Dear Della:
Rumor is telling it around that some doctors are going to build a clinic right alongside of Stratton’s flat in Magazine street. Della, if this is true I DO hope they won’t throw all amputated legs, arms, tonsils, adenoids and appendixes out of the back window into the front yard of the flat. You know, I’m in debt for that flat. However, that mortgage I have plastered all—over the place may keep this human debris out. Guess I had better ask Miss Pearl Brock—she is the yes-and-no man for the building company.
So with a clinic next door, it looks like I will inherit the burden lifted from Mrs. Sol Elisha’s shoulders when the baseball park was moved. Mrs. Elisha had a tub full of baseballs which had fallen into her yard after inflicting damage to the roof of her home. Well, Della, I’ll promise you not to carry the burden that far. I’m not going to save things in my yard until I get a tubful.
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If I had my druthers, druther build over an old house any time than a new one. How about you? Owen Southwell is rebuilding an old farmhouse out from Atlanta that has a natural stone walk and steps. It’ll have a conference room, too. Owen told me so himself. What is a conference room, Della? Owen’s place has toadstools in the front yard and four huge redwoods at the front gate will give it its name “The Red Woods.”
Owen is a bachelor, girls. Don’t crowd.
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Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Mapes and Mr. Thompson are paying daily visits to the foot of Pearl street in case their Tyler county farms come washing down. I’d suggest they carry along spears and spear them.
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Della, believe it or not, but I played a return engagement in Brazoria county last Sunday and visited the Hogg place, although the Hoggs didn’t know it.
My understanding is the Governor bought the old Patton plantation just about the time he went out of office. The colonial house is situated right on the banks of Varner’s creek. There’s a big bell hanging above the kitchen door and a playful cousin tugged at the bellrope just to see what would happen, she said. She saw. A dog gave us a wicked look. Ditto caretaker. A swell thing to do on an incog trip, being uninvited and all that.
The live oak trees on the lawn are too wonderful for words and I blush to repeat what one of our party said… that I could have the live oaks but he’d take the oil wells.
I have been told that Governor Hogg very greatly admired trees and that he requested to be buried beneath the spreading branches of a pecan. I’m going on believing, Della, that the great pecan grove at his place had as much to do with his purchase as the prospective oil field did.
In the offing there’s a crumbling red brick something. An aunt said it must be an old sugar house. Somebody else opined that ’twas Governor Hogg’s big outdoor bathtub. We didn’t go close enough to investigate.
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Speaking about Brazoria county … I’ve had an answer from one of the owners of grandpa’s old place down there about the plantation bell which I aspire to own. He wrote that he was referring my letter to his partner and while not saying so, I rather think he classed it as a nut request.
And he set me straight too on his name. Earley, NOT Easley. Now, how could he blame me with all tha Easleying and Tabering in the papers?
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A postcard in my mail yesterday was signed informally “Sam,” and gave Cadiz, Spain, as the writer’s next stop. I ran up and down the list of all the Sams I know… Mr. Sam Park, Uncle Sam, Sam Young. Nothing doing. Then I took a look at the postmark and read “Ss. Raleigh.” Sam Waite himself, son of Bob and brother of Bitsie.
Join the navy and see the world, Della.
Sam addressed me as Miss “Francis” Spindletop. Don’t blame Mr. Earley a bit for not letting me have that bell.
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Now, Della, what do you know about me getting a letter from the Bow and Arrow Man of Woodville. He’s on the warpath. It seems, against the slaughter of magnolias. “I am sorry the automobile manufacturer ever found out that magnolia lumber makes good auto bodies,” he wrote. “The Rolls Royce uses ash for its bodies; so why is ash not good enough for the best American cars? Unless some one comes to the rescue of our magnolias, as Colonel Roosevelt did in the case of California’s royal sequoyas, they are doomed.”
All I can say is if the auto makers do damage to the big magnolia in Mr. Tubb’s yard, I’ll take it as a personal matter.
Just as soon as the flood waters abate, I’m off to keep a watchful eye upon it and also visit the Bow and Arrow Man’s archery shop just across the canyon from the grammar school because he promises to show me the finest beech tree in Woodville under which he has his summer work bench, but I notice doesn’t promise to teach me to arch.
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Texas history furnishes two dramas with marvelous possibilities for the screen, according to D. W. Griffith. These are the life of Sam Houston and the battle of San Jacinto. No, three, Della. Mr. Griffith’s attention must be called to the Battle of Montauk Point.
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When Edna Akers moved into her new home, the girls gave her a book shower, How about a ham shower for me?
Yours for more and bigger showers, SUSIE.
So wrote Susie, May 19, 1929
Until next week!
About Florence Stratton, aka Susie Spindletop:
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