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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.
My mom never called me Darlin'. My grandma never called me Darlin'.
Hans Buetow:Well, I think it says more about you than me.
Steve Buetow:Okay. Alright.
Hans Buetow:Hello, and welcome to Mattie On The Homefront, where I read my dad, the letters his grandmother sent to his father during World War two. I am Hans Buto, and Mattie is my great grandmother.
Steve Buetow:And she was my grandma, and I'm Steve Buto, Hans' dad. Hi, dad. Hi, Hans.
Hans Buetow:So, last week, we got into the first of the letters. We read two the first two letters starting September 1 and 09/04/1942.
Steve Buetow:And they were handwritten.
Hans Buetow:And they were handwritten. And we're moving,
Steve Buetow:thankfully, out of handwritten. They're all typed from this point on. She had worked as a secretary after she was divorced from her first husband, and I suspect she was a very good typist. Ken was a very good typist. So he was very proficient, very quick, and with a big old typewriter, could Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Return. So I suspect she was quite good. Do you have
Hans Buetow:a sense of if Mattie was employed at this time? Do I'm sure we'll find out by reading through the letters, but do you know offhand in 1942 if Mattie had a job?
Steve Buetow:I do not know, and I don't know exactly when she remarried. I'm guessing there was four or five years after the divorce where she had to find her own means of support. It was a very, very acrimonious separation and divorce, but she remarried, and she remarried Matt Mickelson. So it became Matt and Mattie.
Hans Buetow:Matt and Mattie.
Steve Buetow:And Matt was a quiet Norwegian with a very sly sense of humor and just warm and generous. And it took you a while to figure out his affection and delight in the people around him. Yeah. He had a birthmark that covered half of his face. So he's a very handsome man but had this disfigurement, which was always a little bit alarming to children.
Steve Buetow:He worked for the post office. He would ride the train to Fargo sorting mail. So he he would be on the train. Explains
Hans Buetow:Okay. Yeah. We are not gonna hear from Matt today, but it's only in two more letters that we get our first PS from Matt, which I'm really excited for you to see because those are hand done. He has this beautiful looping script that he does in, like, in, like, blue ink. It's just it's so lovely, and it's just p it's these really sweet dad like PSs of, well, champ, I think he's I think your mom said it all.
Hans Buetow:So we'll we'll get to one of those in a couple
Steve Buetow:of It's just
Hans Buetow:a couple
Steve Buetow:of letters. Even more talkative than he is. Anyway although his son, Bud, and Ken went to high school together, and they they lived both lived in the same house.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Okay. So there would have been a full house of people.
Steve Buetow:There were a full house of people. They had the two boys, the mom and dad Yeah. Stepmom, stepdad, and it was the house that I grew up in.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Well, do you wanna fill us in? What did we learn last week in our first two letters?
Steve Buetow:Last week, we we found a a number of names we couldn't identify of relatives. And
Hans Buetow:That's right. There's two Virginias.
Steve Buetow:Two Virginias.
Hans Buetow:And a couple of nicknames.
Steve Buetow:Yes. So we're not exactly sure who the protagonists are, but we speculated. And Ken was stationed at Fort Snelling, which is just a streetcar drive ride away just South of Minneapolis. And we suspect yeah. I don't think he commuted like we were speculating, but he but if the if he had leave to go, he could quickly arrive at 1691, the house that he
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:Grew up in. And I guess that's where he was when he when he got the first letter Yeah. From Mattie. Although Mattie addresses the letters to fortunately.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Well, that transitions us pretty well into today's because we've got a big change. This is a big letter that we're gonna go through first today. It's a big day in Mattie and Ken's world. The date of it is September 14, 1942.
Hans Buetow:On the letter, it even says Monday, noon, 09/14/1942, which is just like a detail I love love love love love. Alright. So this here, this is the the envelope. So there's a big change in the envelope.
Steve Buetow:This is
Hans Buetow:exactly what you were saying.
Steve Buetow:Big change on the envelope.
Hans Buetow:Tell us what tell us what happened.
Steve Buetow:Air mail stamps. Yeah. And it's an air mail envelope.
Hans Buetow:This thing traveled.
Steve Buetow:It traveled. Yeah. Yep. Now it goes to Fort Lawton, Washington. Company d, three seventy fifth Quartermasters, then it's TC.
