Third Batch of Augusta's Letters

This is my grandmother and me in early 1935 just a couple months before she died.

20 Nov 1921 - "Walter asked me to write and ask you if there was a possibility for you to get that thousand for him right away. If so, he would begin to build at once. I hate to worry you, but conditions are deplorable here. Two weeks from yesterday will be moving day, and where? Walter says that if he was sure he could build, he would try to persuade the landlady to let us stay here for two more months, and he would offer her $75 .. so far he paid only $60. He thinks in two months the house would be ready to move in ..."

29 Nov 1921 - "I'm awful sorry we put you to all that trouble ... Maybe its just as good that way. The children found a place today for $60 ... our next address will be 308 E. Ross Ave. (Tampa). Lenchen says its a right nice place ... 6 rooms and a sleeping porch. I hope we can stay there until we move into our own ... Everybody advises against building at this time ... they say that everything is too high and will surely come down before long. They say things are going to take a tumble perhaps in the next 6 months ... I don't want Walter to do anything foolish ... we'll wait now and see. Perhaps by then he can get the thousand. He did manage to sell his lot for cash, but only for what he paid for it. Business is very bad here, no work ... Martin is still working, but he thinks only till Christmas ... You don't ever mention Strawberry Hill conditions. How is everything? Getting more patients? Did Dr. Stevens cause any trouble for you? No outlook at all to shake the place? Poor Boy! ... Heard from Lyddi last week, just a few lines ... says she's up and about again, but always has so much headache ... had a nice Thanksgiving ... after dinner Walter and I went to Seminole. It's just grand out there. Papa spent Thanksgiving at Theodore's."

Dec 1921 - "... I can't do much baking, I've been working, working, working ever since we moved in ... Papa writes that he will be here next Sunday ... We all join in wishing you a Merry Christmas ..."

28 Dec 1921 - "... a thousand thanks for the gifts ... I see from Walter's letter that your place is for sale again. I do hope that you rid yourself of it very soon ... Sometimes the clouds seem awful dark over our heads ... I know one ought to look beyond the clouds, but I guess I'm just too nearsighted and weak. I would like to see you all prosperous and happy ... it's a very carnal wish and the Lord knows best ... Charlotte writes they had a big blizzard in Logansport ... she hates to think of going back ... Papa will leave for Greensboro next Sunday ... We had a Christmas cable from Lyddi. That's all ... don't know a thing about her ... I'm afraid she's sick ..."

8 Jan 1922 - "I'm waiting so anxiously about your affair. I surely hope you can sell. Yes, I heard from Lyddi. I'd send you the letter but Papa was so anxious to hear from her, I sent him the letter. Not good news ... she seems to be all in, poor child ... Ossorio had hemorrhaged all day Christmas day and is in a very weak condition ... the doctor says its only a question of time ... and the old mother too is so childish and nervous ... business conditions there are getting worse and worse. They are expecting the final crash very soon. She is putting her feelers out about some occupation in Tampa. I believe she is tired of Cuba. Please forget your grievance with her and write the poor girl a few words ... don't be hard with her ... if you can't bridge over those troubles and ease her burdens on that line, then honey, cut me out too ... forget your mama as you do her ... I get so discouraged ... my ideas of right and wrong are sneered at ... I'm told again and again that I am 50 years behind times ... Lenchen's case too is still alive ... I tried to dream it away, foolish woman that I am ..."

9 Feb 1922 - "God bless my Allie boy. O, I do hope and pray that your life now will be running a little smoother once more. Bergs weren't cut out for business anyway ... please tell me what you did with the piano ... but if it's gone, we have to make the best of it ... I haven't heard any more from Lyddi. ... just stop and think ... wouldn't you be just as ashamed of your sister if she would leave a dying husband as you would be of your mother if I would doll up to make Hartman green? Lyddi did a foolish thing when she married him, but one foolishness must not beget another, one worse than the first. Lyddi is now doing the right thing and the Lord will see her out ... you don't mean from the bottom of your heart what you say ... you are all young and don't look at things as older people do. The Lord has a purpose in all his dealing with us poor sinners ... You were lucky to get a position so quick. In a business college you never have any vacation do you? I wonder if Mrs. Ruth still lives in Raleigh."

27 Feb 1922 - "Now, I want to tell you a little from Lyddi's letter ... She still has Katie ... is raising chickens and pigeons ... and also has a little pig ... she is doing all her own work, as the niggers carried away everything they could get their hands on ... She is feeling good tho ... if only the mosquitoes wouldn't be so bad ... Walter's thinking .. he might put up a small building on the back lot, facing the other street ... for 15 or 18 hundred and it would serve us very well. Later on, if he can afford it he can put up a better building ... it wouldn't throw him in such deep debt ... some of the best trees will have to come down ... are things getting any cheaper? Lenchen is about to lose her position too ... so little doing at the shipyards now ... positions are very scarce ... much unemployment ..."

8 Mar 1922 - "No, honey ... I can't make the trip to NC now ... money is too valuable and scarce ... Martin is out of work since Christmas, and Lenchen's work at the shipyards is at an end too. She has accepted ... a position as a stenographer in a law office. ... a position that one of her friends vacated ... Martin got $20 a week at the packing house, and he worked from early in the morning until 2 or 3 at night. He got to looking mighty bad, but he would have stuck with it, but they cut him down to $18 and he quit. Salaries are dwindling down to almost nothing ... and prices seem to be still holding their own. Lenchen too will be working for much less ... conditions are deplorable all over ... everything is getting ripe for the day when the Lord will throw his thunderbolt on this Babylonian confusion of capital and labor. I hate capital for it spells selfishness in the most cases, and I hate that arrogant new ... labor too. Selfishness is ruling both. I am so glad you got a position as quick as you did. Hold on to it, even if things are unpleasant at times ..."

29 Mar 1922 - "... I wonder if every mother is condemned to suffer that anguish I have been suffering from time immemorial! And the worst of it is, it benefits nobody, neither myself nor those I worry about ... but, I can't help it ... Martin has no job yet ... he is nursing one boil after another ... Lenchen gets along alright, but she has to work pretty hard ... never comes home before 8 o'clock ... Papa writes he did not get to go to Theo's after all ... don't know why ... not a line from Lydia. Yes, today is Lenchen's birthday ... Walter comes home a little earlier now, so we eat a little after 7 ... waiting is my occupation ... but I ought to be ashamed to even mention that. I ought to be thankful they have work, and I am ..."