Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1955

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. (This particular letter was long with no breaks so I added line breaks for readability.)

Christmas 1955

Dear Friends,

Christmas 1955

Much history has been made since I wrote my last Christmas letter. I will have to pick out what I think is the most important… As the snowdrifts are piled high, it is a good time to write.…

At Thanksgiving time I had all my fam at home… Bob & his family & Glenn all came, & we had a houseful. The children played with Glenn's and Bob's old toys, and thot they were fine. Bob has had a busy year, still in the Construction Business. Glenn has a position with Minneapolis Honeywell. He hopes to get home for Christmas…

I attended the Nurse's Convention in Deadwood in October, & had a fun time. Part of my vacation was spent with Althia and Paul at their Lake cottage. We ran into difficulties when Paul became ill and had to return to Sioux City... shortly afterward he underwent surgery. He is back at work with the Journal now, but he says, he never wants another ulcer.

In August we had some excitement too. Darlene (Glenn's fiancé) & I had to make a trip to the University Hospital to be with Glenn when he had an emergency appendectomy. He was pretty sick, but he had more doctors; interns and nurses than either of us dreamed possible. So he recovered rapidly & four days later I took him to Maple Lake, where he recovered enough to ride back to Miller with me. Fine food at Maple Lake & rest at home & he was back on the job in about 2 weeks.

Stories about the Polio slowed up our plans for clinics, so we had no unpleasant effects when we held our clinics in June and July. The league convention at Rapid; the College activities at Brookings, Glenn's graduation and his many exciting trips kept me interested (to tell the truth I was in a little hot water) I was glad when he decided on Honeywell.

During the last half year of college, Glenn & the other boys in his class had such interesting tours thruh the various Plants. DuPont's in Atlanta, Ga., Westinghouse at Pittsburgh, and he also visited in Washington DC.

Ardis & Bob's family has had some interesting things happen to them too. Joel has started to kindergarten, and Julie Marie (3) was selected Miss Junior, Junior Brookings at their Water Carnival. She won the title & a big doll.

Some of you will be interested to hear that Paul and Althia's two boys are both married now. Paul Alan has his degree & has a position in Des Moines. Mr. Moore's mother passed away last week, she was 92. Althia & Paul spent some time with me when they came up to the funeral.

I also had some special visitors from Calif., Beatrice Vernon, her husband and daughter toured in this area, and stopped briefly to visit here. Not long ago, I visited in Aberdeen with friends… I hope that sometime you will find time to pay me a visit…

In the meantime, I suppose that I will grow fat and lazy like everyone else, as my boys put up a TV set for me when they were home at Thanksgiving time…

With this letter go My Very Best Wishes, and I hope that you will write me your family secrets……

.....Myrle

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.

Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1954

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. (This particular letter was long with no breaks so I added line breaks for readability.)

South Dakota

Christmas 1954

Dear Friends,

Christmas 1954

Another year has rolled around again, and it is time to send out the annual Christmas greetings. It would be fun to greet you all personally, but this will have to be the next best thing. 

Our family was all together at Thanksgiving time. Bob and Ardis brought their two little boys, Joel and John and Julie and the new little girl, Lynn Ann. We all had a fine time together. The new baby is about four months old now, and gave no one any trouble. The others had fun playing with my boys' outdated toys. Amazing how those old things outlast the modern plastic toys. 

Bob is again at the college, teaching Mechanical Drawing & Power Heating and in his spare time, he is remodeling his home. They needed more room (for) their larger family, so they are building on a larger kitchen and will use the present kitchen for dinette. In the meantime his construction company goes on with his partner as overseer. Business is slack in the winter of course. 

Glenn is a senior in college and is staying at the new Men's Dorm- Harding Hall. It is convenient to be right on the campus. I have attended most of the college activities this year realizing that I am going to miss that contact. Glenn led the college band in the Hobo Day Parade and out onto the football field for the formations and for all the fall football games. It was grand weather and a very beautiful site with all the colorful college attire in the stands. Guess that it kept Glenn pretty busy, but I heard no complaints- and he appreciated the honor. Quite a few from Miller have captured honors at the college this year. Some of you may be interested to know that Mary Margaret Robinson got mentioned in Who's Who in Colleges. Next we have to think of what they will do when they finish. From the conversation, Glenn does not expect to be very close to home.

The Moores (my sister's family) have made progress in their building program. The boathouse that they started last summer is completed and a nice start has been made on their summer cabin, in Minnesota. I spent part of my vacation up there and tried to do my bit, because I might want to be a welcome guest someday when they have it finished. The Goetchius household, nearby, made us all welcome again this year. My two nephews Paul and Roger have found nice girlfriends and are both engaged. They all spent time up there with us. It rained but we had fun anyway. Later this fall, Althia spent a few days with me and Miller, while Paul did some hunting in the Cresbard area.

