then the siding would be on the outside of that. Wow.
Steve Buetow:So it was bare studs, a lot of wicker furniture, not beautiful rocker that I would hang out in, and a table right next to the fireplace where we would be served all our meals. Mattie would make them in the kitchen and bring them out. And that's where I learned about when you thumb your fingers, you know, how you kind of roll your fingers, you tap slowly watching Matt's hand, he would slow it down. Not for me. It was just because his eggs weren't there yet.
Steve Buetow:Oh. And he would slowly just drum his fingers on the table. And I learned how to do it from watching that while we were waiting for breakfast.
Hans Buetow:And you still can. I still can. What a world. Well, this is actually great. You didn't know you were doing this, but that's excellent setup for what is in these early letters.
Hans Buetow:One of this one of my favorite paragraphs, one of my favorite stories that we're about to get. This is the mouse. Oh. Mattie says, we've had quite a battle with a mouse at the cottage. Dad and I were up one night until 2AM, but were unsuccessful in hooking it.
Hans Buetow:It had prepared for a very comfortable home for the winter. Our bed had a handful of acorns in it, and the towel drawer also had a goodly supply. Then he decided to take a stroll on the mantle. Evidently tried walking the end of the tray I got from Chuck, and it proceeded to roll around until it struck and knocked down my Italian pottery candlestick I had for so many years.
Steve Buetow:A mouse tipped a candlestick over, and Chuck would have probably been Chuck Gertzon who was my father's best man when he was married years later. So Mattie's now angry. And you don't mess with Mattie when she's angry.
Hans Buetow:Her next line is, then I was angry. I shudder to think of all the damage it can do, especially if we don't find where it got in before we enclose the entire cottage. Yeah. We're not done with the mouse. Now I can imagine even more with all of the knickknacks and things.
Hans Buetow:And Yes. Quite a few. And her next paragraph just goes straight into that. Oh, I almost forgot. I have some more knickknacks.
Hans Buetow:Literally the next line. I got a set of Scottie bookends for my birthday from Viv and a China Ferdinand from Georgine also for the lake.
Steve Buetow:My goodness.
Hans Buetow:I got four pretty hankies from Aunt Ella, some writing paper from Rudy, and a beautiful rhinestone pin from dad. So I am surely decked out also a pair of silk stockings from Gertie Nelson.
Steve Buetow:So that and there was Ella, her sister.
Hans Buetow:Okay. And Ella would be who she got the four pretty hankies from. Yep. Do you know Rudy? Writing paper from Rudy?
Steve Buetow:No. Unless that's Ruth May, who was Matt's daughter.
Hans Buetow:Oh, intro oh, oh, okay. So Matt had two daughters? Yes. Two daughters and a son?
Steve Buetow:I him there may have been more, but yes.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Well, she's very happy because she says all of my gifts, excepting
Steve Buetow:Oh, this is her birthday. She just went through her birthday. She just had a birthday.
Hans Buetow:She's she's recounting all of her
Steve Buetow:birthday gifts.
Hans Buetow:All of my gifts, excepting from dad, and your telegram came a day late. Wes and Florence forgot, As did Bud. As did Bud. Uh-oh. Bud, we just learned, got transferred into the, you know, third marine battalion.
Hans Buetow:So, like yeah. Wes, her her other son
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:Her the eldest son, and Florence, his wife, I don't think they really have an excuse. Well, Mattie continues. We hope to make another trip at least to the lake as we went to finish the kitchen and bedroom provided the weather gets back to where it belongs. This is certainly unusual for September. It surely shouldn't settle down for the winter yet.
Hans Buetow:Dad studied our last trip up, so we didn't have to get any work done. Believe me, our little oil burner sure came in handy. I thought of the night you and Chuck slept by the fire and nearly froze to death. We kept the heater going two nights, it felt swell in the morning. We were afraid it might get too warm, but the terrific wind that blew on Wednesday night blew the heat right through it.
Hans Buetow:I love this phrasing. Missus Schmidt said she never went to bed until 3AM as she thought her cottage would blow over into Bellhorn Bay. That line, that's funny. That's a funny line. And it it's I'm I'm trying to imagine how she would deliver a line like that.
Hans Buetow:Because she wasn't a funny woman, or she wasn't an outwardly funny woman, was she?