Steve Buetow:I'm not sure what TC is. Yeah. And it's to private Kenneth h Buto. Okay. Here we go.
Hans Buetow:Just love this paper.
Steve Buetow:But look at all this typing. It has to be light weight paper. Weight.
Hans Buetow:Yes. And she gets into it. She really uses the margins after a little while. Hello, darling,
Steve Buetow:Which my mom never called me darling. My grandma never called me darling.
Hans Buetow:Well, I think it says more about you then.
Steve Buetow:Okay. Alright.
Hans Buetow:Here's my favorite line in the entire series so far. I know you won't mind my typing this letter because I can type much faster than I write, so at least it is legible. You may be sure, honey, I was happier than words can express to get your letter. This is a theme we get a lot from her of her just thrilled to get the correspondence, which you can imagine. Like, that's the only word you get.
Hans Buetow:That's true. No phone calls. No phone calls. No yeah. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Nothing else. No and and being worried. I had just written a letter to you Wednesday when we got your letter. But since you were leaving that afternoon, I didn't mail it because I felt they wouldn't bother to forward it. While I knew all along you were gonna have to leave, still it was an awful shock.
Hans Buetow:I just got weak all over. Oh my goodness. Perhaps it sounds a bit cowardly to you, but truthfully, I was glad I didn't have to see you go on that train. I wouldn't want you to see me cry, but I know
Steve Buetow:I just couldn't have done otherwise. That's true. He was going off to war.
Hans Buetow:They didn't know Alaska was a front. It was
Steve Buetow:You know? Alaska was was the West Coast. Yeah. The Japanese in the Pacific had already attacked The US Yeah. And presumably were mustering a force to do the same against the Continental US.
Steve Buetow:But even so, she, you know,
Hans Buetow:she doesn't really know where where he's going. That becomes clear that she doesn't really know where he's going.
Steve Buetow:And will not be told.
Hans Buetow:And will not be told. And in fact, there's parts of his we we get the sense later that parts of his letters are censored that give any sort of information about where he might be, so she can't really glean where he is. And it's just gone. Like and and it's a sort of thing where you know it's like just like she says, you know it's coming.
Steve Buetow:Yep. And then boom. Yes. Oh, what a moment for that. And in a sense, Ken was an only son.
Steve Buetow:Ken's older brother, Wes, had is very mysterious, least to me, and had disappeared a number of years. I think he was in the merchant marine by this time.
Hans Buetow:Okay. Okay. So they were close. So Mattie and Graham were very close.
Steve Buetow:Yes. And Wes never lived with the four of them, with Matt Mattie, Bud, and
Hans Buetow:because he was married at this point. Yeah. Yeah. He was out. So Mattie continues.
Hans Buetow:I talked with Jen quite a while Saturday night, and she too said it was terribly hard to hold back tears. But she said you were so brave about it. It really made it much easier. I was anxious to know how you took it. We got back about 08:45, and I immediately called her.
Hans Buetow:She said you had gotten a card from somewhere in North Dakota. I don't know whether you had sent another card to the lake. We meant to look in the mailbox, but in going over to Jerry's to leave the key, in the event Walt and Jean come come out to the lake over the weekend, it slipped my mind until we had gone several miles. And then we didn't wanna go back because we were anxious to get on our way. The evenings are a great deal shorter now, we and knew we were gonna have a different detour.
Hans Buetow:So Gin is Virginia, who is his fiancee.
Steve Buetow:At the at at some point becomes a fiancee. I don't know if she is at that point or not.
Hans Buetow:So it sounds like she sent him off.
Steve Buetow:Right. And Ken is 21. 21? Okay. Okay.
Hans Buetow:Mattie's 48. She's actually one day away from at this point, September 14, from turning her birthday is tomorrow
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:From turning 49 years old.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Which is amazing. I always think of her as being this older woman just because Yes. She's my great grandmother.
Steve Buetow:Clearly, I never knew her at that age. Was I wasn't born
Hans Buetow:from 50.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Not even 50.
Hans Buetow:Right. And it's wonderful to to get to know that. Right. Jerry, I'm not sure who Jerry is, but somebody who lives up near the lake, near the cabin.
