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Home Front Letters: Merrybell Seeber

Merrybell has taken a break from making 28 jars of corn cob jelly for church bake sales and gift baskets to write the following:

I grew up on a small farm, and our school and church was two miles from home. The church would hold box socials and bake sales; also, they were noted for their Roast Duck Suppers. This church had no indoor plumbing or water. The ladies had to carry all the water from across the road for everything; also, the people had to use the outdoor 2 holer, also across the road. When my mother passed away in November of ‘91, we had the funeral luncheon there, and there still was no indoor plumbing or water. I returned there 3 years ago for a chili supper — what surprises. They had 2 bathrooms, and the kitchen had steam tables. I was so thrilled to see my little church still going strong, where I walked to Sunday school with a penny tied in my handkerchief. Daisy, it is all precious memories.

Before the war, I can remember my grandmother would send my folks a dollar so Dad could get gas to come visit them. It was like 5 gal. for a dollar, sometimes even cheaper. During the war, the speed limit was 35 miles per hour, nothing over.

The holidays during the war — we had to have parcels in the mail by the 15th of October to be sure the boys would have them for Christmas. One year my boy friend, later my husband, received his in June. It took that long to catch up to him. He said he was in a foxhole, mud up to his knees, but the cookies were still good.

It was during the war time when the stores started putting holiday things out so very early so they could be shipped to the boys overseas. Before that, when I was younger, you didn’t see Christmas things until after Thanksgiving, about 2 weeks before Christmas.

I also recall my dad cutting the back out of a coupe to make a truck out of it because the licenses were cheaper for farm trucks than they were for cars. My brother and I would have to ride in the back end. How I hated that. My 2 younger sisters could sit up front with Mom and Dad. The licenses were like $5 each, and you never saw a woman drive a truck of any kind back then. Also, during the war years, in some places, such as hotels, women were not allowed to sit at the bar. Ladies had to sit at tables, sometimes even in another room What changes!

Have I told you about going to the dentist on January 4, 1944. I had 3 teeth filled and my teeth cleaned, and it cost me $9.00, but I had to work over 30 hours for that $9.00 and go to school.

Thanks, Merrybell, for this look back. Now gasoline is almost $4 a gallon, and we’re being told to drive slowly to conserve it. I remember the weekly pencil-written letter from my grandmother which arrived as regular as clockwork, from Gainesville to Paris. I guess they rarely talked on the phone although both ends had a phone. My mother’s parents came to Paris not infrequently to visit, and they came on the bus. She could drive, but Grandpa couldn’t. Neither one felt brave enough to get out on the highway for a 100-mile trip to Paris.

I also remember pounding a manual typewriter, a Royal, I think, but Paris High School taught me how to use both hands on the keyboard. My dad used a monstrous machine with a heavier, longer carriage, and he typed with two fingers almost as fast as his secretary typed with both hands. I remember when he put the first electric typewriter in the law office — we thought we were really on the cutting edge of technology. I guess this makes me almost an antique, myself, and yes, Merrybell, these are “precious memories.” Keep them coming.

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