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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.
So one of the things that I've been looking forward to, dad, is I've been looking forward a little bit to when Mattie would settle a little bit from needing to put up a little bit of a brave face for Ken.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:And kind of let the stuff come out that needs to come out, which is the stuff of daily living. Okay. And the dramas, because this is one of the things about the homefront. The homefront, just because it doesn't have the drama of war, doesn't mean it doesn't have the drama of life. That's true.
Hans Buetow:But we just had a wedding Correct. Couple of weeks ago. Right? Today, we're getting into the older folks. Okay.
Hans Buetow:Today is 12/01/1942.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:It's Tuesday in nineteen forty two, and it's a report back to Kent. There is a lot of her venting out a lot of family drama today. Oh. And there's a little bit of drama that's gonna continue over the next couple of days, weeks, and there's a little bit that's gonna extend out a couple of months. Okay.
Hans Buetow:We're gonna get some context today for some drama that we've already seen that we don't quite understand, and we're gonna get just a little bit more information. And we're gonna learn some new drama, and I'm hoping you can help me understand a little bit about these folks and what the drama might be, we might not know.
Steve Buetow:We might not know, but we could speculate.
Hans Buetow:Oh, get ready. That's happening. Historians, we are not. Theorizers? Oh,
Steve Buetow:yes. Theorizers.
Hans Buetow:Wired speculation.
Steve Buetow:Alright. Alright.
Hans Buetow:Hello, and welcome to Mattie On The Homefront. I'm Hans Buto. I am Steve Buto. And I since I am Mattie's great grandson, you are Her grandson. And we are reading the letters.
Hans Buetow:We have a box of letters that we got from Mattie to her son, your dad Ken. That she wrote from 1942 through 1945 during World War two.
Steve Buetow:When Ken was in the military police in Canada at the border of Alaska and Prince Rupert.
Hans Buetow:Telling us all about the dramas and everything back home. This is Tuesday evening, December first nineteen forty two. I also have to report, this letter is three pages
Steve Buetow:long. Oh.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Oh. I don't wanna oversell it, but, this is a dramatic letter. So let's get let's dive right in. I have the family tree pulled up because this is a lot of family stuff.
Hans Buetow:So we're gonna try to interpret who's who and make it as easy to follow as possible. I make no guarantees, though, because they're speaking a lot in shorthand
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yes.
Hans Buetow:Of who they know. They've got nicknames that don't don't match with government records. Yeah. So we're gonna do what we can to keep ourselves afloat and figure out what the t is. And this starts 12/01/1942 as they always start, my darling Ken.
Steve Buetow:He's not Kenneth. Not today.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Today, he's Ken.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Alright. A great point. She says, well, as usual, my lovely letter arrived yesterday and was so happy to hear that all is well with you. That's it. That's all we get about Ken.
Hans Buetow:Hard to hit it. Let's talk.
Steve Buetow:We're ready.
Hans Buetow:The next line. Yes. Alvin has left mister Stenberg. Alvin. Okay.
Hans Buetow:Mister Stenberg. Mister Stenberg and Alvin. There's a little bit more context coming, so let's just position ourselves where in the family we're talking about. Okay. So the Stenbergs are
Steve Buetow:In laws. Mattie's in laws. Her sister married a Stenberg.
Hans Buetow:Her sister her older sister, Ella.
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:Ella married Frederick Aldo Stenberg
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Who is, I think, known mostly as Aldo.
Steve Buetow:He's known as Aldo. Yes.
Hans Buetow:And he owned a car dealership.
Steve Buetow:He owned a Ford dealership in Baldwin, Wisconsin.
Hans Buetow:Baldwin, Wisconsin. So they live in Luck, Baldwin, like, kind of in that area. Yep. Yep. Aldo's younger brother Okay.
Hans Buetow:Is named Alvin.
Steve Buetow:Alvin and Aldo. This is sounding like chipmunks. This is yeah.
Hans Buetow:There's a there's a ten year difference between the two
Steve Buetow:of them. Oh, okay.
