Elma and Al

Kokomo, IN

Feb 24, 1931

Dear Elma,

            You don’t know how good I feel this dinner when I came home from dinner I couldn’t keep from thinking about you all morning to think and wait for dinner to come so I would get home and have a letter waiting for me, and sure was when I got home I had two letters from my dearest friend Elma and also a letter from Oscar and one from a fellow at Washington the fellow I used to tell you about a whole lot and work with last summer at Evansville. He is plenty disgusted with his work and fellow workmen at Washington he said in his letter. Damn, Al I wish they had sent you to Washington in place of Kokomo. Well Elma, I hope you don’t take everything as hard as you mention in your letter for you know I don’t get mad or try to ball anyone or nothing like that. Don’t think that I got mad at you about all that stuff you think. Elma I am only too glad when you ask me about things you aint sure of so don’t let that worry you anymore and I don’t think it will worry you for a while. Anyway, it wont worry you as long as I am here at Kokomo. Don’t you think so Elma.

            Well Elma, about your hair I leave that up to you but like you said all the time you was going to get a permanent put in your hair then you wont have to get them cut hardly any before I get to see you again and then I can tell you more about how I would like for you to have your hair so they look good for that one special occasion, aint that right Elma, how soon will that be. I don’t think that I will get a vacation before sometime in the summer so then I can tell you more about how I want your hair to look and how to be dressed oh boy wont that be a great time then and when. We’ll put all foolishness aside and think about it some other time. Elma you said Oscar writes his letters on scratch paper and then on good paper. Oh boy, If I had to do that I don’t think you would ever get a letter from me for most the time I don’t even read my letters over to see what I have written already. To tell the truth most of the time I have to write in a hurry to get done like to go to church in the evening or go to school or something like that. I guess you can tell most the times when I write in a hurry there is no heads and no tails to my letters. I guess some day I will take a day off and write a letter on scratch paper and then copy it and see how that really works.

            Elma I got two letters from Oscar now since I am up here and hope to get lots more for that makes a person feel more like he aint yet forgotten by everyone he used to know so don’t get Ossie discouraged about writing tell him he is doing fine then he will write more. His letters are alright but like my mom said to you and tells me in her letters, “there is not enough to the letter” Mom said she gets done reading my letters too quick.

            Well Elma, if you don’t tell or show anybody the letter I will send you Oscar’s first letter to put in your life chest to think to have to honor the great man’s adventure. His first letter so some day we may put it in a frame, just think a man’s first letter written to me while at Kokomo, aint that something. Elma now you better take good care of Oscar’s first letter when you get and don’t tell anyone just keep it for yourself otherwise Oscar and Marie might get mad at all that foolishness.

            Elma the last letter I got from Oscar that was today Mrs. Nunning put a short address in with Oscar’s writing so I guess I will have to scribble a few lines to her some day. She said that she taken good care of Elma at John Kern’s party so nobody would bother her or dance or kiss her or even look at her so when I get that letter answered I will send it to you also for keeps.

            Elma you asked about my overcoat. I don’t think I will need it if it don’t get any worse than what it has been so far and if it should happen to get so cold I have my other coat that will keep me warm as much as I care anyway. Elma I really don’t see how you can make out my crooks and hooks, blotches, dops, and scratches. It damn near turns me sick to look at it myself, much less think you will have to read it. I guess lots of times you cant make out what it is all about, well I guess lots of it is caused because I write my letters sitting in a rocker and lay my paper on the back of a stationery box to write so lots of times I am rocking and writing before I know it.

            Elma I am still well and feeling fine just a litte sleepy so I am sending you lots of love and many kisses and a special kiss for I am going to bed now and kiss you through this letter. Goodnight Elma x.

Al

Elma I hope you are feeling better by now and get lots of rest goodbye.

My comments:

As I read these letters it occurs to me that my grandpa was very lonely up there in Kokomo. He is writing letters at a rate of 3:1 compared to Elma.

