Mail Call: 31 August 1935 (George)

From George Potter in Cabool to his daughter Mary in Washington DC.

One of my favorite old letters, this tells the tale of Gladys Potter tangling with the Cabool School Superintendent over a tuition bill which may keep Marjorie in the Sargent school while David and Florence get to ride the bus to school in Cabool.  The tale is interrupted by other matters but then continues on Page 4 with Gladys coming home in a rage over her disrespectful reception by the Super.  A map showing the Sargent school is at the bottom of this page.

Note: "Draughans" is the business college which Mary had attended in Tulsa.
"Miss Elam" is evidently in charge of bill collection, as Mary's student debt is much in arrears.
"Art" is Mary's boyfriend, whose hometown was Huntington, NY
"Vera" otherwise unidentified.

Sargent School Location..driving Marjorie one way while Dave and Florence take the schoolbus to Cabool
Potter farm was approx. at the end of the yellow line in the NW corner of  map, N of the road. and W or the train tracks.
Credit: www.topoquest.com; fair use claimed of detail of much larger topo map.

Mail Call: 18 March 1935 (Gladys)

Gladys Potter in Cabool, MO to her daughter Mary who was working for a  bank in St Louis.

A neighbor, Mrs. Arch Brooks, criticizes Elaine (20 years old at the time) for her un-ladylike posture and gets an earful.  "Mrs. Brooks runs her house and I guess she is going to try and run our house also."  Unfortunately, as the Potters get much neighborly support from the Brooks family, Gladys doesn't seem to feel that she can really tell her off.

Gladys takes the farm off the market for now.

Lots of rain, too much to plow the garden, but the car gets stuck in the mud.

Note:  "Mrs. Brooks" is Claudine Celestine Rivry Brooks (1885-1967), Arch Brook's second wife.
She was born in France and moved with her family to Kansas in 1897 and then on to Cabool in 1903.
The Rivry estate plus the Brooks land surrounded the Potter farm.

"Marshal Brooks (1899-1951)" was neighbor Arch Brooks' brother, one-time local lawman, and real estate agent,

Mail Call: 4 March 1935 (Gladys)

From Gladys Potter to her daughter Mary, now living in St. Louis after having moved out of Dora's place in East St. Louis.  Shorter commute to the bank, less drama, possibly better food.

"They (i.e., Gladys' sisters-in-law Emma and Dora) all have the darndest dispositions, easy to be hurt but don't care who (sic) feelings they hurt they are all alike, too"

Walter is Walt Bremerkamp and Dora is his wife (George's sister) .  They lived in East St. Louis.

"Dora treated Lillian" would be George's late sister Bessie's daughter Lillian Johnson
by then back with George's sister Emma in Pennsylvania.