Hans Buetow:Alvin is the younger. 19 o seven versus eighteen ninety seven.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Alvin was getting only $90 a month, says Mattie, and trying to keep himself, a wife, and two girls is almost impossible, at least without a great deal of skimping. But he also this is mister Stenberg, had a young fellow getting the same money, so they decided to get themselves a defense job.
Steve Buetow:Oh, yes. Of course. This is the end of the depression. There's there are jobs.
Hans Buetow:There are jobs. There are there's manufacturing is opening up all over the place in Minnesota. There's a ton of stuff being built. There's airplane stuff being built. There's bombs.
Hans Buetow:There's a munitions plant.
Steve Buetow:Oh, huge munitions plant Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Being built. Yeah. Now that's not exactly where they are, and it seems like that's not where he's going. But the attraction of a defense job when you're only getting $90 a month. Yep.
Hans Buetow:And that's an interesting thing for a small business. Like, how do small businesses compete? If the young men aren't going into the army, there's the appeal of these higher paying, I would imagine, defense jobs. So how do you stay competitive?
Steve Buetow:Right. And Aldo's not selling any Fords.
Hans Buetow:And Aldo's not selling any Ford
Steve Buetow:because not new ones.
Hans Buetow:At least not new ones. I hadn't thought about that being a car dealership because new cars are not allowed.
Steve Buetow:They're not being made.
Hans Buetow:Right. So there's nothing to sell.
Steve Buetow:There's nothing right.
Hans Buetow:It's all used cars.
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Mattie then continues. So they didn't want the young fellow to leave, so they gave him more money. And when Alvin put the same proposition up to mister s, he got mad and told him to get the h dash dash dash out.
Steve Buetow:Three dashes.
Hans Buetow:Woah. She means heck. I'm sure she means heck. So he and this is she's talking about Alvin, went to Superior and will take over Kenneth McArthur's job, I understand. No idea who Kenneth McArthur is, but Superior is Duluth Superior Yeah.
Hans Buetow:It's still in Wisconsin. Yep. Mattie continues and says, Aldo, so the older brother
Steve Buetow:Yep.
Hans Buetow:Is now thinking very seriously of buying the old man's business and putting Alvin in it. Aunt Ella Okay. Doesn't want to live in Amory again, so I don't know exactly what they will do. Aldo got wind that the old man was gonna sell to anybody that would offer him a fair price. Of course, whether or not he will sell to Aldo is another question.
Steve Buetow:Business and family getting mixed up.
Hans Buetow:It just gets deeper. Oh. Because Mattie continues. Of course, Ella and Aldo take the attitude it is Amanda trying to force Alvin out. Wow.
Hans Buetow:But I don't like to think in such harsh terms.
Steve Buetow:But we like to report harsh terms.
Hans Buetow:Mhmm. Mhmm. But I'm gonna tell you all about the harsh terms. Yeah. Mattie says neither do they want to give the old man back his money, $10,000.
Hans Buetow:He borrowed them for the garage as they don't want Amanda to have it.
Steve Buetow:So Aldo required capitalization for his Ford dealership and got it from the old man?
Hans Buetow:The old man. And they don't want to give him back the money because they don't want maybe the second wife or whoever Amanda is Right. To have it. Mattie says, I'm a stepmother too, and I certainly would hate to go scot free.
Steve Buetow:Oh, stepmother. So it's Aldo's stepmother.
Hans Buetow:Mattie says they forget that she too is entitled to her share. After all, neither Ella nor any one of her daughters in law would care to have the job of taking care of the old man, being such a crab.
Steve Buetow:Have we ever heard that before?
Hans Buetow:No kidding. And as long as she is doing her job and taking their mother's place, they certainly should take a more charitable attitude.
Steve Buetow:Okay. So it does sound like a stepmother.
Hans Buetow:If she's doing the work of being a stepmom Yes. Yep. She should be entitled to a little conversation.
Steve Buetow:Stepmothers are not evil like in syndrome. That's right. This I it's kind of what she's saying.
Hans Buetow:Yes. And she's a little pissed at her sister.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yes. For Or her or her sister's husband.
Hans Buetow:Or her sister's husband. It seems like the two of them, her sister and her sister's husband, are aligned. This is not the first time that we have heard Mattie have very choice words for her older sister.
