Old letters

My cousin, Cindy, sent me copies of three letters her dad wrote in 1939 and 1940. He was staying with Uncle George and Aunt Lorraine at the time, and while I always thought his mother had gone to Spokane to attend barber school, one letter refers to Seattle. Perhaps she had gone to both cities. At any rate, these letters are a treasure, and I wish I'd had them for my book "Please Mr. Postman."

They're all dated at the top and include doodles Bob had drawn. The letters are addressed to "Ma" and signed: Kisses from me with xxxxxx's. One letter refers to a kite he has made and intends to fly in a contest. He asks for cards so he could play Rummy with Claude, and says report cards are coming out March 29.

Another letter says the bubble soap didn't work so good and probably was not meant for big bathtubs. He wrote that "the cap was swell but a kid made fun of Claude wearing it so Claude hit him hard and the teacher stuck up for Claude." He also shared: Mr. Hemker built the door but grandpa and the rest think he charged too much ($9) and he left out the hinges.

The third letter asks if he could wear his new coat to school as the other kids are wearing their good coats. He wants to know if his mother could find him a movie projector and how they're going to see the Wizard of Oz movie. He talks of losing a tooth and how George is working on his built-ins and Lorraine is at choir practice. He says he got some guitar books and picks and is taking lessons and closes with "Boby Boyer got killed a couple of weeks ago."

That piqued my interest and I plan to go up to the library today and see if I can find a story in old Leaders about that. Maybe I'll write a Leader blog on this subject. I find it fascinating. Better ask Cindy first, though. I'll do that now.  More later....