Anna And Rosie: 7 - Anna And Rosie
"We have our new baby, too, another girl. Moma seems to have found out how to make girls now, so that is a good thing. She told the other children that she found Ceal in a cabbage patch, but I am perfectly aware now of where babies come from...''
Jean Day tells something of life in the Mid West of the USA almost a century ago by presenting the letters of two sisters, the daughters of Polish immigrants.
These letters are appearing day by day in Open Writing.
Christmas 1909
Dear Aunt Anna,
Moma asked me to write to you to say congratulations on the birth of your baby Viola. We will look forward to meeting her and hope you will come to visit us.
We have our new baby, too, another girl. Moma seems to have found out how to make girls now, so that is a good thing. She told the other children that she found Ceal in a cabbage patch, but I am perfectly aware now of where babies come from. She has the prettiest curly hair.
We have the teacher living with us now. We were all at church on the morning Ceal was born, and when we got back, the teacher was going to sit down in the rocking chair by the fire in the kitchen. But just before she put her bottom down on the chair, she noticed a bundle and that bundle was our new baby.
Moma is getting fatter and more tired all the time, and Anna and I are pretty much left to do the indoors chores. Luckily Alec and Andrew and Jack are big enough to do the outside jobs to help Pa. Eddie is still quite sickly and of course Gertie is only a baby still.
Anna will be starting school in the fall. We have the local teacher living in with us this year, but I want to be the one to take Anna to school.
Love
Rosie