Steve Buetow:I always thought of me being extremely close, but that was when they were 14.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. And maybe that's true. Maybe because they're close, they've got this tension that's happening. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:So these are the relationships, and these are the things that they're talking about in shorthand that I'm really eager to learn more about.
Steve Buetow:Yes. It is clearly shorthand. Do that that that Ken knows the references
Hans Buetow:Yep.
Steve Buetow:And and should be able to easily understand. Yeah. And I know they spent a lot of time in Baldwin. Yeah. They were close families.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Well, she continues and says that she, Ella, was here with Walt and Jean on Saturday.
Steve Buetow:Well, Walt is Ella and Mattie's littlest brother. Yeah. Who would have been a contemporary of Alvin.
Hans Buetow:That's true. He was little little brother. Yeah. He was he was quite a bit younger. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Jean wanted to have a figure made like my Mattield. This is her form. Her lovely form.
Steve Buetow:Genevieve, who I knew well, was is just an absolute delight. Love it. Was extremely crafty, so having making things would be
Hans Buetow:Jealous of a form makes sense.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Well, I'm a form.
Hans Buetow:I want a form. Well, Jean wanted to have a figure made like my Mattie, and they thought they would have a last fling with their car. Today, you know, gas rationing goes into effect. So the second group because the Stenbergs went and had a fling with their car and drove all the way out to the Dakotas.
Steve Buetow:Okay. Before the gas
Hans Buetow:Yes. Went nuts. Yeah. So gas rationing is in is in. So Mattie takes a breath and and asks a little bit about Ken, but then catapults right back into her feelings when she says, well, we are happy to hear that you and your pals can get together.
Hans Buetow:So he's apparently writing about getting together with buds.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:But Mattie says, my, but you do have a wide variety of recreation, don't you? Do you ever get homesick?
Steve Buetow:I have a homesick story with with Mattie. I was up at the cabin, and one of Mattie's step grandchildren came, and I do not remember which one. And I was busy. We were both about the same age, and he just stayed in bed for two days Aw. Because he was homesick.
Steve Buetow:I had no clues to what homesickness was. Aw. Mom and dad were gone, but there was plenty to do. Yeah. So that was my first experience with homesick was was up there with Mattie in the cabin, and I wasn't homesick, but someone else was.
Hans Buetow:Well, this plea is is really specific because she follows up, do you ever get homesick with, I miss you terribly, darling. Every time I go into your room to sew or type, I see you all around me. Yeah. Ugh. I this is why I'm saying I feel her wanting to keep up this brave face and a little bit crumbling.
Hans Buetow:I mean, we've talked about how it's December. It's cold. It's dark. Yes. It's she's alone.
Hans Buetow:She's got all this family drama. Oh, wait. It gets bigger because she continues. Well, Saturday night, we had a nice evening celebrating Bob's birthday. So this is Bob Genrich, who is the friends from Minneapolis.
Steve Buetow:Yes. That's right. Over in Chicago.
Hans Buetow:Who they hang out with all the time. Love that for them. Yep. We tentatively plan on celebrating dad's Saturday, but things have taken a decided change, so we can't be sure. Grandma Mick is on her last.
Steve Buetow:Oh, it's Matt's mother.
Hans Buetow:Matt's mother. And I'm sure by the time you get this letter, she will have gone to her heavenly reward. Wow. Friday, she came down with the flu, and the doctor said she has the kind of pneumonia called, quote, old people's friend.
Steve Buetow:Yes. That's very famous.
Hans Buetow:There is no more beautiful death. Oh, dear. Says Mattie.
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:Mattie says that Sunday morning, aunt Helen got me out of bed to tell me that she had been very ill Saturday night.
Steve Buetow:Aunt Helen?
Hans Buetow:Matt's sister-in-law. John Mickelson lives up on Pacific over on the Dayton's Bluff area. Okay. And the person who lives with him Is Helen. And grandma Mick.
Hans Buetow:Okay. So she's there in the house with them. So this is John Mickelson and Helen Langland
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Are there. Alright. And grandma Mick is living there. So when these guys say, have to go up onto the bluffs, they're talking about going to visit John Mickelson and grandma Mick.
