Winter59 Mosta Christophe

Letter from Claude to Vonette,

Mostaganem Thursday, December 4 1958
....in principle we are waiting for birth on Christmas Day, and I am going quite well and feeling full of energy.
I've had a lot of domestic troubles lately – but you'll tell me that I'm still lucky to live with the domestic regime that's not so common in France.
Frédéric coughs and flies, and since his school is not heated, I do not put him back in class until he is fully recovered. This little boy has made a lot of progress in singing and modelling – in coloring too – but for the rest it is better not to talk about it. His father who would like a krach as son bought him cubes with the alphabet, but the little gentleman is still lacking maturity.
The friendly life is disorganized a little in Mostaganem, with the departure of friends that we saw a lot and that of the young household Géli planned for the spring – who would leave to settle near Algiers to manage a large estate in Algeria. And how long will we stay?
The elections went well – with some crêpages of chignons it is true – between the candidates who each wanted a piece of butter plate. And then I was furious that the deputies were all on the same side, it really lacked freedom of choice.
It's beautiful right now, and in Seals? I hope you haven't started bronchitis trouble yet and it will be spared you this winter..

Letter from Claude to Tandree, same day

Mostaganem Thursday4 December 1958
... I'm fine... it's like I ate lion.
Everything is very well organized – a fatma (it's said) from the 15th and a nurse an hour in the day for the baby and myself, which will allow me to not stay too long in the clinic and be like a dough cock after.
Here winter is a lot of softness – +20° in the shade in the afternoon – that is to say that in the sun you can sleep in the sun. Fortunately, this naughty Frédéric for a week has been in cough and rhinopharyngitis.
We've already made the crèche with provencal santons and makeover paper.....
We always enjoy the stock of Dampierre apples and they eat quickly, eaten with all sauces.
Yves is always full of dynamism; I just made him a huge sweater on my knitting machine, which I would like to give him as a Christmas present, although it's hardly a surprise!
The elections were held here in a quiet atmosphere... but I was so in a mood for two candidates that I voted white.

Letter from Claude to his parents
Mostaganem 26 December 1958
...I am writing you from the clinic where baby Christophe came into the world this night – even more easily than during my first deliveries, almost in 1 hour of time, a real marathon. (on 20 Dec.) He's a little boy who doesn't look like the other two; he's much more Cordelle than we do. Let's thank God for being a beautiful baby. We looked at him well and he looks like a boy.
At home, everything is very well organized. (concierge of the building) I came to sleep while I was at the clinic. (the fatma, a very exceptional, dedicated, intelligent and effective girl, endowed with extraordinary memory, favored by the fact that she could not read or write) And then he'll spend the end of the afternoon at one of the other houses; then he'll come to the clinic and have dinner at the same time, and my two men will go home and have a rest, all while I'm here.
Yesterday it was Christmas, it made us very happy to hear your voices at the end of the wire, we had made a beautiful tree and the shoes were full. In any case this baby that meets our expectations is very nice Christmas gift we have.^nd I hope the show is not over.
PS weighs 3Kg 200, already requires pitance, has black hair and a pretty little figure.

Letter from Claude to his parents
Mostaganem Monday around 13 January 1959
....Christophe now has 18 days, and there are many things to tell about him. First his first conscious smile (in response to mine) at 15 days. He is a small early baby. Then a curve of weight arrows since he gets 30 to 45g of weight per day, and weighed Saturday 3kg 550 to 15 days, that is to say he had already exceeded his birth weight by 40g.
As for me, I have rested very well thanks to Ouda who is sleeping at home. Fortunately, because when I returned from a clinic I had the painful standing station, with cartilage of the pelvis still poorly put in place ... and the beginnings of the breast aborted every time thanks to the warm water compresses and homeopathic pills. I would nevertheless like to feed Christophe for some time because my diet succeeds. So that I only get up 3 hours a day ... for my toilet, the baby's and meals....
Yesterday we had the good surprise of seeing a cousin d-Yves, Jean-Louis Hausermann, arriving at the house on duty in Algeria and it was a very pleasant visit....
Frédéric is going very well, doesn't cough and has a very good appetite. Ginou very nicely takes it to me after class 4-6 so that he doesn't spin like a fly all day at home. His room is a real toy shop. The nail was this year a pedal car offered by the Dragage Company – a king's gift for a little boy from the XXth century, and a revolver offered by the concierge, that Frédéric wears a good part of the day in a back pocket of his pants like a gangster. He's a boy! I'm here with my three men.
...Frédéric will soon send a beautiful painting.

Letter from Claude to Vonette,
Mostaganem Mondayend of January 1959
.... Sunday 8 days ago, Christophe was baptized. The priest had stuck the ceremony between two masses. The sacristan had very kindly raised Frédéric on a chair and this little boy opened his eyes to see what was happening on the baptismal backgrounds. Christophe, well repudiated by me was very wise. The Géli replaced godfather and godmother.
Yesterday we went all day to the Mullers... and I had all the time to compare my Christophe with the Benoît) by Nicole Pen. "My Christophe" took 900g above his birth weight at 4 weeks, that is to say if he is fat, it is really vigorous child, he does not cry so much, eats with appetite, is calm and awake, he is a healthy child, and it is really not tiring to raise a baby in these conditions.
The Benoît of Nicole Pen is skinny as a cat, he's 2 months old and just regained his birth weight, weeps a lot, and I won't trade mine for his!
As for me, unfortunately I did not liquidate the stories of the abscesses. Another alert last week... and I think that today I am still starting to do it again. Fortunately I manage to heal in two or three days and it doesn't have time to get tired.
Yesterday we went to the cinema to see a film by Brigitte Bardot, "In case of misfortune", which does not play so badly as to be told.
I got a little letter from Madette. (a very handicapped cousin, unable to live alone, and often in a bad mood) She looks happy, as long as it lasts.
We are making our investments on the stock exchange (finally, we have given up buying a field because it is complicated, quite expensive at this moment and less easily negotiable later than values, if we have to buy an apartment – only way to stay if we go back to France – Although this is not so much the time since everything is rising. If it does not bother you can give us the remaining 500,000 – cash or value – so that we can put our affairs in order.
I don't know if we told you that we were planning on our spring trip to Paris to look for another post, although in the background I feel quite melancholy about changing houses and cities. (In fact, I was very disagreeablely received at the Ministry of TP in Paris by the Director of Personnel of the Bridges and Chaussées, and the only positive thing was that he saw no inconvenience when I left for another place, which I did of course the following year on my way to Electricity and Gas Algeria)
The Tutenuit leave Oranfor Algiers, the wind is definitely changing.
...I received a long letter from Colette Charles-Messance, married to Remiremont in the Vosges. She told me that her father is retired, that "he did not find an interesting situation, but knows how to occupy"...