He also mentions her “life chest”. So he knew she was saving these letters. Hmm…I wonder if he could fathom that they would end up here : )

Kokomo, IN

Feb 22, 1931

Dear Elma,

            Here I am once more as I told you yesterday, I would write again today and so I am started now, but as yet my brains are still dead I can’t think of anything to write that is worthwhile as I feel somewhat draggy today. After I wrote you yesterday I washed my head, shaved, and taken a bath and ate supper, so after supper I went down on the south side of town to some of the other fellows I work with the fellow I went to has a furnished home he pays six dollars a week it is a pretty nice place, but his wife and another fellows wife went to Muncie, IN to see her people. So last night practically the whole bunch came there most of them stayed all night at his place and today they was going to have a big dinner there so last night I stayed til about eleven o’clock then I started for home. I was going to take the car home but as it happened I was not at Evansville the cars were all gone home already, I waited a while and finally I asked a fellow walking along whether there wasn’t any car tonight anywhere so he said no not until the last car sometime after twelve o’clock they call it the one. It goes around the loop and picks up the fellows that take their car to the bars and brings them back to town so I wasn’t going to wait for that car and walked about 15 or 16 or more blocks home. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk, but all I was there I had a darn headache and feel kinda tough so when I got home I went to bed but I couldn’t go to sleep. I thought my head was going to fly to pieces so I guess I sat in bed for about 2 hours before I could rest my head on my pillow. Every time I tried to lay down it feels like someone is hitting me in the head with a hammer so I had to sit up again so finally around 3 o’clock I started to get relief and dozed off to sleep so this morning I got up about 7:15 and ate a little breakfast and went to eight o’clock mass and after mass I met Clarence Alstead and another fellow from Evansville they were working at IN so I got in their car and we drove around town and taken another fellow home then they took me home. I been home since and guess I will stay in for today and go to church at 7:30 tonight. I am feeling very well now and hope not go get another headache like that I had last night. I also got me some aspirin this morning and so I guess that helped me a whole lot too, well I guess that can happen to a man with a wife and a dozen kids, get a headache like that if they all aggravate him a whole lot ain’t that a hot one Elma what do you say. Well Elma I guess you about know what it is to have the blues and how a person feels so it ain’t any use for me to sing the blues any longer for I realize that it won’t do any good anyhow it just makes that much worse if you put your mind down to it and start worrying about everything so I might as well forget all about that stuff before I get the blues worse than I have them now don’t you think so too Elma forget all about it and just think for yourself “I guess it won’t be long we will get to see each other again then we can talk all kinds of things over and over and don’t have to worry anymore” for the next time I have to go away I will take you with me where I go, so there is no need to worry is there Elma. The next time I will have a bed partner and don’t have to get the blues and around in bed and can’t go to sleep for having the blues to see you. Elma I think I will get the courier at Evansville 84 cents and get the daily and Sunday paper that will help pass time away and kick the blues in the head when you can get the news from around home every day and know what is going on at Evansville that would cost me 21 cents a week here and you pay 20 cents there at home so for the cent difference why shouldn’t I get it. I am sure I will feel better if I get the courier every day and a letter from you Elma every day. I think I can stick or tough it through if it don’t get worse. Well Elma how is your dad and mother, I guess your dad is drinking his wine and your mother baking and eating the good pumpkin pie and cookies like I had at Rockport. Marie is entertaining at the davenport and Raymond fussing and cussing with the maids, and Harold fighting almost everything that comes before him and Raymond. I guess that is about right or is it not Elma. I believe I made a mistake. Raymond is fighting with Harold instead of Harold with Ray. I think that gets it about right.

            Elma I wish you were here today as it is so pretty outside. I don’t know hardly what to do with myself so if you were here we could go some place and have pastime together and wouldn’t have to sit some place and think I wonder what he or she is doing. And if you were here with me now I wouldn’t have to wish to get a sweet kiss right from your lips like I have to now and you can’t get any so you will hear from me again real soon Elma as this letter is leaving me in good health. I hope it will find you also in the best of health and bring you all the love and kisses that are to be had, so here is an extra good bye kiss.

