Savannah, September 26 1938
Long live the birthday child Christian! We have forgotten to fly the flag today but we are of course so far away from Christian, so he won’t see it and you won’t tell him. Last year we drank a toast with the Danish consul on Martinique in champagne but unfortunately the American Mr. Schroder is a lousehead (lousy) and here I sit and empty the water pitcher luckily with pieces of chocolate from a Norwegian’s captain’s wife to cheer me up and all the others sleep so I’m really putting it away and I haven’t improved in regards to the sweet things, now that was the date. Now the letter starts.
Dear Marie and Valdemar!
This letter will have to be the thank you letter. Thank you for the birthday letter, thanks for the card from Friedolin from Vienna, the poor guy, in a second hand shirt. Thank you for the Sailsports magazine, thanks for the letter from Mads, thank you for Mrs. Dornbushe’s note, and thank you for the money. They arrived today without any friendly words. Have you now got a writer’s cramp? Poor Valdemar. How much money must have been used up in Kadermindegade in order that you can write to the joyful travelling family. Thank you one more time for everything, thank you, thank you, thank you. Maybe you read about the hurricane by New York and thought about us. We have been planning to sail so far north that we were sure to be rid of their danger and then one comes and does nothing down here in the southern states but up in New York a terrible lot of damage, that’s how it can go, the one who has to hang on wouldn’t drown. Now we sail to Jacksonville to wait for the hurricane time to end. According to a poem:
June to soon
July stand by
August come is it must
September remembers
October all over
Furthermore, I have to tell Uncle Sam has been very generous and has returned the 100 $ that’s a lot of money especially for us. We have been very much looking for a steamer that will take us along back to Europe but we didn’t succeed. Peter has to bite in the sour apples and continue with diapers, rocking the baby etc. (He says: “Vater werden ist nicht schwervater sein dagegen sehr” which means: Becoming a father is not difficult. Being a father is very difficult.) Now it is too cold by you for us so we let the time pass and next spring hopefully Hitler has organized a Europe the way he wants it, and Denmark permitted to keep Copenhagen. Now the paper has run out for this time. Savanna is the most boring town in the world, no invitations, no car trips, we have been feeling as so we were in prison here, but now things start to happen. Our address is still Consul A. Andersen, West Palm Beach, Florida