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Correspondence from Jane Wolfe to Karl Germer
[28 June 1942]
Several times Wilfred [Wilfred Talbot Smith] has said he would write you, but I am quite sure the multitudinous trivialities of the moment have kept him from it and left him tired out at the end of the day. We all told him to slow down, but he is that pest, a driver. He would drive everyone else as he does himself, but we rose up in arms.
Screws, electric connections, sawing, adjusting, watering, clipping hedges, planting the rose bushes we brought with us, scouring, scraping, and—the last thing, a drain pipe partially closed, which causes flooding on the ground floor when the various bath roans are used. This he tried to fix himself as well, but the plumber is to be summoned in the morning.
Meantime, the garden is partially in. Beets, carrots, beans, tomatoes to feed the family when grown, are up 1 to 4 inches. Today a member from San Diego of the Navy, is on one of the lower terraces turning over the earth for further plantings. 3,200 square feet are already in garden. Regina and Helen did the indoor cleaning, scouring, scrubbing, curtaining of windows, arranging of furniture, etc., while Phyllis [Phyllis Seckler] and I have handled the kitchen end. We stood up pretty well under the strain—each one shoving a bit of a peeve occasionally when muscles and nerves were weary.
Another 2 members, with their 2 boys, 5 and 6 respectively, care in today or tomorrow. This fills the house , with the exception of one roan for the occasional member from afar. However, this too will be used if the right person cares along.
What heavily restricted Orange Grove will do about us remains to be seen. Perhaps our effrontery in moving in right under their noses will silence them. Jack arranged it through family close friends—the owners live in New York, and we pay $100 a month rent. 16 rooms, 5 baths, downstairs wash rooms, big cellar and wine cellar; immense laundry down at the garage, which is suitable for a bomb raid, the floor being heavily concreted, with arched supports and the underground roan big enough to hold 50 people easily. We pay the water bill, which will be an item, and any and all repairs.
I could wish it were more accessible, because again comes up the car questions. Gasoline saving necessary here. I understand all unnecessary cars will be taken off the road. Two of ours will certainly be left us, but I have Mary K's [Mary K. Wolfe] with me and use it to do the family shopping—for 15 or 16 people! Scrubbing floors would be much simpler.
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