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Fran to Her Mother; July 29, 1946 

Fran to her Mother in Conn.

From 118 Lee Drive, Lenoir City, Tennessee

                                                                             Monday, July 29, 1946

Dear Mother,

 I surely did not mean to send that cold, cold present without card or ribbons, but it is quite impossible to procure ones goods & transport from uptown to home and back to the post office when we leave town at 6:30 & come back at 5:30 daily.  Meant to write a letter so you’d get it at the same time.  Then when time passed, meant to call you up.  At that point we took off to Richmond in a hurry because Bill’s Mother died.

But now we’re back to normal.  That is, we’re in the middle of an intense campaign to acquire the kind of living quarters we want on the Area.

 We’re going to have to give up our house by the river because the lease runs out & FHA wants to sell rather than rent from now on.  Course it will be more convenient on the Area & more fun in some ways.  No more walking down to the river in 2 minutes.

   Saturday we went thru the Lauden Dam locks- something I’ve always wanted to do- in a rowboat with outboard motor.  Were we ever lost in that great well between river and lake!  And spent all day on the lake fishing & swimming & fishing some more.  We went thru at 7 in the morning.  That is, the process was completed at 7.  Took about 3 quarters of an hour because the locks were lake level & we were going from river to lake & so had to wait for the big bunch of water to be let out.  Going thru in the morning, we couldn’t attract the guards’ attention so I climbed up a ladder from the water to the top of the dam & over chains & railings & awakened the guards from dozing & stayed on top while Bill piloted our craft.  He certainly looked unimportant down there.  That early in the morning, the guards are very lenient about rules & I went along with them opening valves & shutting gates.  Coming back, we both stayed in the boat.  That’s when I felt really diminished.

 The usual system by which one is assigned a house on the Area is the list system with various priorities of course!  There used to be a job priority, but that has gone except between the most menial jobs & plant jobs.  Veteran priority still presumably is in effect, but the most important is dependent classification.  Time was when a couple could get a two bedroom house if they wanted to pay for it, but unfortunately we continued to live out in Lenoir City too long.  Now even Mr. Center, and everyone knows how important Mr. Center is, could not get a two bedroom house without a child, but he doesn’t care as he already has a three bedroom house.

 We are eligible for one bedroom establishments (no allowances made for unharmonious couples).  But this is the interesting factor – some of the very best houses are in the very lousiest locations.  And when you become first on the housing list, Housing calls you when they get a house.  You look at it with high hopes & it is in a horrible place, you think, & you say you would prefer a better spot & they say then you’re turning this down then?  You say Well, yes.  OK.  You have one more chance, you’re informed.  The next house that comes in you must take whether or not it’s worse than the first or you go to the bottom of the list, & you don’t get another shot at the first as it has already gone to some other lucky people.

 So I took a day off & rang doorbells to find out if anyone was going to move from the apartments with a view upon Outer Drive – and found one!  We’re first on the list, have turned down one place & have declined to look at any further offers.  If you don’t look, it isn’t a choice.  You keep saying you can’t leave work just now, let the next fellow have it.  You don’t have to say it very often because there aren’t many vacancies.

 The people in our chosen place moved out Friday & the big question of Today is will we get a shot at it!  The houses when empty are turned over to Tri-State, a company who handles renting & cleaning (which one actually does oneself).  They turn the houses over to the Army who deals them out to the companies, Monsanto, Eastman, & Carbide, who parcel them out to their employees.

 I’m thinking of quitting when we move on the Area & take advantage of the swimming pool, etc. & write letters & keep house & all sorts of unusual things like that.  And after a month or so of that maybe I’ll look for a different job.  The one I have is dull.

 Did Dad get the literature I sent?

                            Love, Fran