Dear Girls,

It seems so good to have this 'talk-fest' with you all. For that is what it is like to read your letters. Frances Doherty says that women's larger problem is peace - larger than the servant problem - and I solemnly nod my head in agreement. One of the things I have been doing since last I wrote has been talking before Parent-Teacher Associations, and I have tried hard to drive home the thought that tolerance and respect for the customs and tradition of other people is one of the important things to teach our own children. Mary Abercrombie says she must have single track mind, for when there are babies to look after, she cannot seem to work in other interests too. And again I nod and grin. Funny, what an unescapable sense of responsibility settles upon one when the children arrive. Nannie Weakley has a hard time keeping her weight under 150. And I don't grin - I scowl as I think of my 190 pounds. Nancy Nulton feels that 1903 ought to hold its reunions in the same place where the other reuning classes are, and to that I agree heartily. The reunion is a Goucher affair. If, at a different time, we choose to hold a reception elsewhere, that is another proposition. Any large minded person will realize that it is not fair to keep the class members away from all their friends and acquaintances joyfully reuning in Goucher Hall. Half the spirit of old times comes from this wider reuniting.

As for myself and family, I shall let the pictures speak best. We are still living in the same place, but the house number has been changed. Also we have just painted the house and it looks as if it is just welcoming you here. So come along!

My husband is not with the PRR any more - and that too after having been in their service thirty years. But he felt that he was in a blind alley, and so, though it seemed hard to break old ties, he resigned and took up full time secretaryship in the Capitol Building and Loan Association, where he has been now two years - on full time, fifteen years previously on part time.

When I wrote my letter in 1921 I did not know that in April of that year little Frank would come down with diphtheria. We were quarantined for six weeks, and what a busy time I had. My 'day help' could no longer enter and leave, my three girls in school had to be kept up with their classes so as to be ready for final reviews in May when they could go back to school, the sick boy had to be kept isolated - why, I used to feel as if all my time went into scalding either his dishes or his clothes. My! I was glad when quarantine was lifted. Then, just to prove that I was keeping young with my children, I suppose, I had to come down with it myself! Well, believe me, I vowed I would not have the children quarantined again. I simply had my doctor arrange for me to go to the only hospital that would take contagious cases - the Municipal Hospital. I wish you could have seen the sympathetic neighbors as the ambulance bore me away. Every one of them seemed to think of it as either the poor-house or the pest-house!

Before John came I was president of our local PTA, and later helped with a township-wide canvass in the interest of a travelling library. The voters approved, and for three years now we have had a husky growing library to supply us with books. Hamilton Township has 16 schools, most of them 8 or 10 room schools, so you see we really needed a library. I was appointed as one of the Library Commissioners, and have been serving ever since. This work, and serving as one of the vice chairmen of our County Council of P-TA, being called to speak anywhere in the county, and often on short notice, - well, that's about all I have been able to do besides care for my family.

Do hurry this Robin around again. It's jist gr-rand to read your letters.

With love in 1903,
Your old classmate,

Photographs, page 2 (593 KB)

PHOTO 1
Summer, 1926
Note the 3 yr old nearly lost in the lower right hand corner. He is John Davis Vliet - not the least if he is the smallest.
Margaret, of Goucher 1930 class
Katherine, registered for the class of 1932
Claire, who wants to be a trained nurse
Frank. Who wants to spend three weeks canoeing up the Delaware and John David!

PHOTO 2
June 1927
Behold me! No hat - grown fat!
Katherine and John are in this group. The others are friends.

PHOTO 3
June 1927
Margaret not here. She is earning money for next year by playing governess to two children.
Katherine is wearing a *** dress she made, and rejoices in the double row of rhinestone buttons!
Claire's dress is one she made in Junior School this spring - a blue flat crepe.

No, Frank and John did not make their own clothes. John is now 4 years old and Frank Jr 12.

PHOTO 4
Here is twelve year old Frank with Boy, his beloved collie. Boy is so big and strong he nearly knocks me over when he leaps on me affectionately.