Steve Buetow:No. She wasn't a clown. She did have a good sense of humor, and Matt could be very droll. I read that a 100% as a joke.
Hans Buetow:I mean, it's not a joke that she's staying up till 3AM. That part's real. But, like, just the phrasing that missus Schmidt said she never went to bed until 3AM as she thought her cottage would blow over into Bellhorn Bay. She said the whole hill trembled as the high waves kept washing under the steps and down. We are protected, of course, so we weren't the least bit concerned.
Hans Buetow:We knew it must be bad in the bay as we could hear the wind blowing through the trees. Here in our block at home, there were several trees down. Everyone here thought we would have a repeater of the Armistice Day storm.
Steve Buetow:The Armistice Day storm was a profound disaster. Oh. It was a warm November 11 Yeah. In 1941.
Hans Buetow:So it'd been the year before
Steve Buetow:or '41. Yes.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Recent memory.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And it dawned early, warm, and a lot of hunters were out, and a blizzard came through. Hundreds I do believe hundreds of people froze to death. Wow. Were caught trapped out in the snow Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Dressed for a warm morning. So it the Armistice Day Blizzard was one of the bigger natural disasters in in Minnesota history.
Hans Buetow:And would have loomed I mean, to be only a year or two away. It would have loomed very large on a Very large. On a windy day like that.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Right. Especially for people in Northern Minnesota where
Hans Buetow:they're really struck hard. Oh, she's making a joke, but then the thing she goes on to describe her, like,
Steve Buetow:worrisome. Yes. Worrisome. And just because the storm doesn't mean that the wind isn't gonna bring snow.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. So, I mean, mister Schmidt, you're right, being up till 3AM. That totally makes sense to me Yeah. With what she's describing.
Steve Buetow:Right.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Well, she goes on to talk a little bit more about the storm. She says, I don't know if I told you about the terrible storm they had about 50 miles north of Saint Paul on both 56 And 65 Highways where there wasn't a farm, I don't believe, that didn't have some damage done to it. Several people were killed, and scads of barns were down. We went through both districts of it.
Hans Buetow:So that must be on their way up north.
Steve Buetow:On their way up north.
Hans Buetow:Yes. So we're getting to the end. She tells us that teacher Joseph has been here several times trying to sell me some Christmas cards. Well, I guess unless you come home, there won't be any tree at our house as it surely won't be Christmas without you boys. Jin will call me again tomorrow.
Hans Buetow:She said she was surely thrilled with the pictures you drew her. I love that he's drawing her pictures. He's drawing Virginia pictures in his letters.
Steve Buetow:That's really what he did a lot. Oh, that makes a lot of sense
Hans Buetow:to me.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Because he he loved to sketch, and and in in letters, he it fits him exactly. And it's very interesting to begin to learn about Virginia, and she has a real relationship with Mattie.
Hans Buetow:She has a real relationship with Mattie. They're check I mean, she's checking in on her Daily. Daily. Yes. And they're really sharing a lot.
Steve Buetow:And Virginia was a complete mystery. Yeah. I think that got veeded by Ruth, my mom. Okay. We're not gonna talk about Virginia.
Steve Buetow:Well,
Hans Buetow:we're gonna learn about this is we're learning about everybody working in this project. Oh, fantastic. Well, she signs the letter off. Well, honey, I guess I'll leave some room for dad. Be a good soldier, and I'll keep praying for you.
Hans Buetow:God bless you, dear. With love, mom. And then I'd love you to describe what is on the bottom, what she left room for.
Steve Buetow:She left room for a gorgeous Isn't that gorgeous? Long hand, perfectly scripted, hi, Ken. It's just wonderful. This is letter writing time in our home. I have finished writing a letter to Bud while mom wrote this, and now she is adding to my letter while I'm doing this.
Steve Buetow:But she has got all the best of it, and there is nothing left to write after she has written. Mhmm. It's just beautiful script. The lines are dead level.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. The the lines are dead level. Hers go all over the place when we read her handwritten ones. Yeah. His are just like a ruler.
Hans Buetow:He's got a ruler on it.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And it's all in ink. Anyway, we are always tickled to get your letters, and I'm glad to hear that you are getting along well. I suppose it is discouraging not to get your mail promptly, but sit tight. It will catch up with you one of these days, and you will have enough to read for a week.