Steve Buetow:Because there are a number
Hans Buetow:of pronouns without antecedents there. Without any sort of credits. Yeah. Yeah. Mattie says, and we were planning on going there in the afternoon right after church when the phone rang and Graham called.
Hans Buetow:Graham is Mattie's mom.
Steve Buetow:Oh, okay. Who we call Julia.
Hans Buetow:Was I coming over to make them dinner? She was on her last legs and all, of course. If I didn't want to, I didn't have to, and with that hung up.
Steve Buetow:A bit of German drama. So on the one hand,
Hans Buetow:they've got Matt's mom dying. Yes. And they're trying to go visit her. And Mattie's mom. Mattie's mom calls and throws a fit.
Hans Buetow:Aren't you coming over to make me dinner? I'm on my last legs too. And then hangs up on her. Okay. Mattie's response.
Hans Buetow:Imagine my surprise.
Steve Buetow:She wasn't surprised at all. This is what
Hans Buetow:I'm wondering. That's what I how I read that sentence too.
Steve Buetow:Yes. We we're we speculate about Julia. The portraits we have of her are rather stern looking. That's the one that we're guessing perhaps never learned to speak English. If she did, it was with a strong German accent.
Hans Buetow:And so so I'm on my I'm on my last legs and then just hanging up. I was more Scottish, but, you know, you get the idea. So Mattie says, I knew nothing of her being ill. Aside from the fact that I guess she ate too much here on Thanksgiving. And on Friday, she told me she had to throw up.
Hans Buetow:I wasn't alarmed about that because she does that often if she overeats.
Steve Buetow:Mother can be such a nuisance.
Hans Buetow:This is But she's trying to take it seriously. Right? She's like, I'm in the middle of these two two crises now. One of them feels real, and one of them maybe not. Yep.
Hans Buetow:And Mattie continues, Saturday, when I called, she was in at missus Lang's, so I didn't get a chance to talk with her, but thought as long as she was visiting next door, she was okay. Well, Jean and Walt weren't sure if they were gonna stay as they had brought Ella with them, and she had a cold, and she didn't wanna walk from the bus. But when Graham said, quote, us, I thought they must have stayed. And when I called her back, I still got no more definite answer. Just talked in monosyllables, expecting me to read her mind.
Hans Buetow:Oh, yes. Well, I thought if Jean was there, there was still no particular rush, so dad and I went to church. Okay. And, of course, when we got there, I got the same line. The next time she wouldn't call me if I couldn't come right away
Steve Buetow:and if she would drop
Hans Buetow:dead, etcetera, etcetera. She saw them at church. Can't you hear her?
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:So it sounds like maybe she went to church and then and then went over afterwards, and her mom was
Steve Buetow:like Yes.
Hans Buetow:Oh, next time I just won't call, and I'll just die. But Mattie said, etcetera, etcetera, can't you hear her Right. Implies that this is this is the Julia. Yes. This is the Julia that that can can
Steve Buetow:would know.
Hans Buetow:Yes. Mattie says, as dad says, I think her illness was more sympathy wanting than actual sickness.
Steve Buetow:Well, of course.
Hans Buetow:Here's where it gets a little wild.
Steve Buetow:Oh, it's not wild yet.
Hans Buetow:It's not wild yet. Okay. However, Mattie continues, I stayed and cleaned up a little for her.
Steve Buetow:And he's she's cleaning up for Julia.
Hans Buetow:For Julia. Honestly, Ken, the way her house looks is a crime. Oh, dear. Now I can see why you never wanted to eat there. Really?
Hans Buetow:How she can expect people to stay there is a caution. You know, when one just goes there, one doesn't see much. But if you start digging in the corners, in fact, you don't have to dig very far in to see the dirt. Actually dirty, dust two inches thick. I believe because she doesn't wear her glasses, she really does not see the dirt or else she's just getting so careless.
Hans Buetow:It's a pity.
Steve Buetow:How old is Julia?
Hans Buetow:Well, Julia was born in 1866, and it's now 1942. She's close to 80. Yeah. We're not done.
Steve Buetow:Oh, okay.
