Elma and Al

So people often ask me, “how many letters are there?” and I let them know there are well over 300. I think I need to do an FAQ to explain all of this.

Anyway, today’s letter comes from my favorite, great-uncle, Oscar Nunning. If you are new here, Oscar married Marie, my grandma’s younger and only sister, in 1932. In these letters, Oscar is courting Marie and telling us all about life during that time. I ran into Oscar’s son, David, last weekend at my mom’s 80th birthday party. I told him that his dad was quite a character and he said that his mother knocked it out of him. I had a chuckle.

Howell, IN

Feb 22, 1931

Dear Friend Al,

            I received your letter Friday and was glad to hear from you, so I am writing you a few lines to let you know that I am still alive, last week I worked 3 days and made 4 loads to your old town Rockport, IN at the corner of Fifth and Sycamore. Only a few blocks from your old loading house. Ted was at Rockport yesterday and came back in 48 minutes. All of us were at John Kern’s birthday party last Sunday night and had a hot time plenty of you know what? But this week the bootleggers are catching hell. My friend’s Bill Schauss and George Grim of St. Wendel are in the storm. Bill is under $2500 and George $5000 so that is tough for the bootleggers, but they didn’t get 1% of the boge and didn’t find all for it was buried in the ground by the barrels.

            The negro and I were to Sking Watterman’s house to deliver some cement and boy we got some HEIMGEMACHT and plenty of it. We now have lent so we will have to play cards and carry beams instead of dancing but we can still have our homebrew we also can drink peanuts and eat brew and go to church twice a week. We have had lots of rain now it sprinkles every once in a while.

            Well Al, Oscar was very selfish with the other letter he wrote to you he had it all ready to mail didn’t give us a chance to put a word in but this is the time I tell you Al don’t worry about Elma. I taken good care of her at the birthday party last Sunday I won’t let another fellow look at her less dance or give her a sweet kiss that is all for you. Mr. Nunning says hello hoping you are having a hot time while you are away. Theodore isn’t home but I will just say hello for him too.

            So that was a word from mom, pop, and Ted. All are well and hope this finds you the same.

From your old friend,

Oscar

My comments:

Oscar is at it again. First of all, Rockport. Just for context, 5th street in Rockport is now the Ohio River Scenic Byway. I couldn’t really find more info about what was there before. I did realize that these letters were written during Prohibition, which was very much alive and well. It seems like all of my relatives were making alcohol, trying to get alcohol or drinking alcohol. He used a slang word,”boge”, to refer to the bootlegged alcohol. That word now, Norwegian in origin, literally means bow, but is used to refer to THC cigarettes or joints.

The top of Oscar’s letter was marked Howell, IN. Howell was a city/village, separate from Evansville in the southwest part of town, delineated by the railroads, Louisville and Nashville or L and N. It was named after the local freight agent, Lee Howell. Mainly, the railroad workers lived there. It was annexed by the city of Evansville in 1915. Prior to that it was known as a Sundown City, in which African-Americans were not allowed after dark. This designation was popularized in the movie “Green Book”. Growing up, I knew Howell as the place where my dad’s side of the family, Hickses and Burdettes, lived. I always thought of Howell as a low-lying place near the railroad tracks.

Oscar refers to Ted. Who was that? Theodore Nunning or Ted was Oscar’s older brother by three years.

I was going to gloss over “the negro” comment, but I think I need to address it. I am sure that in 1930 this seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to call an African-American, but today that seems appalling. As it turns out, the Ku Klux Klan or the Klan came to Indiana by way of Evansville. The west side of Evansville, where Bassemiers and Weinzapfels lived, was almost 100% German Catholic at this point and although African Americans could have lived there, they likely did not.

Again with the heimgemacht! I’m convinced this is their German slang for homebrew. The direct translation is homemade but in this context I am certain they are referring to homebrew.

Lastly, in this letter, we hear from Oscar’s parents, Henry and Anne. I like how everyone was making sure that no one else even looks at Elma. They were a tight-knit group.

Kokomo, IN

Feb 21, 1931

Dear Elma,

            Well Elma about that staying here in this town, I don’t know anything about that in fact, I aint going to worry about anything no more, but nevertheless just come ahead and I will have plenty room in my bed for you too. All you have to do is hop the train or bus and come to Kokomo and I will be at 620 Union Street the same as always just look it up and you can’t miss finding me there and plenty room to sleep in that big bed of mine. Elma I do wish you were here with me it would make things a whole lot nicer for both of us like that victrola record you have “you can do the cooking and I will chop the wood” so come ahead there is lots of things here in this town and if not enough here we will go to another town and so on aint that hot.

            Elma I just received your dear letter this dinner as I came home, but you weren’t there to surprise me, so after I read that in the letter it made me feel blue, to think you could just as well be here to surprise me as I came home Elma why wasn’t you here to do that. I would feel a lot happier than this way all by myself and nobody that I even care to talk to that’s the way I feel a lot of times. Well Elma you want to be careful when you are driving the car it is all alright to let the insurance company fix the car but how are they going to fix you when you get tore up or probably knocked the insurance company can’t bring you back to life so be careful Elma and don’t get hurt anyway. Well I guess that P.D.Q. will be good to drink by the time you get this letter and they won’t be able to tell the difference who made the beer so I guess the beer will be alright don’t you think so Elma. I just wish I could be there and drink a few quarts of that beer Elma I had some homebrew the other night our supervisor told me to go with him, he just lives a block away from where I stay, so he gave me some to drink but it was not much good they put some kind of in it and that makes it taste funny, I don’t like that junk, I rather have yours any day and how.

Well Elma I think that I will have to take a bath soon otherwise it will be supper and I ain’t cleaned up yet the same as I come home from work first I ate dinner then I read your letter and then a letter from Mother then I read yours over and went and put $30.83 in the Citizens Nath. Bank here in Kokomo, and bought some more writing paper so I can write the blues away then I came home and sharpened my razor for it was pulling the hell out of my face, I guess you know how hell feels it burns something terrible that’s what it does so after I had my razor sharp I laid it down and read your letter the third time then I started to write the blues once more to send them to you , so that is what I am doing right now.  It is 4:15 now and not much done not even this letter, but I guess I will get it done and get shaved and a bath before supper if I hurry a little, last night I went to church like everyone should during lent, so you know what I will be doing every  Friday night during lent, that is 7:30 pm I will be in church praying  for you and me for I do think we need it bad enough.

Today our storeroom was moved up right beside the new office building and that is only two blocks from where I stay so I won’t have far to go anymore only two blocks, o boy that is real life, but we won’t have school on Monday and Thursdays anymore, everybody is supposed to go to school on Tuesday nights at 7:00 o’clock back at the new building so    that’s that. Elma I will have to close this letter and seal all the love and kisses that I can possibly dig up and put out so with an extra kiss I will close this and write and send you some more kisses tomorrow sometime so

Goodby Elma

Al X