Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1951

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.

Christmas 1951

South Dakota

Dear      

Christmas 1951

We are at the moment having a snow storm, getting ready for a WHITE Christmas. We hope this is not the beginning of a long cold winter. I am again reporting for the year: 1951. It seems a long time since way back in January, when I contemplated surgery and finally had to submit. According to Dr. Hagin and friends I was at death's door, but the devil and all his helpers couldn't pull me thru. I am eternally grateful to a nice young man here who gave me a pint of his blood. Now at least I have some young blood. I spent considerable time recovering, and during that time Bob and his family moved into their new home. During the summer Glenn started to work for SPEEDEE Construction Company- which is the name that Bob and his partner Davis have taken. Glenn is now attending State College and he and another Miller boy have a room on the second floor at Bob's home. Bob and Ardis have two little boys, John Francis and Joel Robert. They keep Ardis pretty busy as she is cooking for the two college boys as well as her own family.

We all ate Thanksgiving turkey at my sister's home in Soo City. Plans are underway to get together for Christmas at Brookings.

Living alone isn't bad if one can have pleasant visitors like I had last summer. Rose Nelson Manis, RN Napa, Calif., & new hubby; Bertha Gimbel Polson, RN., and her husband Glenn. Rose was visiting in SD.,  and Bertha was on her way to Texas. A cousin, Marie Caldis Hovie and husband stopped here on their honeymoon trip. Then Glenn had two old school friends from Calif., and we were both delighted to see them. Ralph (Skip) Andrews and Mary Boren already are seasoned travelers. Skip is a camera fan, and Mary's hobby is clothes. Both attractive young people. I regret to say that our friends the Thomas's have left Calif. to make their home in Mich. so now we will have to trek to Mich. We will welcome them back to Miller often. I saw a number of nurse friends when St. Luke's had their Golden anniversary celebration. We were all welcomed and treated royally. They have a marvelous institution, and have a right to be proud. A district meeting was held there in Aberdeen- at the Ranch, business concerned the Structure study, will we ever get this ironed out?

At present I'm teaching a class in Home Nursing at Polo. & hope to have another at St. Law., after Christmas. Seven lessons does it now & the Sisters have been very helpful. Otherwise the work goes on as usual, with the new typewriter (Royal).

At Home, Glenn and I are slide enthusiasts and another hobby is the R. C. A. record changer. Glenn was fortunate and won an album of Sammy Kaye's when Glenn attended one of his performances at Mitchell. Glenn is in the college band, & small chorus. My nephew Paul is stationed at Bangor, Me., & his folks went to visit him last summer. Roger, the other boy took some interesting pictures on their eastern trip.

I will be looking forward to hearing about your families, tell me all the news, every year it gets more interesting, especially the grandchildren. I get a big kick out of trying to help their parents raise them.

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.