Hans Buetow:Because Mattie says, well, I was supposed to practice in a play we are having in church at Christmas time by the ladies aid. Oh. Just putting on a play, a Christmas play.
Steve Buetow:And Mattie's in it.
Hans Buetow:I'm supposed to be, she says, I'm supposed to be a camel. Oh, no. I meant a shepherd. Anyway, it's not very heavy. I only walk around.
Hans Buetow:But when I started in cleaning, there was no stopping. Dad, in the meantime, had gone to grandma mix.
Steve Buetow:Okay. So he went back over to the East Side.
Hans Buetow:He went over to the East Side. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:From the university in in Victoria area.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So she went down just near the house, and then Matt takes a drive all the way up to the Bluffs Yep. To go look after his mom, who's actually dying.
Hans Buetow:Yes. Then too, says Mattie, remember I'd written you we wanted to go to that prayer meeting at Redeemer, but I didn't even get to that. So the second church with or third church she belongs to, she was supposed to go to a prayer meeting. Aunt Ida had called me one day from Graham's and said they were sorry they couldn't go either as it was their chore time. So aunt Ida is Ida Amelia Zabel, who is
Steve Buetow:Ida Zabel.
Hans Buetow:Julia's older sister, our sick mom. This is aunt Ida is her older sister Okay. Who's still gonna live another couple of years. I told you before we were going over to Lobdell's, which is a friend some friends of theirs. So by the time I just gave the kitchen a once over, in quotes, it was time to meet dad as I went home to change my dress and get the car as dad had to go to work Monday morning, and we felt we would be all night on the streetcar from Minneapolis.
Hans Buetow:I met dad at Snelling And Selby at about 04:45, and we had a very nice supper. Yesterday morning, Monday, Graham called me bright and early. Was I coming, or must she call missus Burns to come and stay with her? Oh, dear. Well, I knew she didn't need me very badly, but I told her I would wait until ten as I expected a letter from you, and we would go then.
Steve Buetow:Wow. That's interesting. Expecting mail. You would wait because you're expecting mail.
Hans Buetow:She expects the mail every Monday from Ken, and she told us at the beginning of this letter that it came.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:And so she's waiting for the morning post from Ken, and she's like, mom, calm thyself.
Steve Buetow:Wow. So she's
Hans Buetow:waiting for the mail now Yep. Monday morning. Yep. In the meantime, she says, aunt Helen had called and said that grandma Mick had asked for me, which is sweet. Dad had said that too when he was there on Sunday.
Hans Buetow:So I told him I would go sometime during the day. Well, I made lunch for Graham and started cleaning some more, and she wanted me to take home her laundry too as I had promised on Sunday I would do. So I worked around there until about 01:30 and then took the streetcar up to Helen's. Well, she says, grandma Mick was so happy to see me.
Steve Buetow:That's very rewarding.
Hans Buetow:It surely made me very happy I went. Yes. She wanted to see me again, to say goodbye to me, and tell me how glad she was that dad had me because he was a good man. And she said it was all over now. Wow.
Hans Buetow:Really, dear, to see the radiance in her face in expectation of going home, as she said, was really quite touching. She even started to sing a hymn, all in Norwegian now.
Steve Buetow:Wow.
Hans Buetow:That is something strange, but it seems all people just before they pass on go back to their native tongue. She talked quite a string in Norwegian to me and then finally realized she was talking to me. She doesn't see anymore, but she recognized my voice. Her eyes were sort of glassy.
Steve Buetow:Wow. But Matt is not there.
Hans Buetow:But Matt is not there because he's at work. Because her next line is, I must go to Minneapolis to get dad tonight, so I have time to do a little laundry later on. We're saving our gas for those trips as dad comes home dreadfully tired. He doesn't
Steve Buetow:doesn't wanna take the streetcar from the depot in downtown
Hans Buetow:In Downtown Minneapolis. Because he's coming home on the train where he sorts mail
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:For days, we think, a day at least. Yep. Yep. He's been going to Cedar Rapids. And so he comes home bone tired, and so that's what they've been saving their gas rationing for is for her to go
Steve Buetow:I was wondering about that. Yep.
