The Campbell House,
219 Third Ave., North,,
St. Petersburg, Fla.,
April 2nd, 1925.
My dear Aunts, Uncles and Cousins:
The time has slipped by so quickly I can not believe my letter is behind the schedule. I suppose "busy" is a poor excuse. However, with over fifty people in the house, and all wanting some little attention, and in serving breakfast to about one hundred twenty-five people, we manage to keep busy.
We serve no noon luncheon except to the family which consists of Ford Pratt and wife and son besides ourselves. At five thirty P.M. we begin serving dinner which lasts until seven o'clock.
Ford came here early in February with his family, and expects to make St. Petersburg his permanent home. He, with Curt and Merritt Mitchell, Ruth's husband, has just built and started an open air motion picture theater for the colored people1. Ford has bought a piece of land on which he expects to build a number of small houses for sale and rent. These houses find a very ready market.
Ford's daughter, Martha, recently of Elmira College, has entered Stetson University at Deland. Out son, Tom, is at University of Florida in Gainesville. Contrary to the general opinion, we have very good schools in Florida. In fact, I believe they are equal to any of the northern colleges.
We have had a wonderful winter with the weather perfect. It doesn't seem possible that there has been snow banks and ice anywhere, or that any one has had to shovel coal, ashes and snow.
Wouldn't it be fine to hold a cousins reunion in St. Petersburg? Now that Aunt Kate and Uncle Lish Horton have a home here, Ruth and Merritt, my mother and father, the Pratts and ourselves are all housed, we could take care of you all. One day we called together twenty-six relatives for a picnic and swim at the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. What town up North could call a crowd of that number together upon an hour's notice?
1. 1925 was within the heyday of "Jim Crow" laws in the South, so movie audiences had to be segregated. And, as Cousin Eva HOOKER Hills letter on pg, 5 illustrates, the KKK was alive and well in Pennsylvania (and Middle Atlantic states) then.
We have enjoyed having Cousin Ed and Cousin Em Congdon with us at the hotel this winter, also a number of Cowanesque Valley people who have been our guests. Doubtless some of the others will tell you of our Cowanesque Circle.
Must close. With love and best wishes to all,
Sincerely,
Utilizing Sandy Buck Garrett's 2012 transcription.
Copyright © 2013 William B. Thompson. Commercial use prohibited.