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To end this letter on a good note (like Dianne would want me to do), I want to tell you how much I appreciate you. I have done some bad things and caused a lot of trouble. But you all have stuck by me. You are good sisters. Just like Momma taught us to be.
Love, Caroline
* * *
Dear, dear sisters – October 23, 1940
Now we are three. As a family, we were six, then five when Daddy was killed in the war, four when Momma died and now three with Dianne gone. It makes me so sad. I have moments most days when I will see something that reminds me of family, and I break down and cry.
I am worried about being around crowds because I might catch something. And D.C. is full of people. Hordes of them. Since the crash in ’29, homeless people are everywhere. Whole families are living on the streets, in the parks, and under bridges by the Potomac River. Even if they aren’t sick, they look like they are. They scare me.
People are now beginning to find jobs. More government departments are hiring again. I am seeing new restaurants and shops opening or reopening since the crash. The Civilian Conservation Corps has been good to get the healthy back to work. I have friends whose husbands left for a job when the Corps expanded the age to include men up to 28 years old. It is not much money at $30 a month, but when they send $25 a month back home to their families, it really helps. President Roosevelt is a smart man to know his country needed the New Deal.
I am so lucky to have kept a job through all this. Part of the reason I have been lucky is that I am still single and have a government job. Married women who held government jobs in the last ten years had to quit so an unemployed man could be given the job. Moving from one government department to another has not been so bad. The work in a secretary pool is similar, no matter who is the boss. My last change was two months ago when I moved to the War Department. I didn’t want to go into that group because I don’t like war and think we should not spend money on it. But I had no alternative when they shut down my last department. They don’t ask your opinion; they just tell you to go to a new department or lose your job. Now I type letters for the generals. I am learning a lot, but it is all about how our men “fight for their country.”
The best thing about this job is Jonathan Walsh. He is an advisor to General Summerall, who reports directly to the President. I met him when I started the new job, and he asked that I be assigned to his administrative group. He meets individually with each of his staff to let us know as much as he can about his responsibility and what we can do to help. I feel better working in the War Department if the work really matters. Mr. Walsh and I speak to each other daily. I sit right outside his office. He brings me coffee when he gets his. He is interested in me. Yesterday he said, “Miss Nash, if you don’t mind me asking, why has a man not caught and married you?”
My answer was the same I tell everyone who asks this. “The right man hasn’t tried hard enough.” He chuckled and walked into his office.
I don’t know if this “flirting” will ever turn into something, but if it does, I’ll have to leave the job. They don’t like men and women in the same office seeing each other. I have to get moving on this marriage thing. As Caroline reminded me, I am twenty-seven and single. A few more years and people will call me a spinster. I want a family so bad. Actually I want children. I need a man for that, at least in the beginning.
I am jealous of you, Ethel, for so many reasons. The first is Marie. What a wonderful child you have! And now Frank is paying up, literally, for being so neglectful. You will have your pockets stuffed with money. You can hire things done, which can help the economy. Tee hee.
And I am jealous that you were able to move to Burlington and be near Dianne and Suzy. You got there in the nick of time too. Dianne must have waited for you to get there before the Big C invaded her body. And now you have added Suzy to your family just like Dianne wished.
Caroline, I am sorry you have not been feeling well. It is great that you have doctors watching over you. The illnesses that are in the U.S. are prolific. I read in the newspaper that one in seven people has syphilis, and it can kill you. I wonder what Preacher Thomas at the Methodist church back home would say about that. We all know how you get that disease! We are safe from that one. We only have sex with clean men or our husbands. Right, girls??
Caroline, you should be safe from polio. I think that strikes children. But since we are not sure how that is spread, we should all be aware. And keep Marie and Suzy safe, Ethel. I have a friend who is a nurse at the hospital in D.C. She said the beds are full of people with pneumonia and influenza. She thinks it is because people are so poor they don’t have enough food. We were so lucky to grow up on a farm and learn to feed ourselves and our neighbors. And people don’t have the money to see a doctor. Lord, this is the worst time in our history. The Forties have got to be better!
I think it is important for us to know what is going on in the world. The newspapers don’t always get the story right. I have read some things that I knew were untrue. Or at least they were slanted toward what one party or another wants you to think. We all have radios now. Tune into President Roosevelt’s fireside chats. The radio is his voice and his ideas. It is not reporters distorting the truth. FDR gives us information in a way that we can understand and explains his next idea to turn this country around. I really admire that man.
Well, as usual, I have written more than the Nash Round-Robin Letter rules allow. Dianne would be disappointed. But she could not care less now. She is dancing with Joe, Momma, and Daddy.
And Caroline, thank you for the birthday wishes. It was uneventful birthday.
I love you both to the moon and back,
Annie
* * *
AUGUST 1941
Annie
Missing My Family
Annie sent a telegram to me asking that I come to Washington. It said that she was sick and could barely take care of herself. “I need my sister,” it said. Of course, I went right away. Marie and Suzy came along. They could all stay in Annie’s rooming house. I told the girls it would be like a camping trip. They would take the train for the first time. We were all excited and I was anxious about what I might find. Annie tells how love can cure. Not only the love from her sister but also from children and the right man.
I haven’t been able to sleep. If I get three hours a night, that is good. My head hurts, I feel like I have a fever. I have missed work or come home early for a week. Once my cough started, they told me not to come back until it goes away.
Jon gave me the address for a doctor. I am sure he is worried about me, but he is probably more afraid he might catch something from me. I am not even sure if I have enough energy to bathe and get to the doctor. Since we have a telephone at work, Jon called Dr. Finch and scheduled an appointment for tomorrow. Jon is sending a car for me in the morning. He said, “No excuses! Get your sweet self to the doc.”
I sent a telegram to Ethel. I really need to see family. She and the girls will be here in two days. This ordeal is going on longer than I can ever remember being sick before. The longer I am sick, the more depressed I feel and a little scared.
Liquids, rest, and a shot of whiskey with honey is what Momma would say. But at home that worked in just a few days. I am reading at night, hoping to make myself sleepy. I’m about halfway through Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Not a good book choice to stop being sad. But I can’t put it down. I love the way he describes a scene and gets me into the characters. Those characters win the pitiful award. Whew, I thought our life on the farm was hard!
I did sleep better last night but still feel exhausted. Today I will see the doctor and get some medicine. Maybe I will be up and around by the time Ethel arrives.