Steve Buetow:My experience with many times going to the cabin is that all the different people living in cabins were quite close.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Cardi Physically and You socially?
Steve Buetow:Yes. Physically as well as socially. Yeah. A lot of time together and trust.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. The other two that she mentions, Walt and Jean, are gonna come up to the lake over the weekend.
Steve Buetow:And Walt and Jean, Walt is Mattie's little brother. He was born in 1910.
Hans Buetow:Little I little brother. That's fifteen years difference. Yeah. Oh, I never realized that.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. He was born in 1910, and Genevieve is his wife. Genevieve is a has a huge stature in the Buteau family. Yeah. She just had a great personality, and she just cut a wide swath and was very entertaining.
Steve Buetow:Artistic. Warm, artistic. Yeah. In fact, she was she, at some point in her life, decided if she wanted to be a concert pianist or work in the art world. She knew Horowitz.
Steve Buetow:Vladimir Horowitz. Vladimir Horowitz. Yeah. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Who's a who's a pianist.
Steve Buetow:Who is a a Very famous. Dominant pianist. Yes. Yes. Back in the twenties.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. So this would be just fifteen years later.
Hans Buetow:She's one that I remember. I never met Mattie. She died 1974, July '26 07/05/1974. But Genevieve didn't die till 1999, so I got to know Genevieve. So she looms large not just in lore the family, but she looms large in my memory because I actually have a memory of her and Walter.
Hans Buetow:I I remember Walter too. Yeah. Yeah. So, they're included in this. They're gonna go up to the cabinet, it looks like.
Hans Buetow:And, and Mattie continues here. I'm so happy you were sent to Seattle because we knew you would like it and find in Washington everything we claimed it to be. I knew you would get a thrill out of the mountains as I did because knowing you like I do, I knew you would feel about it like I did. Words just can't express the wonders, and like I have often said, a new thrill every few hours.
Steve Buetow:This is this is an insight into mother son relationship that
Hans Buetow:This is inter there's a lot in that paragraph.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yes. You are thinking the way I want you to think.
Hans Buetow:Wait. Is that how you read it? Do you take it as you're thinking the way I want you to think?
Steve Buetow:Yeah. We did sort of.
Hans Buetow:Oh, wait. I read it much more as, like,
Steve Buetow:aren't we so similar? I would say that she has a personality that is somewhat controlling. As a teenager, I remember when she went, Steven, would you like some more turkey? No, Graham. I'm really full.
Steve Buetow:Oh, you didn't like it. Oh. Oh, Graham. Well, it was really good. I I guess I could have a little more.
Hans Buetow:Do you get the sense she was kidding? Do you get the sense that she had that sort of sense of humor? Like like, it sounds like a very dry sense of humor or could be.
Steve Buetow:Yes. But when you're 12, you don't pick up on that, and you end up hurting from so much flow.
Hans Buetow:That's and so much pressure.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Yes. So that isn't it. That she could have been jerking my chain.
Hans Buetow:Right?
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Which would fit with a lot of things. Although, I mean, my mother would would would participate in that sort of humor. I'm not sure my father would.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Which is interesting that she's having this relationship with him because he's he's a participant in this. So, like, was she this that kind of That's a good point.
Steve Buetow:That kind of dynamic with him, or
Hans Buetow:did he have a different place?
Steve Buetow:Right. Was he the comedic foil, the straight man for both of those women?
Hans Buetow:I wonder. Right. Oh, this is fascinating. Fascinating. Well, apparently, she got a letter from from Ken because the next paragraph says, they certainly got your number on KP duty, didn't they?
Hans Buetow:Which is kitchen patrol. Kitchen patrol. Yeah. Right. This comes up frequently, that he's on KP duty.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:She says, like dad said, I guess they know the difference when a fellow has done something in the in that line or has done nothing but handle a pitchfork or the like.
Steve Buetow:Dad would be Matt. Dad would be Matt. Yeah. Not her dad.
Hans Buetow:Not her dad. Not his dad.
Steve Buetow:Right. So he was dad Mickelson.
Hans Buetow:Dad Mickelson. Dad Mickelson. That's what they called him.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. I don't think he was referred to his face, but but in referee well, dad Mickelson did or dad Buto.
