Personal Letters - Fran Carrol to William Allman

Fran to her Mom & Dad; Jan. 16, 1946 Oak Ridge, TN

Fran to her Parents in Bloomfield, Conn.

From 118 Lee Drive, Lenoir City, Tenn.

Wed., Jan. 16, 1946

Dear Mom & Pop,

Guess I’ve been under a spell-- a non-letter writing spell. It happens to me every once in a while, you know. And the more letters I have to write the less I am able to write one. Both Aunt Sena & Gladys sent nice letters and $5 for a wedding gift, and Alice Faulkner sent a note & a book of the month “The White Tower” that I’m half thru. If I finish it, it will be the first book I’ve read since I came down here. But there just isn’t time to read. By the time we complete our bus ride home from work, get & have dinner, clean up, and talk for two minutes, it’s close to 9, & if we dash right to bed & sleep immediately, we will achieve 8 hours sleep before 5 o’clock the next morning which is when we should get up in order to eat a somewhat leisurely breakfast and me not to forget my badge, bus tickets, keys, and tangerine to have in the middle of the long morning. There’s too much to do with a house & a job, and yet I can’t bear to forgo the paycheck when it’s so easy to get. Tho I could quit now that Bill has a civilian job. It doesn’t seem much of a change now that Bill is out of the army except that cigarettes & cases of cokes are so much more expensive. And I shouldn’t quit if we want to save money to go back to school. So we leave housework till the weekend & then we go fishing.

Caught a whole bunch of fish last Sunday. Bill spent an hour cleaning & filleting them & wrapping them in little wax paper packages, and then we place them in the freezing compartment of the refrigerator. Don’t know what we’d do if Bill were as successful a hunter. We have had one duck. But what would we do with 2 or three? Have to cook them all up, I guess.

The last of our good neighbors has departed. Watching a couple of other couples move makes one wish one would get organized right now for any contemplated move within the next two years. Phyllis, the wife in the Johnson family, quit work about a month ago & has been casually packing right along. Last night Phyl & Stan stayed at our house, & after helping them till 11 o’clock or so with the last minute deploying of their goods, we gave up & went to bed & heavens only knows when they finished. They were asleep when we left for work & will be on their way to Chicago today. We have enough inherited material spread out on our kitchen floor to start a grocery store.

Did you see “Murder He Says” with Fred McMurray? It was in Hartford the last time I was home, I know, & I turned it down. Well, we take anything down here. And it was one of the best comedies I’ve seen.

Christmas was wonderful. Your box arrived before Christmas, in time to sit under the tree. Good things in the box—especially the washcloth, nice & soft. A washcloth is an absolutely unobtainable object in these parts. I did, by great good luck, find some utility cloths which are just usable for washcloths. Thank you for all the things. I just put away the presents last weekend & our tree is still up! This weekend we should be able to put it out. Bill went up to Maryland to be discharged & brought back an armful of presents from Richmond. He has a job working with some of the same people he worked with as a GI. All the soldiers here are very much excited & elated over Eisenhower’s remarks to Congress yesterday.

Why don’t you all plan a trip to Tennessee? You may stay at our house! We have an extra bedroom. You will have the lovely 2 day trip down here or more if you come by way of Virginia & view the Luray Caverns. You can behold the atomic city of Oak Ridge. And our place could be a base from which you could go to the Smokies, 70 mi. away & either stay over night in Gatlinburg or just for the day & come back to Lenoir City. (Did I ever inform you that our city is pronounced LA_NORE?) Don’t you think it is worth considering hard? I sure would like to have you come.

Love, Fran