Steve Buetow:I will have to add my little advice as I have done in my letters to Budd. Be a good soldier. Do what you are assigned to the best you can, and all will be well. God will be with you till we meet again. Dad.
Steve Buetow:That was three paragraphs of not much of anything. Three paragraphs of not so
Hans Buetow:so this is the first time that we've heard from
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:Matt directly Yes. In this. So how tell us a little bit about Matt. Like, how does this square up with with who you knew Matt to be?
Steve Buetow:Matt was cheerful and very quiet. He was not garrulous and like other uncles and grandfathers that I had, just telling stories. But in a lot of ways, he was just mysterious because of his his silence, very taciturn. And not a large man, but a but a handsome, strongly constructed man. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Just he's very Norwegian. Mikkelsen. Mattieus Mikkelsen. Oh.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Before we leave this letter, I do wanna read you something that's hidden on the back.
Steve Buetow:Oh, I did notice that there was
Hans Buetow:a paragraph. There's a postscript on the back of this one here, which says, PS, if you ever get to Seattle during your shopping time, will you try to get me a pair of inexpensive salt and peppers from Washington? I'll pay her for them. I don't suppose you've gotten my payday yet, would you? I'll send you a box tomorrow.
Hans Buetow:Is there something special you would like?
Steve Buetow:Wow. The salt and pepper.
Hans Buetow:The salt and pepper. She's let's collect them from all over. Yeah. Yeah. That wraps up the September 27.
Hans Buetow:An excellent letter from Mattie. So I'd like to do one more letter before we quit because we just finished Sunday, September 27, and we are opening Monday night, September twenty eighth.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Twenty four hours later, my darling Ken. Well, well, so you have left the good old US Of A.
Steve Buetow:The Canadian Coast. Pacific Coast.
Hans Buetow:Yes. He's departed. Mattie says, I couldn't make myself believe you would ever leave so soon. I just couldn't help but weep a few tears when I read it. I feel very badly that you didn't get your watch, and I cannot understand why.
Hans Buetow:The girl at Rothschild's got your address for me after I'd sent your watch, but maybe being insured delayed it somewhat. I could kick myself around the block, however, for not insuring it for more than $10. But I was just so sure you would get it that that was the first sum that came to mind. However, I do hope they forward those packages, but I don't know. I should, in any event, get a card saying that they are holding the package or you should if they have your forwarding address for additional postage as they don't forward parcel post without additional postage.
Hans Buetow:Oh, I could kick that boy for not putting a stamp on that postcard, or it would never have happened. Here your watch lay on the table at home and you still in Saint Paul. Of course, in a way, it was my fault. Had I never gone to the lake, you would have had it. Oh, so many regrets come to mind because I know how you will miss it.
Steve Buetow:Wow. That's just a lot of drama.
Hans Buetow:Wow. I told you there was drama with a watch, and we kinda got the the beginning of the watch story. You were like, yeah. There's some drama. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:That teeters into melodrama.
Steve Buetow:Yes. It does. She's talking about
Hans Buetow:abusing local neighborhood boys. She's Yeah. Saying it's her fault, but their fault, but the post office's fault, and oh, if only 15 different times.
Steve Buetow:And all the different problems that she foresees.
Hans Buetow:So the watch, still a problem. I put a postscript in your letter of last night. This is the salt and pepper shaker one that we heard about a little bit earlier. Can you get me a salt and pepper shaker in Washington? Saying, get me a salt and peppers.
Hans Buetow:And here you had already gone before the letter reached you. I can't imagine them sending you without the least bit of fundamental training. Even self defense, you should learn.
Steve Buetow:It is interesting that if he's already been deployed
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And he's been in the army for two months. Yeah. Because six it's usually six weeks at least of basic training.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Yeah. You surely had a sweeping good time on dock detail. Your hands would have been pretty well blistered by that that time even if you wore gloves.
Steve Buetow:Doc detail. Love this.
Hans Buetow:I love I love trying to intuit what he's telling her his life is like, getting these tiny windows where she just approves of it. Because she goes on in the next paragraph that was a whole paragraph. She goes on in the next paragraph to say, my, it surely is a miracle, as you say, how they can feed so many at one time and cook it so it is edible. That is an art in itself, isn't it? And as you say, an education.