Hans Buetow:Oh, I love that. Yeah. Oh, dad Mickelson.
Steve Buetow:Okay.
Hans Buetow:Wasn't going through North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming terribly monotonous? That's my inflection. I don't wonder you are covered with dust. Oh. And this is what this is where we get the mystery of what Ken's writing to her, which is just so fun to imagine through these.
Hans Buetow:Write the dusty details. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:And we only have her response to his responses, so here we go. Alright. We have a new name here, and we'll see if you know it. She continues. I spoke to missus Rickard this morning.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Missus Rickard is the next door neighbor. Oh, fascinating. The Rickards live next door. The Rickards were it's you just did not want the ball to go over the fence.
Steve Buetow:Oh, no. Because they would be they would be mad at us and just yeah. Matt would tell a story about the records that there was a young teenager over the fence behind the house. The Rickards lived next door. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:So there was a fence and then other relatives back there.
Hans Buetow:So, like, Patty Corner to your yard over the back fence. Yes.
Steve Buetow:And and I can't remember who it was, but but somebody just took a 22 and shot through all of mister Rickards stacked up storm windows. What? Yeah. So it just it with one shot, he was able take out six or eight storm windows. One.
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:So it was an ongoing battle. And the Rickards, we we inherited those battles. The records were see, Matt and Mattie were probably pretty quiet. We the Ken Buto family with three children Yeah. Bought the house, and they very quickly put up a big chain link fence.
Steve Buetow:Oh. So nothing four foot high, which was much taller than us. Oh. And nothing could
Hans Buetow:I mean, you're describing, like, the scary people, like, the the witch's house on the corner sort of vibe from
Steve Buetow:that. Right?
Hans Buetow:Yes. Like, for you as a kid, that's what it felt like.
Steve Buetow:Oh, yeah.
Hans Buetow:The record yeah. So as kids would make jokes about the records. Yeah. So this is okay. So I spoke to missus Rickard this morning, and I asked her how Seattle was for hay fever, and she said that Elizabeth never had it there.
Hans Buetow:She said she hoped you would go to Fort Lawton because it was such a nice place. So how does that track with missus Rickards saying that Elizabeth who I don't know who Elizabeth is.
Steve Buetow:No. I I assume Elizabeth was a daughter or a niece.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. In Seattle and never had hay fever. So this seems like Mattie's got a cordial relationship with
Steve Buetow:With the records.
Hans Buetow:This terrifying woman from your childhood.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. They were probably contemporary. About about six.
Hans Buetow:A difference. You being a little kid ten, fifteen, twenty years later.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. And the the Rickards house was to the east of our house. Okay. And the there was house house house house all the way down the block, but the Rickards house to our house, there was a missing house, and each of us had half the lot.
Steve Buetow:Oh. So we had a large yard. Yeah. Much larger than anyone else. So all the kids in the neighborhood would play in our yard.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. So it was very active mom. Loved having kids around to all sorts of games and sports, trees to climb, hockey hockey rinks.
Hans Buetow:You mean the hockey rinks in the winter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You flooded the yard.
Hans Buetow:Yep. Which we have great photos of. Yeah. And so how did the Rickards think of that? Because what what you're describing, they were not keen on it.
Steve Buetow:They never expressed dismay, but I'm sure they were not excited to have it Yeah. Have have a an attractive nuisance next
Hans Buetow:door. An attractive nuisance.
Steve Buetow:Yes.
Hans Buetow:Well, based on this letter, I think you're making it all up, and she's a lovely woman. So I don't know what your problem is. So
Steve Buetow:why are we doing this? Moving on.
Hans Buetow:So this is a great paragraph. I love this paragraph because it starts out, yes. It does seem too bad that we must have a war in order to see America the beautiful, and I wouldn't begrudge you that beauty for anything. And while you no doubt have your hardships, I know you will come back unharmed and much the wiser. I hope you can stay there for quite a while because I would like you to see more of Seattle.
Hans Buetow:No doubt you will soon go into the rainy season, but you know you always did like rain. And then handwritten handwritten exclamation point exclamation point right next to it.
Steve Buetow:Oh, dear. Okay.
