Technically Al wrote this letter the day before Elma wrote #4, but I think she wrote that one before she received this one. Does that make sense? Anyway, here is #5.
The transcript:
620 N. Union St.
Kokomo, Ind.
February 10, 1931
Dear Elma
Well Elma here I am back with a few words for I have nothing else to do but sit here in my room and pass my time away somehow, it seems like I have been here for a month or more already but if everything is like the fellows say I won’t be here very long, if I am lucky enough I might get out of Kokomo by the first of March but whether I don’t know all I know is that three fellows out of the gang are going to get transferred by the first of March but I don’t know where they go to, so don’t go to worrying about that I will be home the first day of March. O boy wouldn’t that be great, they also say that this job should be completed by the first of April or so and the use of the Dial is supposed to start the first day of June, so I guess we will have to trust luck and not make assignments and pray a whole lot so we might see each other real soon again, I feel like I couldn’t wait or like I had to see you tonight Elma, but it is too far to see you tonight. So I guess I will be going to bed tonight with a busting head and dream all night about being there to see you and how.
Elma I guess you can read my scribbling I don’t know, like you said whether you are any good on working crossword puzzles, but that is just the way I feel the way the scribbling, scratches and hooks look to you.
Elma tell me something, I haven’t heard you say anything since Sunday morning when I kissed you goodby at the buss station. I am doing all the talking all the time and don’t hear you at all, so if you can’t say anything please Elma write a few words for I feel like I fell off, off a cliff and nobody knows where I fell to, so I am looking for a few words even if it is no letter, just a few words will be enough to tell me that you are still alive down at Evansville.
Well Elma I am catching myself getting too darn homesick I will have to change my subject and try to think and write about something else Elma I don’t know whether you can make heads or tails out of my writing or not if not let me know and I will try and study my letters before I start writing. study it like a German and then preach ha, ha sent that hot.
Well Elma I am getting good at writing and making funny hooks on a piece of paper, I am going to tell you a little something about my room, it is very nice and clean. I have a large bed for two to sleep, but I have no bed partner and haven’t seen any bed partners either, I have a great big dresser in one corner and a wardrobe in another corner and at the foot of my bed is a door to the side into the bathroom, hot and cold water and a gray rug on the floor it looks pretty good, one door leading into the living room and one door to the front porch and one window in the front, it is nice and warm furnace heated and also have a drop light in the center of the ceiling, nice and white lace curtains on the window and door. Oh I guessI will have to draw you a sketch of my room for positive it won’t be anything extra, so here goes, ***** well here it is I guess you see the little grid on top of the W.R. that is where I put it haha laugh a wile.
Well Elma I guess I have spread whole lot of stuff tonight enough to make anybody sick so I guess I will have to close for this time and write you some other time and tell you some more when I feel more like writing again. I don’t mean that I ain’t feeling good, for I am feeling pretty good about as good as can be expected from anyone being away from home, I wrote mom a German letter tonight, Elma you go and see mom sometime I know it will make her feel better and let me know how she is getting along.
It is now about nine O’clock and I will close this letter and go to bed and dream a **** with Love and kisses from Al.
My comments:
- My first thought was that my grandpa spoke very little in the 25 years that I knew him, so reading this four page letter was both eye-opening and bewildering. I asked my mother if he spoke a lot when she was growing up and she said, no, that he would come inside from cleaning the ditches, run cold water over his wrists and sit down at the table to eat–all without saying a word. I wish I had spoken to him more to learn more about him. I don’t feel like I knew him well at all.
- It is clear from this letter that my grandpa loved or was smitten by my grandma. I am very thankful for his persistence, because without that I wouldn’t be here. When I read this letter my grandpa’s homesickness was palpable.
- I have always been curious about the cultural influence of my great great grandparent’s German heritage. Both of my grandparent’s grandparents were born and grew up in Germany and clearly they still clung to that culture, frozen in 1850. I find it interesting that my grandfather refers to his handwriting and tells my grandma to “study it like a German”. Only he can interpret that for us, but my stab at it is that culturally Grandpa perceived Germans as being highly critical and scrutinizing.I guess I know where I got it from ; ) I also found it interesting that my grandpa wrote a German letter, which I can only assume is a letter in German. I had no idea that my grandpa knew German well enough to write it. He did have kind of an accent when he spoke English, but I never thought about where that came from.
Until next time…..