March 24, 1958
Hello Mom & Dad:
We got your letter and the check too. Thank you. Janet is going to buy clothes for the babies. They need summer clothes. Marylou is all fixed up already, except she wants a pair of loafers, which she will get. Mike needs a couple shirts and ties, so they aren’t bad off. So we will spend the twenty on the babies. I brought home a little metal car which has a friction motor. I wanted to see how they would like it. We had to take it and hide it ’cause you never seen such a fight, pulling, pushing, hitting, rolling all over and both of them crying and madder than wet hens, and they broke the front wheels off while they were dong it. It doesn’t pay to buy two because one gets broke and they fight over what’s left. Gotta go. Your son, O. Jr.
P.S. Mom xxxx!
My Thoughts
This postcard speaks volumes—gratitude, family budgeting, a house full of children, and the good-natured frustration of a father trying to bring home a little fun, only to see it dissolve into a squabble. It’s written with warmth and immediacy, as though he dashed it off in the middle of a loud afternoon.
All in all, a gem of domestic storytelling, full of love and gentle irony.