File:Erica (Thorp) de Berry to Thorp family, 7 August 1918 (d900fe7f-9757-4590-8af9-050a6e6a1bab).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1006/004.006.002-006#031

Lacaune
August 7, 1918
Dearest People,
Another long gap in which I’ve been running down to Castres, and across the mountains in an automobile to look up places for a possible winter colony for our littlest ones! And in a few days I’m off to Toulouse to buy cows & stoves! —
In the meanwhile, we’ve had quite an upheaval in the household regime, with the arrival of 20 big boys, i.e. boys from 13 to 16 which make our other “grands” seem so small and young. They are a fine lot, [p. 2] husky and energetic, with some perfect charmers among them. and We’ve put them all right to work in the garden, chopping wood, helping the masons & carpenters & fixing up the tennis court. It is such a luxury to have big boys whom you can send on long distance errands and give responsible jobs to! And they are such wonderful companions — I get so enthusiastic over them all that it’s no use trying to describe them unpartially [sic]. Their responsiveness , ^enthusiasm, and perfect naturalness and un-self-consciousness in any ^no[?] makes what ^ situation whatsoever are too much for one’s power of resistance. I’ve lost my heart so many times over that it shattered to bits
[p. 3 marked 2] We are trying to find a good [???] carpenter & shoemaker to come down for the winter and run an apprentice shop for the big ones in one of the chalets. Meanwhile, as I’ve said, we turn them loose on every conceivable job.
My trip to the Mediterranean came as a wonderful surprise, tho’ we’d ^long^ been hoping for the possibility — the Abbé & I [&] one of his friends, a certain Dr. Sicard hearing that we were looking ^ [?]^ for a winter colony for the petits, suggested our looking over an estate au bord de la mer in which he had wine interests. It sounded delightful so we went thro’ all the formalities of applying for permission to use the essence to get there by automobile, [p. 4] and after waiting a month were suddenly rewarded so off we swooped, ^ day before^ yesterday, tearing up the La Salvetad road above Lugent[?] and down corkscrew curves into a gorgeous Italian-Amalfi road type of country and finally into the plain with miles of vineyards stretching indefinitely from terraced hills to the sea!
I can’t tell you the exhilaration of being on the road again back in such belovedly familiar types of surroundings rushing forward & onward in the same carefree swoop ^Italian [?]^ as of old. Also, the droleness[sic] and novelty of being with absolute strangers, (except for the Abbé) of spending the night in their funny little pompous house [p. 5 marked 3] at Coursau, being dined & wined of their best, and seeing rally for the first time the inside of French family life next morning, we bumped thro’ miles of sandy, pine-bordered, [?]-like road to the sea, shimmering & vast, stretching in all its summer laziness and blueness from a golden sand plape[?] of immense proportions to a hazy, jagged outline of Pyrenees. It was a breath-taking, soul-filling a sight to one long inland pent! as you can seel![?]
We found a few rather battered pavilion things, politely called hotels, under the pines, behind them [p. 6] acres of vineland, and in front the the whole free sweep of sand and sea [?] magnified a 100-fold. To find such a place reflected and unspoiled is almost unbelievable — The possibilities are so vast. One could have put all our 1700 comité children on the beach, and still have had acres to spare. It is a great chance for us or the Red Cross, and I dream & scheme out magnificent propects[sic] of ^future^ sanatoriums and tent-colonies.
On the way back I stopped off at Bedarieux to look over the place which ^we have practically^ chosen the nurses have been [p. 7 marked 4] planning for our 50 youngest. The nurses are going with them so it is really their special colony, and it is as enchanting in its small-scale way as the sea-colony for a larger number. It is an old monastery of formerly cloistered Carmelite nuns, a three-sided, cloistered, low, stucco building built around one of the loveliest tangled fruit tree, box, hedged gardens you have ever seen! The Behind the hillside [mounts?] perpendicularly, olive and vine-covered, to a regular Italian-blue sky, and sunshine and humming peacefulness bathe it all in a middle-age serenity. You can imagine the fascination of planning at [p. 8] our leisure for dormitories in the place of the little Fra Angelico cells, outdoor school on the broad balconies, play rooms in the old refectoire and arcades, dispensary & infirmary in the sunniest, new wing, & a quiet sewing ^sitting^ room for the sisters in the iron-barred, grated-in chapel annex of their cloistered predecessors.
I longed for Russell and an architect’s mind. The fun of doing it over in keeping[?]! One almost hates to cut the grass & trim the fig trees and grape-vines. It’s so exactly as it should be — magnolias, late roses, over paths overgrown with grass and weeds, moss on the walls, lizards and snails and soaring over all the most graceful little [campanile?] in France!