I attended several weddings this year, and enjoyed so much seeing Glenn's young friends take their life partners. I even got to Maple Lake, where I hadn't visited in years. It was like a family reunion went all of us got together to attend Betty's wedding. Betty is my niece, Joe P.'s daughter, and she and her husband will live in Chicago. 

Glenn has a lovely girlfriend, Darlene Davis from St. Lawrence. She is in her second year of Nurse's training. Office continues about the same. Dr. Hagin holds the clinics, and is very pleasant to work with- he has been pampering himself by trips to Bermuda, Bahamas etc. Write me all about yourselves now. 

Sincere Christmas joy,

Myrle

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.

Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1953

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

December fifth, 19 & Fifty-three

Dear       

Christmas 1953

Today it looks like we might have a white Christmas, the snow is falling gently, so it should be a good day to get inspired to write my letter to you. Promises to visit friends in neighboring states had to be broken, but I have filed the invitations and look forward to try again next summer.

I did some traveling however I called it a bus-man's holiday. Paul and Althia have purchased a Lake site near Park Rapids, Minn., and I spent five days there with them, helping to build a boat house for Paul Alan's motor boat. It was lovely there in August, and the four of us had a nice place to stay. Roger was working so he could not be with us, and Glenn was working on a farm in hand county, so he was unable to help. But they finished the boat-house, and it will furnish housing while they build the cabin next year. On my way back to SD., I visited my niece, Lenore Largis in ND., and made the acquaintance of the family. Earlier in the summer, she and I visited in Soo City in Brookings. I hope that she enjoyed the tripping as much as I did.… Bob and Ardis left her kiddies at home and spent their vacation in Canada. Bob is teaching full-time in the Eng. Dept., at the college this year, and continuing his studies. He doesn't seem to mind being busy. We were all together for the Thanksgiving holiday in Miller. We had great fun "bedding them all down" in our little house. They even brought their new dog with them… John, 2½ seems better following his tonsillectomy. Joel 3½ has to keep on his guard or John will get the best of him. Julie their little girl is so big already…

Glenn is a junior in college this year. He was drum major again this fall for the Hobo Day activities, and a lot of folks from Miller went down for that day and the Parent's day later as the weather was ideal. State College did all right on the football laurels this year.

I had a Speech and Hearing clinic here in Miller this fall, and felt that it was quite successful. Miller is a progressive town, and welcomes any new projects that I have to offer. Lots of building going on here. Dr. Hagin is building a Standard Service station out north of town across from the new Sinclair station. Then there is a huge REA building also going up north. Two new houses across the street from us. It makes us all want a new house, but I for one can't think of it until I get my new Ford paid for- it cost almost as much as a house-

I belong to a Garden Club, and find it immensely interesting. Crystal Lake Park is one of our projects. My garden was dry last summer, but it kept me supplied with flowers and a plentiful crop of strawberries. Bob has lots of fruit, so we do not have to go far to get fruit.

The Nurses Convention was very well planned, there was a lot of business, and we got awfully tired, but that was necessary I suppose. It was nice to see a lot a lot of friends there. Convention city is Sioux Falls next year.

Now I must close and with friends at home and friends afar, these my Christmas wishes are: peaceful be your Christmas day.

Myrle and Glenn

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.

Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1952

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.

1952

Dear          ,

Christmas 1952

The weather is clear and cold and here is another Christmas Greeting going out to you. We have had no snow as yet, and all of us are hoping that the winter of 1951 will not be repeated. … Glenn and I spent Thanksgiving in Miller with friends. There was considerable snow at Brookings and south, so we chose to pass up all invitations away and remain where the snow didn't blow. Bob and Ardis have a baby girl now, Julie Marie, and with Joel Robert, 3-also John Francis 2, so we hesitated to ask them to make the trip to Miller. Bob is still in the construction business, but only part-time as he is teaching at the college and getting his master's. Ardis is fine in spite of all the work. They have college boys rooming with them, and have made lots of improvements on their place. Lawn and double garage to mention a few. They both worked hard last summer, planting garden, harvesting and freezing or canning the produce. Glenn worked for Bob this summer. Bob now has the Quonset Agency in that area.

