The following are transcripts of letters sent by a Long Eaton girl to her pen-pal in America in 1945 and 1946.
Sheila Redford was born in Long Eaton in 1929. Her family lived in Bennett Street. She left school at 14 and started work in a factory office in Sawley during World War 2 (perhaps Park Mill on Grosvenor Avenue which was used by Rolls Royce during the war).
Arlene Olsen lived in Harrietta, a small town in rural Michigan. After the USA entered the war in December 1941, she helped the war effort by collecting milkweed floss to fill lifejackets.
Arlene’s daughter found the letters amongst her mother’s papers and thoughtfully contacted the Sawley Historical Society and sent the letters back to England. The extracts are printed with the kind permission of Sheila’s daughter.
6 Feb 1945
Dear Arlene
Very many thanks for your lovely letter, to which I am answering straight away. So, Sergeant Elmore was your music teacher, was he? When he came to talk to us about you boys and girls over there, we asked him if any of you would like to write to some English girls and he gave us your addresses. I quite agree with you, he is a swell person to meet and talk to.
Well, here is a little bit about myself. I am 16 on Feb 22nd so I am younger than you. I left school when I was 14, had nine months at a commercial school for shorthand typing, bookkeeping. I now work in the office of an aeroplane factory just outside Long Eaton. I am fair haired, grey eyed, 5 foot 2 inches tall and just over seven stone.
Now let me tell you a little bit about the place where I live. It is a small town and about 23,000 people live here. In Long Eaton there are 3 picture houses, 3 or 4 dance halls, places of amusement and a large, beautiful park. On one side of LE, about 7 miles away, is the city of Nottingham, which is a lovely place. On the other side of LE, 9 miles away, is Derby, a very big and busy town.
Well, I am sorry to say that I have not a photo of myself. Only those that were taken a good while back. But when I have it taken, I promise I will send you one.
Well, I must close now. Hoping to hear from you as soon as possible (hope you understand my writing).
Your penfriend in England
Sheila
11 April 1945
Dear Arlene
Thank you for your lovely and interesting letter which I have just received this morning. Thank you also for your very nice photo, it was lovely. I do hope you won’t think me rude if I ask you if the clothes which you wore on the photograph is your school uniform. I’m very sorry to disappoint you about a photo of myself. You see, I have not had one taken for about two years now. And I would have had one taken this spring if I was not ill. I have had pneumonia bad for the third time. That has gone now and left me with a bad attack of fluid on my lungs. But I promise as soon as I can get up and go out, I will have it taken and send you one.
I’m sorry, when I wrote I gave you my weight in stones. Yes, it is 14 lbs for one stone.
So, you still have got some snow, have you, ours went weeks ago. But of course, we don’t have it as bad as you. We have plenty of rain, frost and rather a lot of fog. It was thick with fog here yesterday until 12:00 AM (dinner time for us). We don’t have very hot summers but what sun we get, we make the best of it.
Please write and tell me what you do in your spare time. Do you go to the cinema? When I’m not ill I go to the pictures twice a week if there’s something nice on.
I do wish Arlene, you could see our fields All the hedges and trees are one mass of lovely green leaves. All the fruit blossom is out in the gardens. In the fields are buttercups and soon daisies will be out. Here and there wild violets and primroses are growing. Do you have many wildflowers growing in the fields?
Sheila
PS Please could you tell me how much a cent is in English money?
July 8th, 1945
Dear Arlene
Thank you for your lovely letter, believe me. It was most welcome, and I did enjoy reading it.
What a shame all the cherry blossom froze, here the fruit is going on fine. We only wish the potatoes were. Here we cannot get any potatoes at all and on more than one day have to have no spuds for dinner. When you can get them, we have to queue for them. Bread was also scarce, but it is better where we are.
Yes, Arlene, most of the schools here have a uniform. Some school uniform colours are blue and silver, others red and grey, brown & yellow, green, white and yellow and so on. I must say I did like your blouse, it was lovely.
Could you please write and tell me what you do at the “Camp Fire Girls”. I belong to the Co-op Youth Club. We play billiards, table tennis, cards, tennis, have dancing, art classes, handy-craft lessons and cycle rides. Not very many go now as most of the boys and girls who were members have been called up into the forces.
Yes, Arlene. I too love books on animals, reading, sewing – although I cannot skate (I wish I could though, but it never freezes that bad around here to allow the water to turn to ice. Although it did this winter as we had quite a lot of frost.
Expect you’re now on your holiday from school having a good time. I wish for some things I was back at school as we used to have some fun (always getting into mischief). We some-times, I admit, played pranks. I wonder if you do the same. Still. As my mother says. You “shouldn’t judge everybody by your-self”.