Al x

a

February 22, 1931

The date that I am writing this is November 22, 2022, exactly 116 years to the day that Elma was born. Today is Elma’s birthday. It is so hard to fathom that both of them have been gone for so long. I remember my grandma so well-it’s like I just left her house on my way back to college, honking my horn as I rounded the corner to head down the hill next to my grandparent’s house. I don’t remember her birthday celebrations that well, but I do remember one of the last presents I gave her: a Kelly green cardigan sweater from the Gap. I asked my mom and aunt what they remember about her birthday and they both said in unison “not much”. Then the memories came. It turns out that my great grandfather’s (Nick) birthday was November 21. My grandpa’s brother, Alois, and his wife, Mary, would often come over and play cards, have a little bite to eat and then leave. On Nick’s birthday they would play cards until midnight, then sing happy birthday to Elma. Typical Germans. They wouldn’t want to celebrate too much!

Dear Elma,

            I wish open the door here is a begger, begging for more relief from the blues it is Al at Kokomo again knocking at the back door try to bring all the good and bad news from Kokomo, Elma I am feeling fine again after that terrible struggle I had the other night with that darn headache, man I hope I will never have another headache like that anymore, but what’s the use to worry if it is all over and I am feeling fine. Elma, I had a big day today changing telephones we way out on the north side in the dirt and mud and where the city people have cars and feed them cornstalks. I changed four telephones and my buddy had the luck to have five on his sheet out in that part of the country so this evening we moved back to town and I can come home for dinner for we are close to where I stay so that makes it nice for a change. I guess tomorrow if I have luck I might get about a dozen telephones changed, but I am not worrying about that at all for it is no use to. Elma the other day a fellow said when the job at New Albany starts that either I or another fellow here would have charge of that convention there but when that is going to start nobody knows yet so by then there might be a lots of changes made. March the first three fellows are going to Indianapolis to be stationed there as installers. I kinda think they are going to have another convention at Indianapolis. There are about six or eight different switchboards there that have not got the dial yet. I don’t know really how it stands there but as much as I have heard they will put the dial on another switchboard at Indianapolis but the details I don’t know. Elma I wish you were here tonight. I have the whole house for myself. The old man and lady went to the show and that kid I think also went to a show so I am here all by my lonesome writing the blues away and listening to the radio. I am in my room writing this letter and have the door open and got the radio going full blast out in the other room listening to the station W.L.W. from Cincinnati, but that’s as much as I know what’s going on don’t even know what the program is about all I hear is an orchestra playing. 

            Elma, I told you some time ago about those people, this kid here is not their boy but is their nephew. They raised him and had him since he was two years old the way the old lady said his mother was so sick and the doctors didn’t think that this kid would live so this old lady took him and still has him. His mother comes here once in a while and helps the old lady bake pie and the kid goes home to his mother once in a while but when the sun sets he is here for bed. These people have no children this means here is sixty-one years of an old soldier he tells me he was in the Spanish-American war. He is getting a pension from the government now. He said ever since the war his hearing is bad. He now is so have to holler to talk to him sometimes.

            Oh heck Elma, I don’t see why you don’t come here to stay with me now. Its just as well for you to come here now as later so you might as well come now as later whats the use you sitting at home and worrying your head off and me the same way here. You might as well be here then neither one of us would have to have the blues and worry about when we would see each other again which I hope will be real soon Elma. Just make up your mind to land at Kokomo with Al for a while. 

            Elma I believe if it wouldn’t be for that dear ring I got from you Xmas I don’t know what I would do, this way I can console myself a little by thinking every time I look at that ring that some day I will also have the once owner and the giver or donor of that ring “Elma” That ring helps to pass and also restores blues lots of times but, to get the fruit of that dear and sweet seal you impressed on it before I left, will settle it all. The only trouble is it isn’t real anymore it is too much worn off already, and I wish it would soon be renewed again and when that will be I am positive I will have many more renewals don’t you think so Elma. 

