Kokomo, IN
March 3, 1931
Dear Elma,
It is nine o’clock now, just came home from our regular meeting and got through reading your letter over again which I received this evening when I came in and Elma you sure don’t know how good that makes me feel to come home from a days work and have a letter waiting for me with all the love and kisses I would get from you if it was you in person waiting for me at the door. Elma I feel a little tired this evening but I cant pass up to write you a few lines for I know how it is to go to the mailbox and not get a letter from Al, I am the same way, don’t know what to do with myself or what happens if I don’t get a letter every day from you Elma. Really it puts a new life in me every time I come home and get a letter from you Elma, to know that even if I am all by myself amongst strange people there still is one far away from where I am to help make life a little happier than what it would be otherwise. Elma, it would be pretty tough once in a while if it weren’t for the letters I am getting from you to help liven me up a little, I guess I would have come home long ago.
Well Elma, I guess Bill Debes and his wife will have a lots of pastime with their big baby girl don’t you think so too, Elma tell Harold it was a good thing he got a hair cut otherwise even the fat babies like the picture he sent would get scared of him. Well Elma I think I am going to take some stock with the telephone company, it is just the same as putting the money in the bank. You can draw it out anytime you need it and they keep I think it is 75 cents out of every paycheck every week for every share, a share costs us that is employees $150 and if it is all paid out like now the same share sells for $198, it is a good thing that they pay I think .09% on the money where the banks only pay .03 and .04% on the money and savings so it is a whole lot better to have it with the company for nearly everybody has it that way, I was talking to a fellow tonight he paid $7 every week on shares also we have shares with this company, it gives a better impression and they take a little more per person that is what some of the bosses have told me already so Elma don’t worry about that for it is alright anytime I need the money I .can get it and it ain’t lost. So I will go to bed in the next few minutes but before I do go to bed Elma I will seal this letter with all the love and kisses I have but an extra sweet goodnight kiss.
Al x
My comments
My grandpa had quite the sense of humor. Or at least that is how it comes across in the letters. Remember, he rarely spoke when I knew him. Today, as I am writing this would have been his birthday 123 years old. It’s hard to believe that he has been gone for 31 years. The best part about the letters is that I get to know my grandparents all over again.
My grandpa mentions Bill Debes and the fact that he and his wife had a baby, on February 26, 1931. Her name was LaVerne Debes and here is her birth certificate. Debes is a Flemish name, but her mother was Christine Muensterman, and that is German. LaVerne ended up marrying Tenbarge. I feel like everyone on the Westside is related. : )
A note about the stocks. It was the Depression and 1,000s of banks failed. I am curious if he hung on to those…