My mother, Verla Price Thomas, wrote letters to her parents for decades and to each of her six children from the time each of us left home through her eighties. If we hadn’t received our individual letters by Wednesday, we knew a holiday had occurred or the delivery system was to blame because our mother never missed writing and mailing our letters to us by Monday.
She also wrote weekly letters to her parents, Heber and Annie Price, who lived in Paris, Idaho.
Here’s an example of a letter she wrote to her parents, Heber and Annie Price, on June 7, 1948:
Shelley, Idaho, June 7, 1948
Dear Mother and Dad,
Monday night so I had better get busy and get a letter written. Yesterday was an off day for me so I didn’t get anything very much done. I did get some dishes in my cabinets so that helps. Last night we went for a short ride out in the country and then when we got home we all went to bed.
Things went better today. I got up around 6 this morning and got the washing done early. Bill had to go to Pocatello this morning to meet Duane Merrill so after I finished the wash we all went along. The last of the payment was made and the abstracts delivered so the farms are really no more ours. Bill is still trying to decide if he did the right thing or not. He has just come from a meeting tonight and he said he told the chairman of the trustees he had sold his dry farm at $70 an acre and the fellow surely thought he had done all right.
I have to get up early in the morning and get some ironing done as President Truman comes through Shelley and goes to Idaho Falls in the morning. We are going to try to see him here and if we don’t we will go to Idaho Falls and see if we can see him there. So what ironing I do I’ll probably have to do before breakfast.
By this week we have two more sets of curtains up—the kitchen ones and the back bedroom ones. Bill has all the painting done but the last coat on the ceiling of the living room. I have to wash windows and then we’ll be able to hang some curtains. We are getting pretty close to livable around here now. Oh, there is still a lot of work to be done, but we do seem to accomplish a little bit more every week. I want to get the inside of my linen closet painted this week and then I can straighten that out so we can find things.
Bill had farm business in Preston so we rode along with him. I guess we were only there about an hour, but we went for the ride. After just a little more is done around here we’ll be making a trip over to Bear Lake.
I saw Ada Budge in Pocatello this afternoon. She was with Ada Ward Thomas and was going with her to St. Anthony for a few days. She said she had seen you yesterday and would tell you that she had seen me and the family when she got home.
It seems that we have been on the go so much during the week that this morning when Renee woke up she looked around and said, “Go bye-bye.” She wants to go bye bye with anyone who goes. She surely has fun with all the kids and says so many things. When she has a little sore she goes around and says ‘tisses’ to all the family. Karen begged for her to sleep with her tonight so she is with her. She has slept with Karen before and after they get to sleep they do all right. She came in tonight with a sand pile of sand in her shoes and stockings tonight.
I don’t know how she walked at all. Karen and Garf surely enjoy her.
Karen takes her first piano lesson on Wednesday and Garf also starts on his clarinet lessons for the summer. I suppose I’ll have to drive them both to practice, but maybe we’ll do alright.I’m sending an article about our neighbor and the man we bought our lot from. Bill asked him tonight if he’d like to go with us to see the President and he said he wouldn’t go 25 steps to see him. He is surely a nice old man.
This has been a rather short letter, but will have to do this week. I’ve had all I could do to keep awake as it is so will sign off for now.
We’ll be seeing you sometime, but just when I’d hate to predict. It probably will strike us all of a sudden and we’ll take off. We’re all well and keep busy.
Love, Verla
