Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1949

My paternal grandmother wrote a Christmas letter annually which she then copied and sent to friends and family.  She also kept a copy for herself. Re-reading them as a family historian gives me a new insight into her daily life. Below is a transcription of one of her letters; I've tried to keep her actual words, punctuation and grammar intact.

South Dakota

Christmas 1949

Dear           ,

Christmas Letter 1949

You will guess right away that this is not from "Johnny Dollar," but it might be from a Penny-Pinching friend. Altho this may be quite a practical way of sending Christmas mail, the main purpose of this letter is to tell our friends all the news of 1949.

We do not wish to brag or even to talk about the winter of '49, I think that it already had too much publicity for the good of the state- so we will skip over that and talk about the more pleasant items. I was extremely lucky, I got caught in only one blizzard, and got home safely with little financial loss. But all that is forgotten now, and we are looking forward to a "break" this winter.

One of the major highlights of the year was Bob's graduation from State College at Brookings. He received his degree in civil engineering. It was a great thrill to me, and a help too. He had been working part time, but now he and another college boy have gone into business for themselves. They are on their second large project; the administration building at the municipal airport. Bob has a fine little wife from a wholesome Brookings family, so hopefully they will get on well with this venture.

In connection with the "inservice training" sponsored by the State Dep't of Health, I had a very interesting six weeks with with the Visiting Nurse Association of Milwaukee. This organization is sponsored by the Metropolitan and other insurance companies as well as financial support from the community chest, and I dream about having such a service in South Dakota some day.

My work consisted in serving about 4-5 patients a day, in addition to having classes either in the am or the pm. So no time was wasted. We were provided with a pass on the trackless trolley or streetcar to any part of the city. Our patients were selected by the supervisor usually in the area in which we room, so as not to spend too much time in transportation. Our patients for the most part lived in lovely homes, with all modern conveniences. We were treated like a visitor-it was not uncommon to be invited to lunch (but we all ate together at the station) or a cold drink- or sit in on a television show.

I lived with a fine family, and was treated like one of them. They and the nurse (former) friend took me everywhere. We have several picnics in the lovely parks, and we went to all the places of amusement around Milwaukee- oh no, not the night spots! I was only sorry that I did not have another pair of feet, as usually the evenings found me pampering my "dogs". There was a lot of walking too.

Connie, my nurse friend has a new Chevy and she needed help to put some mileage on it. We visited various points in Wisconsin but I have one regret that we didn't have time to visit at Antigo, where I spent my last summer in "county field work".

When I got back to Miller, Glenn (who is now a junior in HS., & six feet tall) was ready for a much deserved vacation. He had been working at the drug store all summer. So we invited a lady and her daughter to go with us and started a wonderful vacation. Glenn did most of the driving and did a fine job, we all agreed.

Glenn had never seen my old home town, so we went the long way round and visited friends in Black Hills, North Dakota and Montana, on our way to Yellowstone park. We ran into a terrific rain storm near my old home (Scranton, N D) and the motor when start on top of Mt. Rushmore until a good samaritan helped us out, but all in all it was a fine trip. Of course in Yellowstone, we had the usual encounter with the bear, but it was rather irritating when a half grown one ran off with a new loaf of bread right before my eyes and I could do nothing to prevent him, except scream. He ate it though, paper and all.

I wanted to make a lot of changes after I returned to my county, with so much geographical and other fine education, but I see no evolution yet.

Pheasant hunting was OK for a while this year, but did not yield too heavily. Our laws on shipping birds are so restricted, that I feel like writing to the governor and complaining. Guess that our friends will have to come to SD and get their taste. We still live in the same house and you will usually find us home to our friends. So until the next time WE WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Myrle and Glenn

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.