Hans Buetow:Some amount of eggs to break. I just figured it out. If you kept pace with the other fellows, you alone broke 1,224.
Steve Buetow:So she's she she has a little little scratch pad.
Hans Buetow:You can imagine her he gave her enough information. Yep. Was doing this many, this many, and I went for yep.
Steve Buetow:Yep. She carried seven.
Hans Buetow:1,224. It must have taken you some time, or maybe that's how you got so much of the whites over you. These are the moments I wish we had the letters. What does that he got egg whites all over himself. He Oh.
Hans Buetow:He's cracking 1,200 of them. Love it. Yep. Love it. So we're departing that, and the next paragraph says, I'd mentioned that I was packing a box for you today, but when I got your second letter saying you were leaving, I just sorta lost heart and felt I must wait for your address.
Hans Buetow:But I just now spoke to Jin's sister, the married one, as Jin was sick in bed with a very bad cold. So this is Virginia, the the fiancee. Virginia. I expected Jin to call me tonight, but I went to Minneapolis with Georgine this afternoon. To be honest with you, I was glad to get away from my thoughts as I felt pretty blue.
Hans Buetow:We shopped until almost nine. You know the stores stagger their hours now. Some of the stores, including Rothschild's, have hours from twelve noon to 9PM on Mondays, while the others have from ten to six, and, again, others until nine on Thursdays so as to facilitate streetcar traffic.
Steve Buetow:Oh, interesting. I do remember when I was a child, there were blue laws, so there was no stores allowed to operate on Sundays. Okay. No stores at all, not just alcohol. Right.
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And then I think it was Mondays and Thursdays stores would be open into the evening, perhaps nine. Yeah. But you couldn't count on the grocery store or anything being open after dinnertime.
Hans Buetow:Well, Mattie continues. Just as I closed the door this afternoon, I discovered I had no key. You know, after that happened to me some time ago, I vowed it would never happen again, and I put a key outside under the back porch. But I remember when I lost a key, I quote, unquote, borrowed it and never put it back. And one I know I left at the lake.
Hans Buetow:I guess that was Bud's. So now what to do, double question mark? I went to Rudy's, thinking maybe dad had left a key there. I know he had before, but I really didn't like it because I didn't think it was necessary for her to go through the house anytime I wasn't at home.
Steve Buetow:Rudy Ruth May. Does
Hans Buetow:that Ruth May.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. And Ruth May lived across the street and to the east, maybe five houses.
Hans Buetow:Okay. So, yeah, so she went over to her stepdaughter's house
Steve Buetow:to try
Hans Buetow:to get a key. Yeah. Finally, Joe came over, and he asked if there were any windows open. And I remember that your window towards your bed, the screen, I mean, had swivels on the outside. So he went home to get his ladder, and he crawled into your window.
Hans Buetow:My goodness.
Steve Buetow:Joe is is Rudy's husband.
Hans Buetow:I surely was glad. Georgine wanted me to come home with her, but that wouldn't help matters because I don't believe dad has a key with him. In fact, I'm certain because he never does carry one. However, I'm glad I'm in.
Steve Buetow:Oh, what a saga. A Climbing up to the second story.
Hans Buetow:Oh, activating the neighborhood to get in your house. Yes. Her sister also told me that I should get air mail paper, and she could put in five sheets for 6¢.
Steve Buetow:There you go.
Hans Buetow:That's fascinating. Five sheets for 6¢ into air mail. So this explains a little bit about what size these are gonna be or, like, how much weight they can carry.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yeah. They are weighed.
Hans Buetow:She also told me about cablegrams one can send. So I think as we all know, the difference between a telegram and a cablegram, is that a telegram is transmitted through telegraph wires, and a cablegram is transmitted through cables, which are which are mostly under underwater. So cablegram tends to be an international Oh, I see. Missive that you're sending across cables that are buried under the water, whereas a telegram goes across telegraph wires, which are suspended overhead. Interesting.
Hans Buetow:So they don't they they are more of an additional thing. Okay.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. I didn't realize that.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Okay. I spent most of the morning mailing out some of the leaflets like I showed you with the ninety first psalm on the back. Remember? So I see that you have actually brought out your King James Bible here.
Steve Buetow:Psalm 91. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress. My God in him I will trust. Surely he shall deliver me from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.
