70. July after 1922. Perhaps 1923 Part 1

Some of the letters have no date on them.  We know Anna Greta died in 1922, so can date letters after or before that date.  Jonas Victor moves around to live with his sons.  This letter is Part 1 of a letter from Clay Center, Kansas, where his son, P. L. Swenson, lived.  Roselyn


Clay Center, Kansas
July   Probably 1923.


Dear Brother Albert and Family,
     Thanks for your letter.  It  is always nice to hear from you and that you are in good health.  It is not surprising that you get tired.  You are in your life's afternoon, but as long as you have something to do with your farm and the cattle, you get exercise and the time passes faster. That is my experience, particularly now that I cannot read a book or a newspaper.  I can read handwriting if it is written on white paper with black ink.
     Here both the young and old feel tired, not only in Kansas but also in Illinois, where the air is heavy and sultry.  The people here are tired in spite of no walking.  If anybody has to move twice as far as you have to your barn, they use their car.  If they plough, harrow, sow or whatever they do in the field, they use two, four or six horses, they do not walk.  In spite of that they get tired.  Only when they stack up hay and look after the animals, do they walk.  In town people have cement on the path to walk on, as I think you have and I have now, when I am with my son for weeks or perhaps months.
     I walk about an English mile to keep my body moving.  It is the best I can do.  Here it is unusually warm weather, up to 105 degrees.  We have not heard that anybody has died in the hot weather.  In Minnesota, in the cities and also in Illinois, people are dying because of the hot weather.  The air is lighter here in Kansas, but in other states, it is still better.  We live on earth in the valley of tears wherever we are.  We hardly can find the same climate here as in Sweden.
     Thanks for the fine portrait of your son. It was sad to hear what had happened.  When he wrote home he was conscious, but he felt that he would die.  Perhaps God was in his thought and he asked for forgiveness , as the robber said to Jesus, that he would think of him when he came to his realm. We know what the answer was.