Letter to David Donaldson from his mother

Letter to David Donaldson from his mother

David Donaldson's mother writes of family and acquaintance affairs. Regrets the fact that fuel shortages in future will make trips out less likely.

Four page handwritten letter

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EDonaldsonFIDonaldsonDW[Date]-03

Sunday
THE ELMS,
42, PEAR TREE AVENUE,
BITTERNE,
SOUTHAMPTON.
Dearest David,
no news except that it looks as if the weather is going to change which won't be so nice.
We made the most of the day yesterday and went off to Park Beach, we being Eliza, Walter & me, it was lovely but I felt “Oh dear I can't enjoy this enough it will be so long before we have any petrol to come again”, so like my [indecipherable word] nature, I feel you will say, not to make the most of the moment and enjoy it.
Eliza bathed, & Walter tickled her toes and insulted her in every possible way he could think of – Today she is going off to Basingstoke to stay
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the night with the Maloney's [sic] as Brian is down for the night., Mrs M wasnt very forthcoming about it as she already has 7 people in the house & Marie is inclined to become hysterical, but Brian said they could put up more beds in the drawing room, so I suppose Mrs M has done so.
Walter is going to drive her as far as the gate and leave her there & to save his fare & make the journey worth while I am to be left at Winchester on the way to have tea with my sisters – so he will feel he is really driving me and not Elizabeth, do you follow!
Hugh turned up last night, looking very grim and depressed, the Admiralty has told him to stay where he is, & he
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is becoming a war profiteer, & he longs to be in the navy, we all tried to tell him how lucky he was, but he was terribly sad & wanting to be in the Navy. -
It was so hot and stuffy so we all sat in black darkness so as to have the windows open, until an Air Warden banged on the front door & told us a light was showing upstairs, it was Daddy's dressing room light, where he was reading in bed
[underlined] Later [/underlined]
I am just going to post this, having just come back from tea with Nettie & Dorothy, who were both very well, Nettie was much better than when we were last up there. The traffic on the roads was very bad indeed, like bank holiday, everyone out for their last Sunday jaunt – Walter thinks we ought to be able to run the car on some sort of [word deleted] gas, I do hope so.
Winchester is also lucky in having cinema's [sic], Norman will insist on coming home now – I think -
very much love from us all
& especially
Mummy.