Hans Buetow:She says he comes home dreadfully tired. He doesn't expect her to be alive when he gets home, but she may last a few days. She was knitting and crocheting with her hands all afternoon. She would continually think she would lose her needle. Then she would drop off into a doze and then suddenly think somebody was calling her.
Hans Buetow:She told aunt Martha when she left that she would greet uncle Berndt when she got to heaven. Wow. Uncle Berndt is Has is Matt's uncle who just died.
Steve Buetow:Just died a couple of months earlier.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. He would have been her brother-in-law. Okay. And so she's telling the widow, I'll greet your husband when I get to heaven.
Steve Buetow:Yep.
Hans Buetow:Mattie says that Helen just called me a little while back and said she was much the same, only she wasn't knitting or crocheting anymore. The doctor said she would go from that into a coma and then fall asleep. Helen said just after I left last night, she went down with me and put on her supper. She heard a thump and thought I had fallen because the porch was slippery. And when she went upstairs, here grandma had fallen out of bed.
Hans Buetow:She wanted to see if she could still stand on her feet.
Steve Buetow:Oh my goodness. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:She's she's your great step great grandma. Yes. My great great grandma's Yes. Dying last day. Yes.
Hans Buetow:That's remarkable to me. That's just incredible. She turns back to her own mom. Mattie turns back to her own mom, Graham, Julia Yes. And says, Graham is feeling better this morning.
Hans Buetow:She called and said Hoyer had just left. You know, Sunday, dad had tried to take the bottom of her sink off. It was stuffed and broke off, so we called Hoyer. So Hoyer Hoyer's either a person or a handyman or a company.
Steve Buetow:Yes. A plumber.
Hans Buetow:So the person
Steve Buetow:is something like You had to drop the trap. Drop the trap. Okay. And and Matt broke it when he did it.
Hans Buetow:Yep. So Mattie says she didn't want him. She said she would call Marcus, and I talked her out of it and told her she couldn't expect him to do it for nothing anyway, so she might as well call a plumber. And as Hoyer said, it never pays to let anyone but a mechanic touch anything like that as it's always cheaper in the long run. It's right.
Hans Buetow:You know, Graham always rinses her dishes. She never really uses any soap and real hot water. That is why it was such a mess.
Steve Buetow:Oh, no hot water. So it filled up with fat.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Okay. So what a picture we're getting of both of these women, both moms. Generation. Same generation.
Hans Buetow:Both of them immigrants. From different countries, one Norwegian, one German. Yep. We're far enough into it now that it feels like some sort of pretense just fell away. It feels like there's an there's an intimacy to this letter that we haven't that I I don't feel like I've felt as consistently before.
Hans Buetow:We've gotten flashes of it here and there as they've shared shorthand, as they've shared gossip and details. Yeah. But it does feel like a lot more up, a lot more, like, everything's good here on the home front. Gee, isn't aren't things great? And maybe things weren't as bad.
Hans Buetow:Maybe this is just really bad.
Steve Buetow:Right. And Ken is one of the few people I mean, so she can process all of this Yeah. Drama Yeah. By writing it down and having someone to send it
Hans Buetow:to. To. And having someone to send it to who understands it. I mean, it's it's like the better form of a journal for her where she gets to document it and process it, but then also someone else has context for
Steve Buetow:it.
Hans Buetow:Yes. Yep. She's of this sandwich generation. She's got these kids she's worried about. Yep.
Hans Buetow:She's got these parents she's trying to deal with. Yes. She's right in the middle. She's living that, like, middle aged life so solidly Yep. In the middle of war.
Hans Buetow:Yep. Well, she concludes this one since we're three pages in with, I have a meeting at church tonight, but that depends on what time dad gets home. Can you tell me she says, can you tell me what you got to eat for Thanksgiving? Viv just called, who's Vivian.
Steve Buetow:Viv would be Matt's daughter, Vivian. Daughter.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. So Ken's sister. So Viv just called and said Bud wrote her. He is taking pictures from airplanes now.
