Mattie On The Homefront

Continuing our longest-ever letter, we learn all about a recipe (delicacy?) in Mattie's repertoire - a "creamed chicken in a noodle ring". Is it made with gelatin? Is it confusing? Yes and yes!

Just in time for Valentines, we learn there are big shortages in the things a fella might get - candy and flowers. Plus, Gin might get a medical operation, and Mattie is preparing for a huge celebration at church.

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Characters This Week:

• Gennrich's (Minneapolis friends)
• Gram (mother)
• Hanson's (neighborhood friends)
• Glindmier Girls (friends)
• Virginia (Ken's fiancée)
• Mrs. Berkey (Virginia's landlady)
• Pastor Simonson (church pastor)
• Wes (oldest son)
• Flo (daughter-in-law)
• Mr. Sperzel (Flo's father)
• Hansons (church friends)

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Cover Image: It's a noodle ring, innit?

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Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

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Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

In the longest letter we've ever seen, we get a clue to track down something that Ken wrote - our first time featuring his words.

We learn about "Commandos Strike at Dawn", the movie filmed near Ken, and that Bud needs $10. Mattie is getting a cold, and frequenting Ken's old workplace.

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Characters This Week:

• Virginia (Ken's fiancée)
• Ruth (Ken's eventual wife)
• Bud (stepson)
• Pastor Lindemann (Redeemer Church)

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Cover Image: Redeemer Record, February, 1943

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Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

Mattie is recovering from an excess of meetings by reading Better Homes & Gardens in bed. We try to guess which articles. Bud is sending personal effects home, in advance of being deployed. And Flo is avoiding coming over for dinner.

Plus we get an update on the state of the war, rationing, and national politics.

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Characters This Week:

• Bud (stepson)
• Wes (eldest son)
• Flo (daughter-in-law)
• Mr. Sperzel (Flo's dad)
• Gennrich's (best friends)
• Reindfleish's (church friends)

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Cover Image: Cover of Home And Gardens, February, 1943

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Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

It's a February sort of letter - cold and dark, with some signs that the season is changing, but it's not here yet. This week, Mattie expresses a lot of concern (and love) for a lot of folks who are having a rough go of it at the moment - including a big update on Wes' finances.

For her part, Mattie is still struggling with the car, and an infection, but having fun going out to dinner.

For our part, we learn that Ken might have played the piano (??) and what the difference is between WAVES and WAACs.

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Characters This Week:

• Dr. Seltzer (doctor)
• Oscar (Ken's Army pal)
• Betty Giertsen (Ken's best friend's sister)
• Chuck Giertsen (Ken's best friend)
• Wes (eldest son)
• Flo (Daughter-in-law)
• Mr. Sperzel (Flo's dad)
• Virginia (Ken's fiancée)
• Gennrich's (best friends)
• Major (and Mrs.) George Westman (Gennrich's brother)
• Betty Jane Westman (Major's daughter)
• Herb & Loraine Westman (Gennrich's brother and sister-in-law)
• Georgine Hanson (neighborhood friend)

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Cover Image: Betty Westman's high school yearbook photo from 1939

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Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

Wes is having terrible luck, Mattie is still doing lots of volunteering, and wood gas is a possible substitute for fuel oil. There's a lot happening at the end of January, including Mattie processing being an empty nester.

Most exciting, though, is that Steve is mentioned in the letters for the first time (despite not being born for nearly 5 years) when Mattie dreams of a son that Ken might one day have. Which leads us, inevitably, to playing with blocks.

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Characters This Week:

• Virginia (future daughter-in-law)
• Wes (son)
• Florence (daughter-in-law)
• Bud (step-son)
• Viv (step-daughter)
• Wally (step-son-in-law)
• Billy (step-grandson)

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Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

One of our big questions is answered this week when we learn that Ken has a question of his own.

Meanwhile, Mattie is proudly showing off snaps around town, and working to keep the house at a frosty 65 degrees during a long cold snap.

Plus, their car trouble continues, as do the questions about Wes & Flo's belongings.

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Characters This Week:

• Virginia (future daughter-in-law)
• Wes (son)
• Florence (daughter-in-law)
• Gennrich's (friends)
• Dick Hance (Ken's friend)
• Uncle Herb (younger brother)
• Rudy (step-daughter)
• Dianne (step-granddaughter)

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Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

Our first handwritten letter since September means that Mattie isn't at her trusty typewriter. Not one to waste a moment, she is writing to Ken while having her hair done at he beauty shop.

