Elma and Al

February 20, 1931

Letter from Elma on the pink paper

The transcript:

Evansville, IN

Feb 20, 1931

Dear Al,

            Just came home from church and the rest are going to bed, Marie asked if I was coming too. I told her I’d be there in a few minutes for I know I wasn’t going before I sent a few sweet kisses and just a few words far away to you Al. Far away as far as the distance is concerned yet Al no matter how many miles between us you always seem closer and really are closer to my heart than anyone right here with me. Telling the truth Al I don’t see how I can do what I am doing around here with my mind and all my thoughts right with you. I go around all day, half in a dream feeling like something terrible has happened when I wake up and realize Al is gone and I won’t get to see or be with him for a long, long time. Better cut this out before I make you too homesick Al for we’re going to brace up and stick it out for we ought pray that you still have and will keep your job. We’ll be together again someday and it might not be so long. Really Al it’s two weeks today you came in from Rockport seems like two years and yet it passed in a hurry. A few more of those blue Sundays and you might be coming closer home. I’ll pray harder every day.

            I almost gave up getting a letter today though the mailman had passed already, was looking for a long one tomorrow when here he came at 1:30 and whenever I’m close around I don’t give anyone else a chance. I get there first to see if I got a letter from Al and gosh Al I’m always glad to hear that you’re still among the living even if I don’t know just where Al I never knew you could write such wonderful letters and Al If I would have known you were going so many kisses. To think anything about Roy Marx at Kerns I might not have told you as I never even gave such a thing a thought and I’m not going to let Ed nor anyone else think I did. Yes Al I’m going to tell you all but don’t you worry about anything like that I’m not worrying about him or a dozen like him I’m waiting for you.

            Had wash day today and market tomorrow and still feeling plenty tough so I guess I’ll make this short well otherwise and sweet. I don’t know when you’ll get this letter but if not sooner maybe it’ll help out on blue Monday. All the rest are well. Sure hope you’re still ok. If not be sure to tell me Al.

Goodnight with love and kisses,

Elma

My commentary:

They were so in love and it’s obvious from this letter. I was thinking about what I would have said/written to my husband before we were married and I don’t think I would be as passionate as Elma and Al were. I was almost the same age as Elma when I got married. I was 27 when I got married. Elma was 25–almost–and Al was 31. I just now realized that there is a 6.5-year gap in age between them. That gap didn’t stop them, though.

You might be wondering who Roy Marx was. According to the letter, he was pursuing my grandma, and she wrote that she is committed to Al. I wondered also so I asked my mom, but she didn’t know. I did a little bit of research and it turns out that Roy founded Marx BBQ in 1955, before barbecue was even a thing. Growing up we would eat Marx’s or Wolf’s whenever there was a family gathering. Little did I know that Roy Marx could have been my grandpa or technically someone’s grandpa. I like barbecue as much as the next person, maybe more, but I have to say “thank you Grandma for staying with and marrying Grandpa”. Life wouldn’t be the same if you hadn’t.

https://marxbbq.com/

February 19,1931

I’m realizing now a couple of things. Al wrote Elma a lot more than Elma wrote Al. It seems like he wrote almost every day while Elma wrote every other or every third day. After all she was pretty busy making that quilt : ). Also, sorry Grandpa, Elma’s handwriting is better and easier to read. Growing up, I remember my Grandpa’s hands as tough, almost leathery, and I can’t imagine those same hands writing a heartfelt letter. Those hands were well-suited for holding a scythe to cut the long grass in the side field, speaking from the experience of seeing him do it. Anyway, I digress. So in today’s post I thought I would feature two letters, one from each of them written on the same day.

Elma first:

Evansville, IN

Feb 19, 1931

Dear Al,

            I guess you missed my skipping last night for I know how I feel when the mailman goes on passed. But Al I can hardly tell you what a job it really is for me to write to the one that’s always been so near and dear to me, the one that I need to wait and whisper just everything to, things that my heart and mind are loaded with, things that I couldn’t tell and wouldn’t interest anyone else. Al these few days have already seemed like a few years to me, how much longer will it last? Al in that letter I got today you surely didn’t mean you were going to stay there when you spoke of having to go to the meetings with the regular men and me coming and staying there with you, did you? If I knew anything like that was going to take place I believe I’d tell you to move over in that big bed of yours and make room for a kicking partner right away. Still there aint much use to worry I guess just wait and see.

            So here goes for a few of the happenings. Yesterday morning up at Reitz some fellow cut in front of me so short my only choice was to get over or get hit. I cut over to the curb and bent up my back fender on the bumper of a parked car. Caught the bumper above the running board. It wasn’t so bad, but I let the insurance company fix it. Took it up to Stockens this morning at about 10:30 and they said I would have to wait until 1:30 so I went uptown and looked around window shopping. Bought three bath towels that were on sale 3 for $1.00. Al they’re real pretty and we might want to take a bath some day. Also got some gingham I want to use for aprons. Every cook needs an apron. I then went to get the machine and the paint was dry enough so I didn’t have to wait when I got down in the west end. It was ten til two already and not much use in going home and coming right back, so I was real good and went to church and prayed the rosary and Al, I never forgot you. After I came from church I went over to your home and spent the rest of my time with your mom and dad. Your mother was sewing and your dad asked if I got a letter from Al today. They’re both well. After coming home more tired than if I worked all day and nothing done anyhow, I mixed up two batches of your P.D.Q ??. Been out for a while so you didn’t miss that part.

This evening Oscar is over to see Marie and mom and dad went to John Kerns. Tony Folz is there and they’re going to have music. I had to help Harold with his lessons and put him to bed. If you could make out anything of his letter write him a few lines of his own. He makes plenty over it when he gets a letter from Al. but one thing I know he won’t get my pen to write with anymore as he about shot it already. All the rest are well and told me to say hello from them.

