Tuesday
Aberdeen
Dearest,
I AM going to hear Henry Hall after all. When the lads found we could not get seats for everyone tonight they decided not to bother with the show at all. However, one of the lads in our class had a spare ticket so I wangled out of going back to school and am going on my own. I shall think of you while I am there, just in case you are listening. It will be like another Aberdeen reunion! At least, just a little echo of our visit. I’m looking forward to seeing just what this Miff Smiff is like. Remember how when we listened to ‘Guest Night’ at home I was always intrigued? So I shall fulfil another little ambition tonight.
This afternoon, on the way back from the dentist, I satisfied another one by watching the salmon fishers bring in their nets, but it was a blank haul and I’m sure I was more disappointed than they were. I had been to the dentist to see about an impression, but he advises me to wait another month. Even then, he says, there will be plenty of time for me to get my false ones before I leave here. One of the P.O.s tells me this fellow is very good and takes a lot of trouble. Apparently this dentist condemned a set the P.O. got at Devonport and fixed him up with a smashing set which have given no trouble at all. I’m in no hurry to get my new set while I’m here.
I rather think I shall have to go to sick bay again tomorrow. I have a raw patch inside my leg at the very top due, I think, to my underpants creasing and rubbing the one spot. In the last few days I have been perspiring a good deal there and as these pants are fairly tight, as you know, I find it very painful when I sit down for very long. So would you look out two pairs of my civvy underpants and send them on to me at once, please? If you can get them here before the weekend I should be grateful, but will you make sure they are pairs with decent elastic in the tops? As they are so much thinner they will probably help to make me a lot more comfortable.
Your horticultural letter was just what I have been waiting for. In the last few days we have had rain and warm sun alternately and every time I stop to look at things shooting through I wonder what you have done in the garden and how it is progressing. Now I have a good idea and I think you have done splendidly. I mean that, love. While you are putting calomel round the caulis, do the cabbage as well. The object, you know, is to frighten away the cabbage fly, which attacks all the brassicas. Are you going to grow any sprouts? Why not set your own seed? Last year, if you remember, we had the best sprouts from our own Woolworths seed. I should get some in at once. About the onions. From your sketch you have evidently found the right position for the row, which is about 18 inches to two feet wide and runs right along to the path. And are the onions you have put in our own sets? Or aren’t you going to bother? If you do put any of them in, let me know how they go. In fact I’ll be glad to hear of the progress all the things are making. By the way, don’t forget that marrows used lashings and lashings of manure. A good place for them would be where the present manure heap is, if you have used most of it – as you apparently have done – by the time you put them in. If you want pieces of slate to put under the fruit as they are growing, to keep them from rotting on the ground, you should find quite a lot of pieces under Russell’s hedge. I threw quite a bit there. Have you heard anything of the tomatoes from Sid? If not, will it be worth getting some from the nursery? I should suggest putting them along one side of Russell’s as the potatoes are in their old place, aren’t they? Just one more suggestion – get all the winter greens in that you can and lots of peas for drying and beans for salting. They might go where the cabbage and caulis were last year, unless you have anything else in view for there. What of the salad greens? And will you be putting more turnip in later? They lasted until quite late into the year last year, if I remember rightly.
Well, sweetheart, as I said before, I think you have done excellently and any suggestions I have made here are only to show just how interested I am and are not in any way criticisms. By the way, keep the tomatoes – if any – well away from wireworm. Do you think you will get any blackcurrants this year? Mason will probably be able to advise you on those. I’m glad you’re finding him easier to understand. He really is a decent fellow. Give him my regards occasionally.
Just before I go. Give Michael a pat on the back for me if you feel he deserves it, although I’m sorry he is making life a burden for Wendy. There’s no news from the school yet, I suppose. What did she think of the brooch, or didn’t she? I’ll keep an eye open for the magnets.
Must be off now, precious. Take care and don’t overtire yourself in the garden. Are you sleeping any better? I do hope so.
All my love, angel. I love you more than ever.
Always yours,
Arthur X
P.S. I’ve scribbled a note to Mother at last.
Dear Wendy & Michael,
I meant to write to you before now but I have been very busy at school and even in the evenings I go back to school, so you will see that I have not much spare time.
Did you have a nice holiday? I hope you did, but I expect you were glad to see Mummy come back home. I was very glad to see her in Aberdeen and I knew you would not mind lending her to me for a few days. You are lucky to have her with you every day. Did you like the postcards we sent you from Aberdeen, and did Grandma and Nanna read them to you? Mummy will have told you about the nice walks we went on and about all the baby lambs we saw. Did she tell you that one day we saw two horses with men on their backs running very fast after a horse which did not have a man on its back? I said to Mummy, “Wouldn’t Michael and Wendy like to see these horses running so fast?”
Mummy has been telling me about all the things she has planted in the allotment this year. I wish I was in Crosby to see them. I sometimes look at gardens here and see all the peas and cabbage growing and wonder if ours are as big as them. Have you a garden each this year? If you have, tell me when you write to me what is growing in them.
I am sending you some sweets which I bought from a man who goes to school with me. He has no children and when he knew I had a little girl and a little boy at home he said I could send them to you so I gave him some pennies for them. I hope you will like them. Will you give Mummy some, because I know she likes them. Now that the warm weather is here I hope you have both lost your colds and that you are out in the sunshine getting nice and brown, because when I come home I want to see you both big and strong.
Love from Daddy