1938 - "After a Month of Wedded Bliss"

July 21, 1938

Dearest Family,

    Clarence just left for work, but I thought I'd let my dishes wait because I realize how terribly I have neglected my end of the correspondence. 

    Last night the draymen brought my piano and it's a little wonder!  It has a lovely tone and is a beautiful thing in walnut with spiral legs and a bench to match.  We only paid (are paying) $145 for it, and no one would ever think it was second hand.  I just love it.  We named it "Baby".

    Yesterday I went into town on the bus and met one of the Relief Society sisters (by appointment) who took me over to the National Red Cross headquarters, where I assisted in making twenty sheets to be distributed among the poor.  They have put me to work already, asking me to lead the singing and direct a chorus to sing at a special meeting that opens the winter season.  Everyone will be home from vacations by then.  I think I know more people in the branch then Clarence does, now.

    Little by little I am beginning to learn my way around.  They say it takes at least six months, though.  Anyway, I know how to get to the Dept. of Justice and that's the important thing.

    Last Sunday night we bought tickets to the Watergate Symphony, which you may have heard -- it's quite famous.  The orchestra plays on a barge anchored in the Potomac at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.  It rained that night, so they postponed it until the following night, but it was drizzling that night and I didn't want to go.  We read in the paper the next day where music-lovers sat in the rain to hear the concert.  I love music, but not that much when you can get the program on the radio.  Jan Pearce, who you may have heard of, was appearing as soloist and stood right by us under the bridge where we took shelter from the rain.  He looks just about like Eli Krupp, only not quite so much out in front.

    Friday night the choir sang a group of Mormon hymns at a lecture given in Rock Creek Park by a well-known naturalist on Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon.  Afterwards Clarence and I took Glen's car, came home and got into evening attire (my rose dress) and went to the fashionable Army and Navy Club to a dance given by the Bureau.  We danced on the roof overlooking Washington, and it was really a beautiful place.  I met several of Clarence's friends.  He was so proud he nearly busted.

    Lucile Thompson came out and spent the day with me yesterday.  George had some business in Virginia, so she got him to bring her out.  We had a nice visit, and I'm going out to see her one of these days and she's going to teach me to crochet and knit.  She does beautiful work.  We had dinner out there a week ago Sunday and then Clarence drove her car and we went to Mt. Vernon.  She is timid about driving the car in traffic, and I hate to go there on the bus--you have to transfer three times, from bus to street car and back again, but I guess I could do it.

    I went up to the top of the Washington Monument last Sunday.  You can certainly get a perspective of Washington that you could never get anywhere.  for instance, Clarence told me that the Dept. of Agriculture was the largest office building in the world--covers a whole block, but I didn't realize it's immensity until I looked down it from the Monument.  There aren't any skyscrapers in Washington, most of the government buildings are only seven or eight stories high, but they cover a lot of territory. 

    Funny thing, I was talking to Margaret Bennion the other day and she asked me what my maiden name was and when I said "Jacobson" she said "Why, so was mine!"  She is from Salt Lake and spells hers "Jacobsen", but she is Danish too.  She's the one who met me in town yesterday.  She lives in Buckingham, which is also in Virginia, and she is going to call for me on every Relief Society day.  They only meet once a month in the summer.

    Saturday, the Mormons here are celebrating the 24th out at Rock Creek Park, and Clarence doesn't have to work at all that day, so we're going out early and play tennis.  There is a couple here at the Village who went on a mission to New Zealand, and the girl learned some of the native dances.  They asked her to dance at the celebration, and she looked all over for someone who could play the uke until she finally located some Hawaiians, then she found out I could play.  She said she might want me to don a grass skirt and help her, which I think would be lots of fun.  But since other arrangements were already made, I don't suppose she'll need me. 

    Did I tell you about Mt. Vernon?  Of course, you could write volumes on it, so I'll just give you my impressions.  In the first place, it really doesn't take you back to the eighteenth century, because everything is in such a good state of repair.  Only about 1/3 of the furniture is authentic.  The rest is copied after the originals.  Washington had a magnificent estate, and everything that money could buy in those days.  His plantation is almost like a town, because there are little clusters of houses all around.  There is the gardener's house, the butler's house, the kitchen, the smokehouse, the sewing house, the washroom, all around the mansion.  There is a flower garden, plotted by Washington himself, and a kitchen garden with all kinds of vegetables.  There's a carriage house and and old coach which Washington is said to have ridden in--it isn't the one he owned.  There are monstrous stables, and boat houses on the Potomac, and tobacco sheds and lots of little houses for the slaves.  The view is marvelous any way you look at it.  The front lawn slopes right down to the Potomac, and there is a high red brick wall surrounding acres and acres of rolling grassy hills, which used to be planted in tobacco and cotton.

    I saw the place where Lincoln died.  We didn't go in, Clarence says the interior of the theatre has all been torn out.  They carried Lincoln across the street to an apartment house, which is supposed to be authentic.  We just walked by.

    The days go by so quickly that I haven't realized how long it's been since I wrote you.  I seem to be in a different world entirely.  But of course home is home wherever  you may roam--so write me and give me all the dope.  I'm going to write Lel and Gen [Genevieve] one of these days.

Love to all,
Jewel