Bon voyage
1961 September 2 Ina to Estelle from San Francisco.
Dear mom and dad,
My, do they have the relatives around California. 1 I’ve met one of Alvin‘s brothers (Alvin senior who had 8 brothers - most likely met Clarence) and their family and one of Louise’s sisters and her daughter and family. Tomorrow we are going to visit another sister in a town not too far from here. On Sunday, we plan to visit Betty‘s husband‘s folks in Santa Cruz.
The contact people in San Francisco are having a party for all the New Guinea people. It is a church that greets and send off missionaries that arrive or leave from San Francisco.
Our trip out was real nice. The car crib for Paula and the infant seat for Tommy surely was a lifesaver. He slept most of the time. I had to start giving him cereal two times a day now. He is so long. There is only 4 inches leeway on the infant seat. I haven’t weighed him since he was 11 lbs. 9 oz. at six weeks old. He is so heavy to carry now. Most people want to hold him but after only a few minutes, they’re ready to lay him down. He smiles so much, but coo’s only occasionally. When he smiles, his arms and legs goes so fast. He uses his whole body to smile. Most are amazed when they learn that he is only seven weeks old.
They have their backyard fenced in so Paula can play outside.2 They also have a big wagon which Paula loves to pull around. She loves their dog and a small, shaggy hair dog some sort. She follows him around batting him. It says ‘da-Ty’-same as for daddy. She tried to say puppy with not too much success. She’s learned how to crawl out of her bed. Last night Louise’s sister’s daughter were over. I bathed Paula and put her to bed. They came before she went to sleep so I brought her out. Then after she had shaken hands and performed a bit, I put her back to bed. I close the door to the bedroom and came out. After 20 minutes I heard the door knob turn and I thought maybe Al had gone in and I hadn’t seen him. The door opened and out came Paula. I don’t know how she learned to open the door but she has done it repeatedly today. Toilet training is really gone down the drain. We bought a plastic one to put on the toilet seat. I hope it will work. I’m not going to try again because we’ll get on the ship.
All our luggage arrive today except- (letter ends here- I’m not sure it got sent but info here is interesting so posting it.)
Footnotes:
1 Refering to Alvin Sr and Louise Erickson’s extended family.
2 Staying with Alvin’s sister Betty and her husband John Williamson who live in Fremont, California near San Francisco.
John and Betty Williamson with Carol, Arlene, Steve and Mark circa 1963. Betty is Alvin Jrs sister. The Erickson’s stayed with them in CA before boarding the ship to PNG
1961 September 6 to Estelle Titus.
Letter written from Ina Erickson from Vancouver, Canada to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA .
Dear mom and dad,
I tried to call you on Tuesday before we sailed[1]. I suppose you started school huh? (Estelle’s profession is a school teacher)
I meant to get up at 5 AM to call and forgot to set the alarm. Then I try to call before our ship sailed but you weren’t home yet. So, I’m so glad to be able to talk to you tonight. I’m sorry dad wasn’t awake. I do hope he gets to feeling better. Our room has 4 bunk beds we use the top 2 for storage as Paula still uses her crib and Tommy his chair. The first thing after we got settled in our cabin and Paula knew we were going to stay, she wanted her crib. She really is too big for it but it is familiar to her. She said ‘wroer’ for water today as she looked at the ocean from the boat. She started leaning and pointing so excitedly’ da da da da’ and she wanted to play in the water. She hates being penned up in the cabin and wants to play in the hall. She throws a tantrum every time we close the door.
She’s been eating so well, she can hardly wait for a meal. Every time we go to the dining room she wants to go in. This noon she slept through dinner so we brought some soup down for Paula. It was cold by the time she awakened and with each bite would say ‘mmmm’, like it was the best thing that she had ever tasted. There was some left and just before supper she spotted it and wanted some more. I gave her a little and then she ate a huge supper. When we got back, she still wanted some more of that cold soup.
Tommy has been real good. He has cereal 2 times a day now. I bought some canned bananas and started them today. When I weighed him today he weighed 13 pounds with his clothes on. When Vince saw him he said with wide eyes ‘what have you been doing to that child’.
The Oronsay is a huge British ship and most of the help and passengers are either English, Canadian or Australian and ‘Yank’s’ as we are called, are in the minority. We are served ‘Tea’ in our room even before were up. We are in the very bottom deck, which we really don’t mind as when the sea was rough it was calmer the lower we went. We have porters to clean our rooms and make our beds and a fresh pitcher of milk in the refrigerator for the children’s bottle. We do have washing facilities and a sink with hot and cold water in our room.
Vancouver had such a beautiful approach with farming and mountains covered in trees coming down to the Bay on one side and the city on the other. We went downtown and got some disposable diapers, baby food and a few other incidentals. We have to use English money aboard ship and Canadian downtown. And all we have is US money. Not too confusing.
Barb and Vince (Fricke)[2] have been good about helping us with the kids. Vince is trying to get in Paula’s affections. She had just started going to gramma Erickson when we left.
Our trip from Montana was real fine[3]. We enjoyed Yellowstone so much. The geysers are really something. Huge pots of mud boiling and beautiful colors. Then crystal clear pools bubbling and steaming. Beautiful waterfalls in huge canyons so deep and so wide, rushing mountain streams, huge high mountains that went up and up and up. The Rockies- the highest summit we were on was 11,000 feet, beautiful trees and only occasional snow and lovely mountain lakes so mirror-like reflecting the blue skies, tall trees and fluffy white clouds.
Salt Lake City and it’s Mormon temple was fascinating. The great Salt Lake looked lower than the shoreline usually was and it looks so deserted without trees or any green thing for miles. The great salt flats, were flat like around Fargo except no grass or trees or any living thing, I thought Montana was desolate but you should have seen this.
We stayed in Reno one night and that is about another books worth so I’ll save it for another later addition. Our congratulations to Bette and Frank. God has been good to ask. We love you both and you’re in our thoughts and prayers.
Love Al, Ina Paula and Tom.
[1] Boarded their ship the Oronsay in San Francisco which sailed to Vancouver, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and finally to Sydney.
[2] Missionaries Vince and Barb Fricke served in the early 1960s at Ponapa Station in the highlands. Alvin and Ina took to the Fricki’s and they became good friends in PNG.
[3] Grandpa Alvin Erickson and Grandma Louise Erickson Al and Ina and kids to San Francisco to catch the ship to New Guinea. They stayed with Al’s sister Betty and family.
Paula at 15 months on her way to Papua New Guinea.
Ina and Paula at Yellowstone Park
A stopover at Yellowstone Park. Ina Erickson holding Paula, Louise and Alvin Erickson who are Alvin J’s parent. They drove the young Erickson family to California to board the ship to PNG
The ship Oronsay. Boarded the Oronsay in San Francisco which sailed to Vancouver, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and finally to Sydney.
Postcard from the Ship. Sadie and Hugh Jones. They were Ina and Alvin Erickson landlords while in Stevens Point. They stayed in upstairs apartment ½ bloc from Pastor Stan and Cordell Klyve.
Meeting again 56 years later….
Janet Heist and Paula Erickson Bergs at the Katherine Lehmann School reunion in 2017. Janet babysat Paula on the Oronsay while her parents went to the dining room. Janet was 10 then. Janet’s parents were Marty and Florence Heist. They were at Bumayong High School about 8 miles north of Lae, PNG in the Mountains.