Hans Buetow:Maybe that's her being like, I wonder if he's gonna get the joke. I don't see the joke either. But
Steve Buetow:Yep. Because there's there's a number of these untruths that would happen. When she would make pancakes at Big Sandy and burn them
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:She would say, oh, your father always said, burn me a few, mom. And I told that to my dad. He said, no. No. That never happened.
Steve Buetow:So so there's there's there's a few communication breaks Mhmm. That happen.
Hans Buetow:Or inventions. Just just pure inventions.
Steve Buetow:Pure invention. Right. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Right. So she continues on with with something I wanna ask you about, which is, Mattie says, we took that trip by boat across the sound to Bremerton where the shipyards are, but no doubt they won't permit anybody there now. Although they might make an exception to a soldier, I got quite a kick out of your picture of your tent. I'm glad Arnie is still with you. I'm not sure who Arnie is, but they're taking trips.
Hans Buetow:Were they travelers?
Steve Buetow:I don't know. Other relatives in the in her immediate family would take lots of trips. So it sounds like they were. Yeah. We would drive all over Minnesota when I was six, seven, eight, nine, and visit lots of different people, but we never strayed beyond the the bounds of Northern Minnesota.
Hans Buetow:Okay.
Steve Buetow:And I don't remember them talking about it a lot. Sure. But other I mean, Gene and Walt traveled a lot.
Hans Buetow:A lot.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Distances. Well, I'm sure we'll get into that.
Hans Buetow:Gene and Walt, who we talked about earlier, who
Steve Buetow:Yeah.
Hans Buetow:The big figures in
Steve Buetow:Yes. They they lived in Panama and invited my father after the war in '47 to go down and work. They found a job for him in Panama. Yeah. So they did so I don't know.
Steve Buetow:But it sounds it sounds like they'd been to Seattle.
Hans Buetow:Clearly, she went to Seattle, or they probably Matt too, I would I would assume. That's yep. So you have changed to olive drab. This is Mattie, not me. I'm I'm I'm looking at you and saying this, but this is Mattie writing this.
Hans Buetow:So you have changed to olive drab. What happens to all of your other clothing? No notes on those those sentences.
Steve Buetow:That's great. Do think it was khaki instead of olive drab? Are there different uniforms?
Hans Buetow:Different Oh, I wonder.
Steve Buetow:Different theaters have different uniforms.
Hans Buetow:Thing. Yeah. I wonder. I changed to olive drab. Alright.
Hans Buetow:This is the thing I promised. I I foretold last episode. This is the beginning. We're about to hit the beginning of the saga of the watch
Steve Buetow:The watch.
Hans Buetow:Which will continue over the next few weeks for us. So this is where we start. Mattie says, now I must tell you what that card was that you couldn't figure out. We sent a card telling you that your watch was ready for you lying on the kitchen table. Well, Max never noticed there wasn't a stamp on it and mailed it.
Hans Buetow:So, of course, the postmaster, not knowing who sent it, sent you the postage due notice. Dad thought they would either make an exception in your case, being a soldier, and send it on, or it would go astray entirely. We didn't bother sending you the postage due as you had gone by that time, and you couldn't get your watch anyway. It's too bad that dad couldn't get Wesley because he wanted to know if you were still there when he left for the lake on Sunday.
Steve Buetow:So Wesley was in town? And I and I don't know who was Max? Max. Oh, there are Max. I mean, in the Buto family, her ex husband had a brother named Max and an uncle named Max.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. There was a few of them. But I really doubt that Max had access to their house.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Had dad explained to me clearly that your watch was fixed, I would have written you before. I understand you went to the fair with Walt and Jean so could have easily stopped over home to get it.
Steve Buetow:And that would have been the state fair. The state fair. Probably just closed it two weeks before.
Hans Buetow:I'm mailing it to you today together with your pipe and tobacco. Uh-huh. So can you explain this to me? What happened? So they left the watch on the on the on the table, lying on the table.
Hans Buetow:Max, whoever Max is, came in, took it, didn't put a stamp on it, and sent it in the post.
Steve Buetow:Sent the watch or the notice? That's a great I'm thinking he sent the notice.
Hans Buetow:Oh, he sent the notice. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And that's what it was postage due.
Hans Buetow:So this the the watch, it was broken, then it was fixed, then it was left for him. He didn't get it. They can't mail it to him. Ugh. This is the drama I'm here for.