Have you any pets Arlene? If so, please tell me about them. I have bought myself a puppy. He is now three months old. He does nothing but chew things up, so now everything has to be put out of his reach.
Well, Arlene, please excuse this short letter. And please write soon. Please excuse the difference in writing just now as I have just changed pen nibs.
So I will say Cheerio for now, hoping to hear from you soon.
PS – Glad you enjoyed VE Day. I bet the singing was lovely.
13 Dec 1945
Dear Arlene
Thank you for your very welcome letter, which I just received by the early morning post.
So, you have 2 days off school for the deer season. Please don’t think me ignorant when I ask you to tell me all about it. You see, deer over here is rather scarce, so we don’t hunt them, only fox.
How is school? So typing is one of the subjects that you don’t like. I expect you will like it much better when you were more used to it. I rather like it, but I have been doing it for over 2 years at work. I expect you have lots of fun at the F.H.A.
I can just imagine the excitement you must have had this summer with the Jap balloons. The town where I live was bombed three or four times early on in the war, but we are in a hollow and the two nearest large towns on either side of us had it most nights. Derby 9 miles away – & the other side, Nottingham, 7 miles away. They did try to hit Toton Railway Sidings, which is about the largest in England, but they nearly always missed.
No Arlene we don’t have a lot of toffee (or candy, as you say) as it is rationed over here. Each person is given 12oz of either chocolate or sweets a month. Ice cream is not worth buying even when you can get it. I love it, but some of it is simply awful – all ice.
How is the weather where you are? Here it is cold and frosty, some-times foggy, and we are expecting snow any day now. It is proper Christmas weather. By the way, let me wish you “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. I will try and see if I can get a card for you, but they are very hard to find here. The shops have notices in their windows ‘No Exmas Cards’ but I will do my best for you.
Last Friday, the place where I work had a dinner and dance. I went and some fun. All the drinks were free (just because I don’t drink beer and spirits). But I tried to sample one or two of them, but oh, they can keep most of them. Some of them (I’ll admit) I did like.
I don’t suppose you would like to write a walk to one of the girls who I worked with, or know of anyone? Her age is 15 years. She lives at 1 Towle St, Sawley, Long Eaton. Please see if you can find someone to write to her.
All the best for 1946.
19 Jan 1946
Dear Arlene
Thank you very much for your lovely Christmas card and letter. I wish we had cards like that here. Did you enjoy Christmas? Over here it was very quiet. We just decorated the tree. There were no garlands on sale this year in shops.
The weather is very cold, it has tried snow the past 2 days, but I think it is too cold for that. It is 16 deg below zero and is getting colder.
How is school? I should think you will have some fun now that it is snowing, going skating and snowballing each other. I went to the cinema last night to see Pin Up Girl. Have you been to any shows just lately?
Please excuse this short letter, more next time. Write soon. Cheerio for now.
13 Feb 1946
Thank you very much for your very nice letter, and the gum. I enjoyed it as it has a lot better taste than the chewing gum we have over here, in fact some of it is just a waste of money and coupons.
I should think you had a lovely time coming home from the dance when you ran into the ditch. So pleased the snow over there is clearing. Over here we are having the worst floods in the Midlands for over 40 years. It has rained now for days and nights and has not stopped. Lakes, rivers, canals, dams have burst their banks and thousands of cattle are being drowned. In some parts of Derbyshire, not far from where I live, it is over 6ft in water, and is rising at 2 inches per hour.
I started out to work this morning to get to Sawley 3 miles away and had to turn back.
People are going out in boats and living upstairs. That came since last night at nine-o-clock. It is getting very serious now and we are praying that it will stop raining. It is in our market place now, 20 minutes walk from our house. Still, we are a little bit higher up than there, so if it stops raining we might not have the floods down our street.
So you went dancing New Year’s Eve? I went just before Christmas but have not been since. I used to go a lot last year. Our dances over here usually finish about 12.0, occas. 1.0 am (that is since the war was on). I do wish they’d go back to normal times – early hours next morning, and long dress, but that idea doesn’t appeal to everyone.
I went to the Y. Club the other day, we had a cinema show, dancing and a few games. I am going next week. Have you been to any shows or movies just lately?
Thank you for explaining about the deer season. It must be great fun hunting. Over here we’re not allowed to hunt deer as they are very scarce. But we do hunt fox and kill rats – rabbits, pheasants, partridges and other game are either shot or trapped, for eating.
How is school and do you still belong to the THH, if so, I should like to hear about what you do.
Well, I’m afraid I must close now as I am going to take the dog for a little walk.
