29 May 30th /45 Okanagan Mission B.C.
My dear Tony
I believe Archie has already written [AHS450528] to tell you his great piece of news, so I will just say we are all very pleased about it. We were all speechless with astonishment when he told us, but it may not come as such a surprise to you as I remember mentioning once or twice that he and Beryl had been dancing together and you may think I was leading up to this but such was not the case. We dont [sic] know her at all well and didn’t realize that he did either. I think we shall like her very much and they certainly seem very happy, in fact I dont [sic] know when I have seen two people so thoroughly pleased with themselves! They spent all Sunday dashing round the countryside telling their friends and relations, she is Mrs Fuller’s niece. Luckily the gas ration was increased last week.
2 letters [RAS450510a & RAS450510b] from you yesterday. Your victory celebrations made ours seem decidedly flat! How do you come to have such high class foot ball players out there? Pop wants to know if it is “Rugger or Soccer?” I hope the cigs are beginning to turn up. I think they are still being sent to “RCAF Overseas” as we figured you would be moving again before they got around to changing the address.
Dont worry too much about the tennis club. If the school board does take it over they will have to supply another as a going concern and the proposed site looks quite nice. It is on the north bank of Mill Creek opposite the park exit and they say there is room for 6 courts in a row. A lot of houses are going up in Kelowna but otherwise it has not changed much yet. We have not seen any more of Sgt Hamilton so I dont think he can be here yet as he promised to phone us. I read in the Courier that Mr Gardner was trying to find homes for 4 returned men who have got jobs here but nowhere to live, so he may be one of them. We nearly burnt up Pop in his bed on Sunday, he was spending his usual morning in slumber and Mary and I went out in the garden after breakfast. When we came in ½ hr later there was an awful smell of burning and we found a dish towel had blown onto the hot stove and then fallen on the floor and was smouldering away and melting the varnish which caused most of the smell! Did I tell you the B?????? are living in the Mallams camp and building a house just beyond the old Francis place and the Hugh Dunlops are going to build on their lot and will live in the Hays camp meanwhile. It is getting quite thickly populated down there. The Hays have got the juice but no phone yet. The air is full of election speeches these days and you cant turn on the radio without getting somebody ranting about something. We went down to the Community Hall on Friday to hear Grote Sterling but unfortunately he was in bed with lumbago and we only got Mr Bennett (hardware) and Bud Weddell. Pop found them interesting but I though they were distinctly bad. I had quite a time trying to find a modicum of sense in such a spate of words. Archie has been spraying at Ramseys [?] today and will be there again tomorrow then up here for 2 days then Claytons and Waddy’s old place. He is pretty well booked up till thinning starts. Mary has a frightful cold, having escaped all winter she is very cross at getting one now. By the way Reggies wife’s name in MINA, is that clear? We are getting it quite hot at last and the garden looks its best with lilac etc all out.
Best love from Mother