Hans Buetow:Okay. This is what I want out of this is these dramas. So now we move into Mattie telling us about her week. Well, I had a grand rest at the lake until Viv and her gang came out, which was plenty for five days. Okay.
Hans Buetow:So who is Viv?
Steve Buetow:I'm not sure.
Hans Buetow:Well, she and her gang showed up, and they were plenty for five days. I told dad never to pull that on me again.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. They'll wait wait wait at the outhouse.
Hans Buetow:Is that funny? Is that a joke? It sounds like a joke, but it
Steve Buetow:could also just be a stern woman. That's the way I would read it. The grandma I know would would not be
Hans Buetow:I told dad and so this is this is the inflection. I told dad never to pull that on me again.
Steve Buetow:It wouldn't be that cruel, but it would be adamant. Interesting. Okay. I have been taking
Hans Buetow:it more humorous. Never
Steve Buetow:do that again.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. Tone's hard to read in these.
Steve Buetow:Yes. It is. You're right.
Hans Buetow:They can go to the lake, but I will clear out in advance. I was only the hired help. Of course, Viv was anxious to get on the lake as she had never had a chance, but it surely kept me busy with the rest of them. And I surely breathed a sigh of relief when they left.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. I mean, we've all had guests like that.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Absolutely. I feel like I might be that guest right now.
Steve Buetow:And you're It is getting a little late. Yeah. I think we gotta
Hans Buetow:move on here. Well, alright. I'll finish it up. So Mattie says, last week, we had a grand week. The weather was grand, and I did finally get round to painting the lawn chairs.
Hans Buetow:Friday, we had a slight rain, but they surely had a terrible storm near Anoka again. Perhaps you read about it, or didn't you? I caught the biggest fish any of us have ever caught, nearly seven pounds. Wow. And we had quite a time landing it.
Steve Buetow:And it doesn't tell us what kind of fish it is. Just a fish. Seven pound fish. When I remember when I was about, I don't know, six, eight years old, Matt took me fishing, and they had one or two boats, but he always rode the boat. It had this wonderful seat that would rotate.
Steve Buetow:And he had an old casting reel and a lazy ike for a lure, and we rode. My job was to sit in the back seat and to pay attention to the fishing or just to be company for the for Matt fishing. And he would take about four strokes, throw the lure in towards shore in amongst the weeds, and it would float, sit there up on top red and white. Yeah. And then he would begin to crank it in, and it would go under the water.
Steve Buetow:And you could feel it when it came up to the boat. It'd be wiggling along kinda like a red and white fish. And he put it in, and he might make two or three casts. And then he would put the put the rod back in the boat, and he would pull again and pull again. And then we would do that.
Steve Buetow:And then he hooked into a 12 pound northern. What? A 12 pound northern, which was longer than I was. Woah. And landed I don't remember a lot of drama with the landing, but I do remember all the neighbors came to see it.
Steve Buetow:Oh. I had pictures of me taken with it. Yeah. And so so fishing was a big part of it, and that did not remain the record for the largest fish caught by My and their their troop. Yes.
Hans Buetow:So that's fascinating because this would have been obviously, you're not around here. So Mattie setting the record at seven is a good bar that Matt will then With you. So exciting. That's thrilling. I just love to think of her as a fisher person, out there.
Steve Buetow:I do too, and I don't remember her fishing. It was Matt, I thought, that did the fishing.
Hans Buetow:Clearly, she's not just doing it, but she's quite good at it. Right. This is the second time in three letters we've heard about her fishing, and she just ran landed the record. So Good point. I'm proud of her.
Hans Buetow:So about the rest of the week, she says, I got through with a terrific washing a little while back, and I hope it doesn't rain. It looks rather dubious now. Dad went out this morning, and the house is bare. You know when I'm at the lake, it feels like you are home, but when I'm at home, it seems terribly lonely without you. I read your letter to Wes and Flo, Graham, and the girls.
Hans Buetow:Wes said you surely write a wonderful letter. I've been reading it over and over again. I just had a long chat with Georgine Hansen, and I read it to her too. I'm so proud of it. You're a wonderful boy, darling, and I'm surely very proud of you.
