Bud Grossmann’s Words of the Week for the Week of November 13, 2022 Family History (by Earl F. Grossmann). © 1962 by Earl F. Grossmann and © 2022 by Bud Grossmann All Rights Reserved.   1939 Chevy Truck (1968) © 1968 by Bud Grossmann A LETTER FROM GRANDPA G. A Note From Bud Grossmann: My grandfather, Earl Grossmann, sixty years old at the time, wrote the following letter on Tuesday, January 30, 1962, in blue ballpoint ink on a little more than three sides of heavy typing paper. He left a 5/8" margin on the left side of the text, almost no margin at the top, bottom, and right. His penmanship was steady and clear. I have transcribed Grampa’s words pretty much as he wrote them, but have added, here and there, punctuation he left out, and have corrected some of his apparent slips of the pen. Reading the original three pages took me ten minutes, and I wondered, all the while, whether you, my readers who may not have known the author or his audience, would patiently make it through the transcribed text. If you didn’t, or you don’t, I hope you will gently let me know. Rio Wis Jan 30-62 Dear Children & Grandchildren: I guess we are as bad as you folks on writing. And for the same reason. We are so busy we hardly find time to sleep. Mostly because it is so hard to get around in the snow. We have plenty of that. Got a load of wood yesterday and was almost an hour getting out of the woods with the tractor. I had got coal but was unlucky and have to have wood to burn the coal. Got a ton a few years ago just like it. The neighbors burn oil and were with no heat for two days with that so I guess wood is the best at that. I have been having trouble with the chain saw is the reason for being out of wood. Bob sent his new Remington Bantam saw home. Mostly to get his chain filed right I guess. Any way it was filed so it grabbed and the motor is so small it could not pull it. Works better after resetting his filer which is a very good one and does file each tooth the same. But no machine is any better than the man that runs it. And if you don’t know what you want neither does the machine. Any way I did get a good sized load of wood home and in the basement. And I have my own saw ready to go and can get two loads in the same time with it. And then we have 50 dozen eggs to wash and pack a day. Takes about 250 lb feed a day to be put in feeders and if it is 10 - degrees I have to hand water. Other wise water is automatic. We usually have 4 baskets of eggs sometimes the fifth to carry to the house. Oh yes I still have squirrel trouble and have to shoot them and we thought we had them all out of the way. Now we have trouble with the car and it seems to be really bad as I thought I had every thing checked last fall. New points new plugs and a good battery plenty permanent. Then the fuel pump started pumping past the float valve so put a pressure control on and the Jack rabbit busted the new heater hose and said nothing so the anti freeze got all over the motor, battery and carburetor so it was new plugs, new coil, new battery, new heater hose and what ever else it did anyway it throws out the anti freeze each time we use it. And right now we drive a 39 pickup with 4 speeds and one window out so we stay home when it is cold. Oh yes on a different subject Washer and dryer both working. Had fun doing that. Washer no trouble But dryer had to have 40 amp fuses before we got it to work as the W heater and dryer was to big a load. Had a big job finding that out though and a couple of boxes of 20 and 30 fuses and 40 are hard to come by. Almost went to 1 cent pieces on that one. But they sure work nice now. And Ma can keep up on the washing again . We are getting 750 more pullets 2/19 on a dough Boy feed contract so will have the barn base ment full of chickens again and should have a fair income by April from the chickens if egg prices don’t go too low and it looks like they will stay up by the poultry Journal’s Proficy. The pullets are 17 weeks old when we get them so it takes 3 weeks before we get any eggs then another month to get in production and large eggs. We are both in fairly good health and if we don’t have time to think about getting sick we are better off even Ma has quit griping and that is quite an improvement. She don’t get out to the barn though. I keep the path open with the manure loader so it is fairly good going to get there. And Ma helps wash eggs in the evening or early in the morning. We are eating 3 meals a day most days and are fairly warm. Got the electric blanket working (had to splice a wire on the thermostat a while ago). Phil comes out and helps get wood once in a while and have coal on hand if the wood runs out so are making it O.K. In bad weather we stay home and try to have a weeks feed ahead for the chickens so we are O.K. Will need help with the taxes till we get the chickens in full production though. Am sending the notice along. Got letters and enjoyed them very much but expect Buddy is still looking for a paste board box big enough to send all his letters he started and forgot to write his name and address to Grandpa and Grandma. How about that. Well just send them any way and we will figure out who they are from. How about that.                 Love to all                 Grandpa and Grandma Grossmann PS Grandma says she is going to write when she finds time and we will try and write to the children separate too.                EFG ♦         ARCHIVES         Click for a list of other Words of the Week I would welcome your thoughts on this page (or any of my others).  Write to me at the following address.  Please be sure to spell Grossmann with two n’s and mention what page you are writing about. Thanks!  BUD GROSSMANN Top of this page | HOME | Fine Photography | Picture of the Day | Writings | | Words of the Week | Mom & Pop Prop. Mgt. | FAQ |

This page was published Sat, Nov 12, 2022, 10:10PM CST.