            It’s getting late again so I’m going to quit for this time but I believe its harder to stop than it is to start. Anyhow, when I happened to think you’ll get all this junk Saturday afternoon when you’ll be home from work. Al you know how I wish I could be with it if it were only on Saturday and Sunday. How I would like to surprise you by being right there with all my love and kisses to greet you when you stepped into your room. And what a greeting that would be. They all tell me absence makes the heart grow fonder so if we’re apart much longer hard telling how I will act when we meet again Al. Until then all I can send on paper is coming right from my lips to yours.

Goodnight Al with more love and kisses than ever before

Elma

My comments:

After I read this one I felt bad because then my grandma wrote a 4-pager. She obviously really missed him too. So my grandma had a wreck down by Reitz-the public high school on the westside of town. I’ve already told you about how she didn’t have a driver’s license…

Other things that happened were that she said Nick and Sophie went over to Kern’s to dance and listen to music. Kern’s lived down Harmony Way, where the Y is with New Harmony Rd. My mom said that often people would visit other people and put a canvas on the grass as a dance floor. It was February, so I’m assuming they stayed inside.

Now Al’s letter. which he wrote on the same day, but she didn’t get until a few days later.

Kokomo, IN

Feb. 19, 1931

Dear Elma,

            I have just received your request and you don’t have to be worried about anything Elma for in no time I think your trouble is too much worries and your system is rundown and weak, so please take care of yourself and don’t worry so much get plenty of rest or if you think you have to keep worrying so much, I will quit the job down here and come home before I see you get down sick with a nervous breakdown so Elma please be careful with yourself please do if for my sake. I want you to get all the sleep and rest you possibly can because you need it very bad Elma your nerves are just about shot now. I know that from myself if I could let everything worry me like that I would be as bad as you are Elma, but I get plenty of sleep and rest all the time and am getting fat. I weighed today and weigh 185 pounds so that is gaining plenty since the last time I weighed at Evansville I weighed about 175 pounds so you can do the same Elma take good care of your system and be healthy and strong for your sweet daddy is wanting you to be in good health, we have school tonight and I want to mail this early so you will get it as soon as possible with love and many sweet kisses and lots of kisses for the days you don’t get a letter so goodbye Elma and a kiss goodnight on your sweet lips.

Al

My comments:

Wow, he sure was worried about her! It cracks me up because if you read this in isolation you might think that my grandma was a nervous person that needed consoling which couldn’t be farther from the truth. I remember her as a strong person although she was a worrier, I think that goes with the time and territory. She lived a lot of life between this letter and when I knew her 40-60 years later. She would go on to marry my grandpa later this same year. She had four children and each of them married and had children. And so much more happened in the world: WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam. As they say…life happened. But it all started here with the letters.

With these letters, it’s hard to keep them in order because Al writes so darn much. He just missed Elma and his family so much.

Kokomo IN

Feb. 15, 1931

Dear Elma,

            Here I am back again after going to church and communion. This morning, feeling pretty good or you might say about as good as can be expected being out in the world all by yourself. You might say nomans land. I went to a show this afternoon, but I don’t think I will go to anymore I guess this year. There isn’t a darn thing to them anyway about like at Rockport, I gave them one donation too so I gave Kokomo a donation of 40 cents and I guess it will be the only 40 cents Kokomo will get from me.

            I believe I would feel a hundred percent better now if I had not gone to the show for all that junk merely gives a person the blues or I guess I won’t go to any others. The other day, I mean, Friday PM I worked on a telephone in the colonial theater. It is 15 cents a show but ain’t worth it. You might say Hello from Al, the one I went to this PM is the Indiana it sounded better but I don’t think it is worth you might say a damn, so that’s that. No more shows for a while anyway til after Easter and God only knows where I will be by that time. I hope at home in Evansville. Oh boy wouldn’t that be real Elma what do you say about all that junk.

            Well Elma you can tell all mine and your friends and also enemies if you have any, for I haven’t any, hello from Al. The old soul at Kokomo and tell Harold I would die if I held my breath til he wrote me a letter, but nevertheless I will forgive him this time for he has to go to school and has to get all his confounded lessons, like Harold thinks these confounded lessons. Tell Harold I am still at Kokomo and he should try and see if he can’t get here so fast as he can push his finger on the map, well I have to say something once in a while or you might think I am rich, which I aint so don’t worry.

            Well Elma, I am feeling a whole lot better now I just had supper had potatoes, steak, eggs, corn, pumpkin pie, cake, bananas sliced, bread, butter, jelly, coffee, and water and I got my fill of it too. Well it is now six o’clock and in another hour Oscar will be there to see Marie that is if he was not there all day. Elma, I wish I was there tonight and could spend only a few minutes with you Elma. I would feel a whole lot better than I do this way so far away from you tonight, but I guess I will have to live over this too. Elma I want to write mom a German letter tonight so I will discontinue any hooks and scratches for tonight to you with lots of love and many kisses.

Al

My comments;

My grandpa was obviously very lonely and so he wrote almost every day. 2/15/31 was a Sunday so of course he went to church. He went to see a movie, although he claimed that it wasn’t that good.

The top ten movies released in 1931, in order of their popularity were

1. M
2. Frankenstein
3. Dracula
4. City Lights
5. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
6. The Public Enemy
7. The Maltese Falcon
8. Night Nurse
9. The Easiest Way
10. Little Caesar

There were plenty of good ones that year. Maltese Falcon was my favorite.

I do wonder what movie he saw that day. And he said it wasn’t worth it…hmm. He said that he wasn’t going to any movies until after Easter. My guess is that he wouldn’t go because of Lent.