Hans Buetow:Be sure you have your picture taken very soon. Don't let them send you to Alaska before you have that taken. Missus Hansen wants to be remembered to you. I don't know who missus Hansen is. But we do know who.
Hans Buetow:Wes and Flo, of course, are his brother, Ken's brother, and Graham is Mattie's mom.
Steve Buetow:Of course. That's Julia. Right? Julia Isabel.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Yep. You're wearing Julia Isabel. The sun is shining beautifully now, and I must get going to get that package mailed. Mister Haslett, so dad says, would have liked to keep your watch for a little while to regulate it better, and had we known you didn't get it before, it could have stayed there a while.
Hans Buetow:However, it seems to be keeping good time now. This watch. I love it. I just heard that John Lund died this morning at 07:00.
Steve Buetow:I do not know who John Lund was.
Hans Buetow:That changes our plans again. Dad was supposed to go out that morning. He went out this morning, you know, and I was gonna have a few ladies in for my birthday. I certainly shall miss you, my dear. You are always so sweet and thoughtful.
Hans Buetow:But now I don't know if dad will go out. I thought surely he would be asked as a pallbearer, but she, missus Lund, thought we were still at the lake as they've been friends for thirty seven years. I knew when we said goodbye to him last Wednesday, we went over there at the lake, I mean, and wanted him to come over for dinner that night. But he wanted to go home because he said he had given up the fight. He cried so, and I knew then that we would never see him alive again.
Hans Buetow:Wow. He held my hand and wept so bitterly. He too knew, I'm sure. So he will be buried Thursday at 01:30, so I'll have to give up my little luncheon.
Steve Buetow:They could well have been someone from church. Matt and Mattie met at Jehovah Church, which was four blocks from their house. Okay. We were members of Jehovah, and one of the windows there were stained glass windows all the way along the side, and they were memorials. And on one of them, I recognized it was it was a memorial to missus Matt Mickelson, which would have been his first wife.
Hans Buetow:His first wife. So Bud's Bud's Baum. Right. They
Steve Buetow:were active in the church and very I had a lot of friends there.
Hans Buetow:That's wonderful. Well, she concludes the letter this way. Tomorrow, I'm going over to Graham's to change the water in her heating plant. She gave me plenty of heat for staying in the lake. She immediately told me about another neighbor that died very suddenly when she was gonna tell the rest of the family not to let me know when she died if I wouldn't stay at home.
Hans Buetow:She evidently wants me to stay home and wait for her to die.
Steve Buetow:They sell German families. Yeah.
Hans Buetow:Oh, dear. That's fantastic. She definitely wants me
Steve Buetow:to stay home and wait for her to die.
Hans Buetow:Yeah. Oh, Graham.
Steve Buetow:I just don't remember sarcasm. She could be very funny. Yeah. But I don't remember sarcasm that deep or rich. I'm guessing
Hans Buetow:This is serious.
Steve Buetow:That there's some seriousness to it.
Hans Buetow:That changes the tone of her for me. That's really interesting.
Steve Buetow:And it would be hard for a six or eight or 10 year old to pick up on that humor. Yeah. Well, she died when I was in my early twenties.
Hans Buetow:Yeah.
Steve Buetow:It's we'll we'll watch. We'll see how it develops.
Hans Buetow:Well, honey, guess I have burdened you with quite an epistle. Dad not being home won't be able to write on this, but I will mail it because I haven't written you for a while. God bless you, darling. I'll keep praying for you, and I know he will keep you safe until we meet again. Lovingly, mom.
Steve Buetow:That's wonderful.
Hans Buetow:Isn't that wonderful?
Steve Buetow:Yeah. She wrote it at noon. It was postmarked by 07:30 that evening.
Hans Buetow:That's amazing. Right?
Steve Buetow:So she wrote it, walked over to the post there's a post box a block and a half away. Yeah. So she would have walked over there, and it would have been picked up I love knowing that. Postmark. Oh, I love knowing that.
Steve Buetow:That's beautiful.
Hans Buetow:So before we go, we're gonna jump ahead. Alright. Six days. Just a little one, a little taste. This is another airmail.
Hans Buetow:This one's interesting because he see he seems to maybe be moving around because the address
Steve Buetow:is Right. It's no longer for it it was forwarded. The address is crossed out, and then it's written again by hand and crossed out. And finally, it's APO997.
