New Baby Martha's Letter from March 29,1939

This letter of Martha’s came out of a small group of letters that were saved by her Mother and found by Martha after her mother died. Marjorie was born March 16, 1939.

March 29, 1939

Dear folks,

At last I am home & busy as can be spoiling Marjorie. Can you imagine me taking care of a baby. I almost have to pinch myself to believe it. I was ready to come home early Sun. but it was necessary to wait for the Dr.’s. O.K. at noon, but he never came at noon and we waited & waited & finally Royal went to get the girl and when he came back I came home anyhow without seeing the doctor. It was about five Sun. when I finally got home. Of course you can imagine the company Sunday night & I was really tired but they were finally gone by about nine o’clock. Can you imagine Royal getting up to get Marjorie and clean diapers for me at 2 o’clock. Oh boy, it is great to be home again. You can understand how great it is to sleep on Royal’s arm again. I got to sit up an hour Sat morning and longer in the afternoon. Then I sat up all day Sun & now I feel about up to par again. About all I do is take care of Marjorie & she has been so good and cried very little. She has had the hiccups several times after eating. She eats at 6am – 9 – 12 – 3 –6 – 10 – 2 – 6. I give her her bath before the 9 o’clock feeding. This is quite an experience for me – she is so little & helpless & I feel awful helpless about her.

My problem now is to get clothes to wear. It is as bad as being pregnant. I have to make things open down the front.

I’ll have to wash for her about every other day. Of course Harriet does that now. We are paying her four dollars a week. Not bad. I will probably keep her two weeks.

When I got your letter we gave up hopes of seeing you Easter. Just a work of warning – don’t surprise us because if you can’t come Royal may attend the Prin. & Supt. meeting at Boulder Thurs. & Fri. of next week. He doesn’t have to, but I am going to encourage him rather than just stay here over vacation. If he stays here he will work at school all the time and I think it will do him good to stay away from there for a few days. The contacts one makes at such places are pretty good too. So don’t just drop in on us.

We got notice of a science job in Wyoming. The town is about 5000. I’m not so thrilled over it because I think Royal can do better. Our contract for here has been approved. Plans for a gym are moving right along. Unless we can get something very good my vote would be to stay here another year. I do think Royal is getting tired of the responsibilities and the kicks in the pants that come to any principal. Some people are going to try stirring up another commotion here as a hang over from last year. We are getting impatient to get in a larger place where we can stay long enough to really fix up a home.

Will you tell Miss Long how much I appreciated her letter – I probably won’t get to write her.

Don’t be disappointed over Marjorie's name. I couldn’t show partiality so I didn’t name her for anyone. We just liked the name.

Love Martha

[the following was written in as a last minute thought at the top of letter. rlr]

I wrote Aunt Eva & mentioned that I hoped you would come out Easter. Maybe you had better write her & tell her what you plan to do. I may have blundered by writing that.