Friday 14th of October, 1932
Dear David,
Yes, we are very well! Some time ago my father doesn’t take holidays and we didn’t have time to go fishing, as we usually did before. As you know, things are hard here, every day my parents had more and more work in the hospital. So last Wednesday, both took two weeks of vacation, they looked too tired in the last time...
We decided to go to the lake a weekend, near here, in Shelby Park. The trip was awesome; we arrived very early in the morning with my dad for trying to catch something and have it for lunch time. Later, my mom and my three brethren came, and they brought us some sandwiches because we didn’t have time to have breakfast on the morning. After that, they started to sort a table that we have for this occasions. Once we collected a trout for everyone, we took a break and I went where my brethren and mother were playing (after they finished sorting the table). Long time ago they wasn’t so happy, as same as my brethren. We made a fire, we cooked the trout and we had lunch. We began to order before the night came down and we got back home, an amazing day...
As my father’s vacations were near to the end, I asked him if we could play checkers. He left his lecture of the newspaper happily and I run to my bedroom looking for the playing board; as usually, I played whit the black ones and he did the same with the red ones. We sat on the table closed to the window, from where I was able to observe how Elisa jumped the rope with her sister, Lisa. Our game was very entertaining, but it always seem that he let me win; in that moment, my mother, Joseph and my other two brethren came with some cookies that they were baking, the cookies were really delicious.
My father, after I won him, tuned the radio; meanwhile, my mom went back to the kitchen for some cups of cocoa... After that, we started to remember what we did that day in Shelby Park and, finally, we went to bed.
What happened to you? I was waiting your answer for last month. Do you have much work for school there?
Hugs for you and your aunt,
Dylan
Friday 16th of December, 1932
Dear David,
I decided to write today because I had an awesome day at school. Today was the last day of classes before we went on vacation for this Christmas. Next Monday we will take a train from Memphis to Washington, because we are going to visit our grandparents and we will spend two weeks with them.
Well, returning to my day at school, it was really awesome! Probably because we didn’t have classes with Mr. Stricter, I really hate maths... Mr. Rockfield, our form teacher, organized a breakfast as a kind of farewell, wishing us and our families a merry Christmas and the best luck for this coming year. My teacher is very kind in those terms; I don’t really know how he can teach on a classroom with 40 students... We all respect him and appreciate what he does for us.
We finished our breakfast at 10:00 AM, and, as usually, we went out for break, then we started to play “Simon says”. What is really funny is that we have a classmate with that same name, and we always choose him for start it!
We always have a very good time playing on break, and it’s a very good instance for relax after those horrible maths lessons on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That’s one of the classes that I really hate, probably because Mr. Stricter’s problems and the huge quantity of homework that he gave us. In the other hand, there is a class that I really enjoy, Biology with Ms. O’Connor. I think that I prefer her classes because I want to study medicine, at the Tennessee University, as my father did. She told us, that she arrived about 2 years ago, she had to leave Ireland because something related to war...
My best friends are Matthew and Elisa, my neighbour. We like to walk and have a talk back home, that’s very far from my school. We, sometimes, review contents for a test, or we discuss what we are going to do on the weekend. This time, it wasn’t different, but we talk about where we were going to spend our holidays. Matthew was going to stay at home because some relatives were coming; and Elisa with her parents, were travelling to the South, only for Christmas. I will missed her...
What you are going to do for these holidays? I hope to receive some notices of your school! The last question: have you thought about what you want to study?
A hug for everyone, merry Christmas and happy new year!
Dylan
Thursday 22nd of June, 1933
Dear David:
How are you? I receive your letter last Friday; I hope you are better of your arm injury. In fact, we are the same; my brothers are ok, and my fathers, too.
As you asked in your last letter, I answer you… The situation here is very hard, as you may know, everything related to this economic crash have the people by the ground; not in our case, thanks God, but in the city is a very unpromising atmosphere.
The last government statistics indicates that around a 40% of the people are unemployed, but a solution seems near. Elisa Sawyer’s father lost his job about 6 months ago, and with little works here and there, they didn’t have enough to pay the mortgage. In this, came the bank and with any compassion leave them on the street. During the last week, they had to sell all their belongings for emptying the house, and Elisa’s parents and brethren were forced to leave and establish with some relatives in the South. I really miss Elisa...
Last Friday my father and I were playing checkers again, and I heard on the radio something very interesting: President Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act, as a part of the New Deal, for the reactivation of industries and the promotion of public works with the objective of reduce the high rate of unemployment that I told you.
My mom told me that in the Hospital the situation is very hard also (did I told you that she was nurse?), she says that all the beds are occupied and that they had to treat patients in the corridors, all this because an awful epidemic of tuberculosis here, in Nashville.
I hope that we can get out of this depression quickly, we need it... Things are much better there, or not?
Yours affectionately,
Dylan
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