Glenn is in his second year of college, and has a pretty heavy schedule. He is drum major in the college band & other musical activities. He and I had a nice vacation this summer. We drove to California, making stops at Rapid City; Denver; Riverside and Covina to visit friends. Altho we saw a lot of beautiful scenery in the 4000 mile trip with no car trouble at all, we enjoyed mostly seeing our friends. When I was up two miles in the air in the Rocky Mountain passes I thought that I would never get my head out of the clouds again, but the atmosphere did not seem to affect my driver very much. Our friends seemed glad to see us, maybe because they realize that this trip would not often be repeated. … We enjoyed some visitors this summer also. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Schweers from Milwaukee paid a visit. We hope we made a good impression as this is their first trip to South Dakota.… Pheasant hunting was only fair. We had birds to eat several times, but none to freeze or can. The hunting was better around Brookings, so the boys hunted around there. Relatives from Minnesota brought the family and we all got together at Bob's place this fall. It was nice to see the folks and see how the children grow.… My nephew, Paul Allen is in the Air Guard in Louisiana. He is soon to get his discharge. Roger, his brother is attending Morning Side College. The whole family enjoyed a vacation on the Minnesota Lakes this summer.…

They showed us a good time at the State Nurse's Convention at Pierre, that is the social side of it. The business end of it was a big headache. The student nurse's chorus (nurses from several different training schools) was an addition that seem to be appreciated by most.… A speech Institute at Mitchell, a conference at the Crippled Children's Hospital School at Sioux Falls and a School Health Institute at Aberdeen were other interesting meetings attended this year.… Miller is still growing, many of our friends are building new homes. We have a park site and skating rink on the Northwest part of town. We are looking forward to that being a beauty spot in the near future. My interests are here but I divide my time and spend some of it in Brookings. With this message many kind thoughts go out to you and the hope that you will have much happiness in the coming year……

AND A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Myrle and Glenn

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.

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.

Grandma's Christmas Letters: 1950

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, 1950

Dear                ,

Once again I am going to try to write a Christmas letter instead of sending a scribbled greeting on a card. We always like to get the news from folks we do not see very often & think that you do also.

Christmas 1950

I missed going out of the state to school again last summer, but I did have a nice cool summer at home. Early in the summer, evenings, we concentrated on gardening, & I like to do it if I have the time. Glenn could not help much as he was working in the drugstore, but we developed a fine strawberry patch. I made a lot of jam; froze as many as we will need, gave them away and even sold
some. Quite a racket!

The one difficult part about it is that it is hard work. I was glad when the plants finally stopped bearing, but then the rains came & they started up again, which kept us busy picking; amazing as it sounds, until late in October.

Way back last June, the Miller H. S. School band had the honor of being invited to play for the Fireman's Convention at Rapid City. Glenn plays the clarinet in the band, so I decided to go along. They used me for a first aider and chaperone along with other parents. We all had as good a time as could be expected watching 56-57 peppy kids for two days.

A short vacation was spent touring Minnesota with my sister; Althia M., her husband, and Paul Jr., who is 20, and Roger; 15. Glenn drove our new 50 Ford, and we went even up into Canada, Fort Francis, across the line from International Falls. This wasn't Glenn's first trip into Canada, as he & the minister and some eager-beaver Boy Scouts went on a fine camping trip to Regina, Canada earlier in the month and since he resigned his job at the drugstore & would not start his new job as secretary to the Methodist minister until Sept., decided to enjoy the beauty with us. We had good weather & saw relatives & friends & thought that we had a fine trip. Glenn is a senior in H. S. this year.

The nurse's convention was held in Yankton in October, & as that is near Sioux City, I spent a little time with my sister, & saw the remodeling they had been doing in their basement. The convention was interesting for time but like all conventions, gets boring toward the last. We are always glad to get back home to our jobs. Oh yes, I am still visiting schools and having clinics. We have shown some movies on mental health & given more than the usual number of talks.

Winifred Lorentson, our county superintendent is starting on her trip to Washington D. C. yo the mid-century conference. She was one of 20 or so selected to be on the governor's committee. She will take part in panel discussions. She is quite thrilled and I hope that she will have a good time.

Bob and Ardis now have Joel and are expecting a new member to the family early in '51. They are building a new home in Brookings, quite a large house as Bob and his partner, Chips D. have a contracting business there. Bob will have his office in his basement. The Bkgs. airport buildings, the Dodge display rooms, several new homes in Bkgs., two depots and grain bins near bookings are some of the projects that have kept them busy. Glenn & I drive down often, we were there for the Hobo Day parade and football game. Bkgs. won over N.D.U.  Joel was about to start walking then, but he is still a little cautious to start out alone. He is sure cute, looks like Bob; but is a shortie.

There is lots of building going on in Miller & lots of changes being made. We live in the same house, we do have a new ceiling in the living room & fancy wallpaper on the wall, and a few pieces of new furniture. A sectional fits better in our living room; it is blue, so I painted the kitchen set in a harmonizing blue and white. We also have a garage door at last, over-head type. We got tired shoveling snow out last winter & I suppose that the new car deserves a haven. It is Hawaiian bronze and we like it fine. Write me the news about you now, and have a Merry Christmas and a Delightful New Year.

Christmas Letters

Photos are in the author's personal collection.

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.