#44

3
Dec 16, 1944

Dear Mother:

Uncle G. is worried that the local labour authorities will catch V going hunting and press her into some job or other. But she does a days work really—getting up early to milk the cows, coming back to breakfast about nine (still before I’m up) and then going on to churn butter etc. They have tea about 5 and supper quite late—we just manage to make the nine o’clock news. Like us most meals are in the kitchen but not lunch. Beer or cider is the drink with the two main meals and a barrel of cider is kept handy in the dining room. Uncle G. hasn’t had a glass of water for years—says it is poisonous stuff.

On Tuesday I spent the morning working on a shelter they’re putting up for the cattle (horses after the war). I was surprised they could get the lumber but there are ways. We were putting in the roof which was of corrugated iron. Uncles G. and Reggie spent that morning hauling loose hay with the tractor and both Reggie and Neena were there for lunch. I am sorry to say that Tom is missing. He was shot down near Trieste I think and seen to make a forced landing.

In the afternoon I went back to my carpentering and did some fairly intricate work with the saw having satisfied the family retainer (I suppose that might be the man’s official position who was doing the job) that I could handle the hammer fairly satisfactorally on the corrugated iron.

The following afternoon Uncle G and I spent in painting sheets of iron for the roof only a third of which had been covered the day before. Its not galvanized these days—hence the paint. The morning is a different story. When hauling baled hay on the Monday a piece of old Dobbins harness broke so this provided the necessary excuse for a trip to the harness joe at Stow. She (D) had planned to drive to Stratford-on-A that day but took me on our Cook’s Tour instead and I feel a bit guilty about the gas.

With love from Tony.

[Editor’s note: Transcription provided by collection donor.]