Letters home

Never More Bookstore, Beaufort, SC

My mum typed her letters to home on a typewriter similar to this one I spotted in the Never More Bookstore window in Beaufort. She often typed in the middle of the night, sitting at the kitchen table snug near the coal stove. She used thin blue paper with a sheet of carbon copy in between if she wasn't typing on an areogram.

With eight kids it was probably the only time she was alone. Never fear- we quickly foiled her precious solitude! 

One of us would wake up, hear the keys clicking and decide we needed a drink or bathroom visit. We'd enjoy a few minutes of rare solitary attention before the next kid traipsed in, and then the next. Soon we'd have the warm kitchen full of sleepy children wrapped in shawls and blankets, insisting on being read to before we went back to our beds. 

Sorry but not sorry Mum!