Hans Buetow:Whatever that means. So he's being chased around the country by these letters Yes.
Steve Buetow:At this point as before he before he lands. And there are it's 6¢ of postage, three stamps across the top.
Hans Buetow:Oh, wow. 2¢ each.
Steve Buetow:Yeah. 2¢ each. Army, navy, and then air mail.
Hans Buetow:That's great. So this is going through the rest of that week, and we're now at Sunday, September 20, six days later. After Mattie's birthday. We are now after Mattie's birthday, which is very apropos to this letter. Sunday, September 20, my darling Ken.
Hans Buetow:I just wanna dash off a line. We'll write you more later to thank you for your sweet thought of my birthday. You have no idea how pleased I was because up until that time, 11:45PM, no one but dad had thought of my birthday. 11:45PM.
Steve Buetow:She only had fifteen minutes left.
Hans Buetow:The rest came the next day. I was lying in bed reading the Reader's Digest when the telephone rang. I was so happy to get it. So this means that he called her on her birthday.
Steve Buetow:Yes. Which Pacific time. Would have been Two hours away.
Hans Buetow:Oh, that's true. But also would have been, like I don't know. It just feels like such an effort. Such a, like Oh, tremendous effort. Rarified privilege to make a call.
Steve Buetow:But And and expensive. And expensive,
Hans Buetow:but it was her birthday. Uh-huh. No one else remembered. He also wrote a letter because she continues to say, your grand letter came on Friday, and that too was thoroughly digested. So happy to like the country.
Hans Buetow:I knew you would and so glad your physical condition is so much improved, although maybe the winter season wouldn't be quite so comfortable. I'm imagining she means hay fever. Probably hay fever. Yes. So happy too to hear that you went to church and that you got your testament.
Hans Buetow:I called pastor Lindeman. He said he would write you. We are on our way to the lake. Graham thinks, of course, we are screwy. Maybe we are, but we love it.
Steve Buetow:They did love the lake.
Hans Buetow:Yes. It was pretty cold last night. Guess it went down to about 45, and I think that'll warm up. We got a letter from Bud, and he is afraid of that Dick's entire company, but one lieutenant, was lost. Oh.
Hans Buetow:He doesn't want us to spread the word because he hopes it isn't true. Now do you have any idea who Dick might be?
Steve Buetow:I do not know who Dick is. Bud is the stepbrother. Is Matt Matt's one of Matt's children.
Hans Buetow:Yes. Well, honey, I guess I better stop as dad is waiting for me, and we are off going to the lake. Thanks again, darling, and with love, mom.
Steve Buetow:I can imagine going off to the lake because I rode in the car quite often, the the blue gnash Oh. With the skirts on the front, skirts on the back. Yeah. And but I I'm kind of curious as to what kind of car they had. Yeah.
Steve Buetow:And is it a problem to get to the lake? Was gasoline I don't think it was rationed right away. But Yeah. But it's coming.
Hans Buetow:Rationing is coming. We're gonna hear a get an earful about that.
Steve Buetow:Tires. Yep. Gasoline. Yep. Food.
Steve Buetow:Absolutely. Yep.
Hans Buetow:So that is Mattie's World for Sunday, 09/20/1942. Thank you so much for joining us here. If you have a story or you have something that you can contribute or some context about anyone or anything that we've covered today
Steve Buetow:Saint Paul, World War two. Big Sandy.
Hans Buetow:You remember that watch? Do you have that watch? Oh, here we go. If you head over to moth.family, that's moth,.family. It's a real website.
Steve Buetow:Mattie On The Homefront
Hans Buetow:Mattie On The Homefront. You can get in touch with us. You can see photos of some of the main players. You can look at a couple of letters. You can, see who people are, and you can also figure out where to get in touch with us.
Hans Buetow:We'd love to hear from you. Our theme music is by Matt Buteau, and our logo and art is by Amy Kirkpatrick. I am Hans Buteau.
Steve Buetow:I am Steve Buteau.
Hans Buetow:And you are, awesome for listening. So thank you so much. We'll be back again next week. Looking forward to more with Mattie and Ken. Thanks, Dan.
Steve Buetow:Thank you, sweetheart.