            Well Elma it is about nine o’clock and time for all homesick kids to be in bed so I guess I will just as I wrote “I guess I will,” I heard the old folks coming home so I don’t have to get up to shut the radio off. I can simply turn over and go to bed, but I have to pray my rosary first the I can go to dreaming of the one most loved far away and sleep over it till morning if I don’t wake up to much during the night dreaming. Well Elma, here comes all the love and kisses that I have night now and an extra great big hug and a sweet kiss.

Goodnight El

Al x

My comments:

My grandpa is listening to a radio station out of Cincinnati, WLW. I did a little bit of research on radio stations in the Midwest and I found this on Wikipedia:

“The company was founded by pioneer radio station operator Powel Crosley and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its flagship station, WLW (AM), was first licensed in March 1922.^[5] Most of its broadcast properties adopted call signs with “WLW” as the first three letters. In the 1930s, WLW had an effective power of 500,000 watts, and was the only commercial U.S. AM broadcasting station ever to be permitted to transmit regulary with more than 50,000 watts. The 500,000 watt transmissions were only allowed by the FCC in the “experimental” hours, midnight to 6:00 AM, and the s’s’ignal was heard in many places, including Europe.^[6]“

it goes on to say that many of their sister/spin-off stations adopted these first three letters as the first three letters of their call sign. They also became the “Voice of America” during and after WWII.

The ring that Elma bought him is a bit of a mystery. My aunt said that my Uncle Junior has a ring that was Gnandpa’ That’s all we know.

s they has a stone in it.

Letter to Harold

Kokomo, IN

Feb 22, 1931

Dear Harold,

            This is Al, way up in Kokomo he is still thinking of you once in a while and wondering what you could be doing to torment all the rest, but be careful and don’t torment Ray too much for he might bust you once in the eye.

            Well Harold you tell Pheeny (Phine–Josephine) to be careful there might be a lion coming around that has teeth and that lion might bite the lion without teeth and also tell her that I eat my gravy either way hot or cold so she didn’t have to worry about that gravy, that I was getting fatter every day without that gravy Ha Ha “that was a good one”

            Oh boy I come near forgetting. Harold you tell Kate I didn’t want any of her peach pie for they might be spoiled that is not good to eat, so she didn’t need to worry about baking peach pie, or me letting her know when I was coming home, because I didn’t want peach pie anyhow.

            Harold you said Oscar and Marie are sitting on the davenport, well Harold the best thing for that if you don’t want Oscar and Marie to sit on the davenport is to put a cushion on the davenport as they can sit on the cushions they can probably sit longer and don’t bother you so much that way or otherwise get them to take you to a show or riding some pretty day when the sun is shining like it is today.

            Harold tell Pheeny I had some good chicken gravy for dinner today and that was hot also, had chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, lettuce, butter, jelly, bread, and cherry pie but not peach pie so whenever you get hungry just put your finger on that map and push it right up to Kokomo then you can get a lot of good things to eat. Tell your dad and mother Al is still at Kokomo for you just got a letter from him. And I will stay here til I get another letter from you so I am the same as before still at Kokomo.

Al

My comments:

It occurs to me while reading this that Elma’s family held a certain amount of affection for Josephine or Pheen, as Al referred to her above. Pheen had something neurologically not right. My mother and aunt both confirmed that when Kate, her sister, would tell her to do something and she would just do it until she was told to stop. She loved to eat jelly bread and drink coffee, at the exclusion of anything else. Thus the talk about food.

I think that the letter-writing to a little brother shows that Al was making himself part of the family. I mean, if he was just trying to lasso Elma he wouldn’t have to write to everyone else.

I was intrigued by the numbers at the bottom–not sure what that is, but it reminded me of how my grandma would save old envelopes that had mail in them and write on them. She was the original recycler.