[p. 9 marked 5] Well, I’m afraid this all sounds very far from scientific plumbing and account keeping, but I certainly ran amuck in the land of romance again in that dashing to the sea and dreamy morning of peace ^all so^ reminiscent ^of a 1000 pre-war things.^ If the comité decides to take it and we can get it fixed in time, we’ll move the little ones down in September. I shall stay on at Lacaune till the last nail ^of reparation (if it ever is!)^ is driven, anyway, and probably all winter, more as a food-conserv[?] than [p. 10] anything, I guess, for “crises” are beginning. We had a shortage of bread & potatoes ^in the country^ for awhile & had to telegraph Prefects and such. But they’ve all been wonderfully good about helping us & the children never complain, no matter what happens —
Dr. Fleck has been giving them all thorough osteopathic exams & treatment, and it’s such fun to interpret for him & Dr. Bugbee, watch the violent twistings & crackings & the boys’ varying expressions of amazement & mirth. He’s a life-long friend of Dr. Ellis in Boston, & I suppose to Mamma & Al the contortions wouldn’t [p. 11] seem so queer. To me they are terrifying, and the crackings & creakings most ominous. But he certainly does limber up the boys, pull up flat chests, straighten out curvatures and twist necks till youd expect to see the heads snap off.
Our séances in the Bugbee’s chalet are wonderful. She does throat & heart exams at one end of the dispensary, while Dr. Fleck ^ in his butcher apron ^ kneads & pounds at another on his funereal black table (just like sticking a pig as the boys call it!!) In the [p. 12] chaise longue reclines our young 22-month-old Lacaune protegie, an Italian baby who was stricken with a complicated case of meningitis, & was too sick to be taken to the hospital at Castres. It She is much better now, thanks to the mayor & Doctor B’s care. He (the mayor) comes up every day to see her, & he & Dr. B. proceed to have the most delicious ^solemn at-the-start^ medical discussions, interpreted blindly by me, both disagreeing as to what methods of treatment to employ & ^causing^ all of us ^in the end^ to going off into hysterics at the funniness of it. He is so charming, & so gracious, and so delightfully endowed with a sense of humorous that it’s a [p. 13] pleasure to disagree.
Would that you could see him, for the very finest, most appealing and entrancing type of “Jeune gens francais!"
I’ll try to get a picture of him on the sly some day.
Meanwhile, to continue the dispensary scene, our youngest Alfred, aged 2 ½ and Charles, the 3-year older, who was frightfully burned by asphyxiating gas, and picked up, abandoned, in the Somme river, the children say saunter in and precede[sic] to make [p. 14] love to the little Italian lady with soft cooings & gentle hand-touchings. Crash, slap goes Dr. Fleck and a chorus of “Oh la les ca cragine!” and delighted giggles arises from the admiring audience of those awaiting their turn in the doorway.
“Ask this one what his parents died of” says Dr. F. & on inquiry we find that both are hale & hearty.
Dr B. never ^scarcely^ uttering a word, but never missing a trick with her twinkling, all-seeing eyes, knowing practically no French, but by some marvelous faculty getting the information she wants in spite of it, moves quietly in and out, [p. 15] Never hurrying, always smiling, marshalling them in and out as if she could talk 90 to the minute. She is a wonderful woman, & it is lovely to see the attraction she has for them all — The little ones flock round her door, plant themselves solemnly in the wicker armchairs, or on the ^big^ grey afghan with the red cross in the centre, perfectly content to rest all morning in her shadow, tho’ she only now or then says a few remarks to them [p. 16] in English. I don’t know what we shall do without her when she has to go home the first of September —
—This long rambley — ramble must stop — tho’ it’s so hard to.
Just think, Dr. Fleck brought us a real Victor, baseballs & mitts, candy ad infinitum & a magic lantern with slides arranged by Mr. Charles Peabody of Brattle [?]! We tried them out with the older boys last night & the first to appear was the Harvard Stadium!
The kids looked in vain for Napoleon & Foch, but loved the Indians & even the Pilgrim Fathers. (It was a series of American historical scenes) Papa, you have[?] us [p. 16 margin:] landscape ones, have you, mts. Or sea? We long for more. I am going to send you [p. 1 margin:] a list of things to send over with the next girl[?] friend coming — shoes & such. I am badly in need for the winter
Dearest love to every blessed island thing
affectionately
Your Bun.
I hope old Al is all better.
[Note: Some pages in this letter were written on official stationery, front and back. The header of the stationery says: COMITÉ FRANCO-AMÉRICAIN POR LA PROTECTION DES ENFANTS DE LA FRONTIÈRE 77, RUE D’AMSTERDAM, PARIS Below that, on the left, is printed: “COLONIE FRANCO-AMÉRICAINE DE LACAUNE” LACAUNE-LES-BAINS (TARN)]

• Keywords: long archives; henry w. longfellow family papers (long 27930); erica (thorp) de berry; document; correspondence; europe; france; lacaune; education; health and illness; school; war; world war i; anne allegra (longfellow) thorp; joseph gilbert thorp jr.; friendship; social life; travel; women; Erica Thorp deBerry Papers (1006/004.006); (LONG-SeriesName); Outgoing (1006/004.006.002); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1918 (1006/004.006.002-006); (LONG-FileUnitName)