Steve Buetow:And it goes on for for 15 more verses. Wow. He shall cover thee with his feathers, another metaphor, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Hans Buetow:That's a very warlike buckler. Suddenly, it's a shield and buckler. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
Hans Buetow:Well, Mattie says I have gotten so much comfort out of reading that every day that I wanted to pass them around. I sent one to aunt Ida, missus Gertson, and missus Wall. Yeah. I could see that being a comforting thing
Steve Buetow:if you're Right. If you're a believer that God
Hans Buetow:God is a shield. Yes. Yeah. For those who need it.
Steve Buetow:And he's asserting Yeah. The care that God will provide.
Hans Buetow:It's a nice thought. It's a nice thought to know that she's that she's not just thinking that. It tells us a little bit about her that then she would Share Yeah.
Steve Buetow:To share it. Right? Yes.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. I'm gonna make copies of it. I'm gonna share it out to other folks Yeah. Because it's given me comfort. Yes.
Hans Buetow:It's I get a real sense of community from her with this where like Yes.
Steve Buetow:She's highly enmeshed. I mean, and she didn't talk about things she's heard on the radio. There's nothing about media, nothing in the newspaper. Yeah. She relies on other people who she contacts, talks to frequently.
Hans Buetow:Mattie says, it has warmed up considerably tonight. I hope it does still more. We can stand it. There was another very heavy frost last night. Everything was white when I took dad to Minneapolis this morning.
Hans Buetow:I bought myself some wine colored corduroy for slacks today to go with a wine sweater I am making. Also, a New Jersey dress, white with ferns in it, parentheses, cheap for next summer. I also bought a service pin with a capital s, so an armed services pin. I also bought a service pin with two stars to wear on my coat or dress and a new pair of gloves because I closed the door on mine. Oh, well.
Hans Buetow:They were torn anyway, so it was a good excuse to get new ones.
Steve Buetow:The service pin with two stars, is that indicating Two members of this household are in the army.
Hans Buetow:Interesting. Some people will put flags up in the window Okay. And some people wear pins or both. Okay. Somehow to indicate that you were a a fighting family.
Hans Buetow:Yep. Yeah. Like how many you had out there. Yeah. Alright.
Hans Buetow:Well, honey, my paper is running short, and I'm afraid of getting this too heavy, so I better ring off for tonight. It's 11:35, and I better hit the hay because I got up early this morning. God bless you, darling, and come home soon. With love, mom. It's really interesting to try to put yourself back in Right.
Hans Buetow:Her, you know, September 28. It's 11:30 at night, Monday, September 28, start to get a little bit cool. And you write to him as you god bless you and come home soon.
Steve Buetow:Yes. You mean it. Yes. She doesn't know
Hans Buetow:it's gonna be three years. She that's the thing. It's come home soon. I mean, the
Steve Buetow:war the the war news, which they do not discuss. At all? No. Not at all. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And it's it's doing badly. Yeah. I understand how she she could be quite low. Yeah. It'd be easy for her Yeah.
Steve Buetow:To lose buoyancy. Yeah. Mhmm.
Hans Buetow:So that is Mattie's World for Monday, 09/28/1942. Thank you so much for being here. If you have a contribution to make, some sort of story or someone that you know or a correction of something probably that I said that we had in this episode.
Steve Buetow:It would be it would be with something he said.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Dad's on dad was on vibes. You can't correct vibes. You should head over to, moth.family. That's moth.
Hans Buetow:Mattie On The Homefront, moth, moth.family. We would love to hear from you. Yes. If you, are enjoying what you're hearing, please, please, please, please, please let somebody know if you think it's somebody who's interested in genealogy or family history, the twin cities
Steve Buetow:Oral history.
Hans Buetow:Oral history or Mattie. Or Mattie. Yeah. If you if you're a long lost cousin and you have other long lost cousins, first, let us know. Second, tell them about it, refer us to a friend.
Hans Buetow:It's the best way that people can get to know the show. Our theme music is by Matt Buto, who is My nephew, Hans's cousin. And he's also named after Mattie. Maybe. We're not sure.
Hans Buetow:We can ask. Like to think he is. Matt Butte did our theme music, our logo and art is by Amy Kirkpatrick. I am Hans Buteau.
Steve Buetow:And I'm Steve Buteau.
Hans Buetow:And you are fantastic for being here with us. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next time.