Hans Buetow:She said he was lying on his stomach and a couple of fellows hugged on to his legs. They had taken off the door of the plane. He took pictures of a parachute troop. We thought that would be his duty as he had told us quite casually that a lieutenant had taken him up in a plane and did stunts with him. Dad said right away, they don't take privates up just for a joy ride.
Steve Buetow:I've just learned recently in in Bud's obituary, which I found, that he took photos for the marines. That was his duty in the war. He took he took war photos all across the Pacific. Yeah. And I had no idea.
Hans Buetow:He's that he was a photographer? That he was a Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And that it it would be quite a an involved and dramatic deployment.
Hans Buetow:Because we knew that he was near Los Angeles Okay. An army bases near Los Angeles. We'd found that out a couple of letters ago. Yep. But that's fascinating because this I mean, that's exactly what he's doing.
Hans Buetow:He's hanging out of airplanes, taking photos of paratrooping marines.
Steve Buetow:Well, grab your ankles. You can just dangle up.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Just dangle. No prob. Just snap a few. Get a few snaps.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. But that is what photographers do. They're dedicated to the image. Absolutely. And
Hans Buetow:makes me wonder about what his training was. Would he couldn't have been a thing he just picked up from the army. I'm curious about that. Where did he get that? So maybe we'll get a little bit of of insight into that.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. If he has a lot of photography, maybe there's a lot
Steve Buetow:of photos.
Hans Buetow:If you're related to Bud Vincent Mickelson Yes. Please let us know.
Steve Buetow:Matt v. Well,
Hans Buetow:here we are at the end when Mattie says, well, my dear, if I'm gonna get up on the bluff, I'd better get going. So up on the bluff is going to visit grandma Mick Yes. Up on Pacific Avenue. I've had three telephone calls since I started this letter. And, of course, they all take time.
Hans Buetow:It's 03:30 now, and so I must sign off. God bless you, darling, and keep you safe from all harm. Love, mom.
Steve Buetow:Matt's mother is still barely alive.
Hans Buetow:Barely alive. We happen to know in in retrospect. She doesn't know in December 1, but grandma Mick, Mary Halverson, is gonna die tomorrow. Okay. Which is gonna be the subject it's part of the subject of the next letter that we talk about.
Hans Buetow:Appropriately. We're gonna talk about her death. We're gonna talk about Our memorial, not memorial, which happens pretty pretty quickly. Yep. And we're also gonna get more drama with Julia.
Hans Buetow:We're not quite done.
Steve Buetow:I am kind of curious to know how the duties of being the child of Julia have fallen to who? Because we never hear about Herb. Her brother. Her brother. And Ella is living out in Baldwin.
Steve Buetow:Sure. Mattie would take care of it, and Walter, he's about 30. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:I think with Walter, Walter and Mattie are sharing a lot. We also haven't heard about Arthur. Arthur Arthur Arthur is their oldest brother, born in 1892, so two years older than Mattie.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:They as far as I can tell, Arthur and Mabel Zabel never had kids. Haven't been able to find them yet.
Steve Buetow:Alright.
Hans Buetow:We do know that in 1942, he's living in Wausau, Wisconsin. He's Oh. 50 years old, living in Wausau.
Steve Buetow:So all of Juliet's children moved to Wisconsin.
Hans Buetow:Moved to Wisconsin. I guess that's true except for Mattie.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. So I'm guessing Mattie is a lot of not only the taking care of, but just the emotional burden of an ailing mother has fallen to Mattie. Yeah. And she's living alone in the house that she moved to with her husband who has since died, Julia. Julia.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. So moms. Moms. It's the it's the time of moms.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Care of the very aged moms.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Well, is Mattie's Complicated World for 12/01/1942. Thank you so much for joining us. You can head over to moth.family, to figure out how to get in touch with us. You can see some photos of folks.
Hans Buetow:We're trying to keep a tree of who people are, and we're gonna start uploading, many more photos.
Steve Buetow:We've got
Hans Buetow:a lot of stuff coming. So head over to moth.family to get in touch with us. Our theme music is by Matt Buto, and our logo design and art are by Amy Kirkpatrick. I'm Hans Buto. I'm Steve Buto.
Hans Buetow:And we thank you for being here. We'll see you on 12/07/1942.