She tells him about the overwhelming stresses of Ladies' Aid, about new snaps she's sent his way, and how much better Ken's letters are than Bud's. We get to discover what used to be in the building that is now The Ax Man, the Curtis Hotel is Recommended, and that the tree in the back yard is even more special than we already knew it to be.

Plus - how are they going to get to the cabin this summer? January is the perfect time to wonder.

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Characters This Week:

• Hanson's (neighborhood friends)
• Gennrich's (Minneapolis friends)
• Wes (eldest son)
• Florence (daughter-in-law)
• Applebaum (Wes & Flo's landlord)
• Bud (step-son)
• Rudy (step-daughter)
• Diane (step-granddaughter)

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Links:

• Photos of the Curtis Hotel
• Review of Curtis Hotel, from I Recommend, by Roland L. Hill in 1948
• Muggley's Recreation
• Midway Gardens
• 1947 sit-in by Bayard Rustin

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Cover Photo: Steve's HS grad photo in front of the big spruce in the back yard

––––

Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

Only 36 hours after her previous letter, Mattie has news enough to write again to Ken. And yes, it's about Wes & Flo.

Plus, Mattie is listening to a lot of radio, and narrowly avoiding teenagers, but she cannot get out of her new obligation as it looks as though, despite her wishes, the world isn't ending.

But the biggest news isn't from Mattie - it's from us - because we found Virginia! The mysterious Virginia, of whom we have only 2 photographs and no last name, now has that last name and a bunch more photos. We followed the clues from the letters, and now we know a whole lot more.

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Characters This Week:

• Wes (eldest son)
• Florence (daughter-in-law)
• Applebaum (Wes & Flo's landlord)
• Mrs. Berkey (??)
• Virginia (Ken's squeeze)
• Georgine Hanson (neighbor/church friend)
• Gram (mother)
• Myrtle Yocum (acquaintance)
• Susan (??)

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Cover Photo: Virginia's high school yearbook photo

––––

Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

In our longest ever letter (but not episode!), we have a bombshell of a revelation about Mattie's son Wes, and his wife Florence. Mattie is way in her feelings, and leaning on her faith to get through.

Ken is NOT leaning on Edgar Guest's poems, so he's got plenty of energy left to be Mattie's sounding board about a homesick Bud, and the answer to who is the new president of the Ladies Aid.

Content Advisory: this episode contains discussion of domestic violence.

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Characters This Week:

• Wes (eldest son)
• Florence (daughter-in-law)
• Mrs. Colona (Wes & Florence's neighbor)
• Giertsen's (best friends)
• Mrs. Nelson (volunteer friend)
• Bud (stepson)
• Mrs. Hance (friend)

––––

Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.

It's a whole new season, and a whole new year! 1943 is starting off with a Western Union telegram from Ken. Plus some poetry, radio specials, and our first of many, many cutouts from the newspaper.

A talkative Wes (who knew!??!?) is lonely in California, but Mattie doesn't have that problem, what with all the entertaining she's doing. Also entertaining is Herman Straka, a local boy making good with those funky tunes. Also making good is Mattie with her affection for Virginia. Did we learn more about Virginia while we were away? We did!

Plus, this week we get an update on world affairs, and local goings on.

This episode is dedicated to Bob Hoyt.

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Characters This Week:

• Wes (son)
• Florence (daughter-in-law)
• Cousin Ella (cousin)
• Margaret (cousin-once-removed)
• Virginia (Ken's girl)
• Elizabeth Rickard (neighbor kid)
• Rudy (Matt's youngest)
• Gennrich's (friends)
• John and Helen Mickelsen (Matt's brother and sister-in-law)
• Herman Straka (Ken's school chum)
• Uncle Art (older brother)
• Gram (mother)
• Aunt Ella (older sister)
• Chuck Giertsen (Ken's bestie)

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Cover Photo: "Sleighing they go–just like mother and dad. For these Macalester students, Herman Straka (left), and Charlotte Robertson, rationing is no hardship." - St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dec 27, 1942

––––

Website: moth.family

Contact us: [email protected]

Get notified about new episodes

––––

Mattie On The Homefront is produced by Hans Buetow. It is hosted by Hans Buetow and Steve Buetow. The theme music is by Matt Buetow. The graphic design is by Amy Kirkpatrick.

Check out the podcast Never Post at neverpo.st. A good place to start is the episode A New Type of Grief: Inheritance Posting.