Looking Back

 

It’s blogging time again and I’ve just got to share one of my current projects!  

 I’ve known for quite some time that Pete, my husband, inherited from his mother a large portion of the letters that she received over the course of her life.  They were in boxes downstairs in the basement and on occasion I wondered what Pete intended to do with those letters.

(As a pertinent side note, I’ve been reading quite a few books regarding WWII and the reading has been very interesting from a point of many perspectives.)

Well, recently the topic came up again about the letters and we talked about it for a while and it occurred to me that the letters might cover a time span during the war.  I started wondering, if that were the case, would the letters reflect any thoughts from these young people?  I suggested to Pete that I arrange them in chronological order and then type them up.  He said sure.

Here's the catch….what I didn’t know!!!  I had one box of letters in hand, dated from 1938 – 1939 (yes, I knew 12/7/1941 hadn’t occurred yet, but the war was going on in Europe and I thought there might be some comments in these letters.)  I started typing, no big deal.  After September 1, 1939 there were a couple of comments regarding the war, but nothing interesting.

 

A couple of days later Pete came up from the basement with a very large box, filled with 6 more plastic containers of letters!! I’m guessing here, but I’ll bet there are at least 2000 letters in the 7 boxes.  At this point I doubt if I’ll live long enough to get them all typed.  They span from 1930-1947.

So, I sat down, sorted the letters by year and then started typing up the earliest year.  When I get to a new year, I stop typing, put the letters in date order and start back up again. 

Here’s what I learned so far…the letters start when Helen (Pete’s Mom) was 11 years old.  That year they came primarily from her father who was divorced from her mother and living in Miami, FL (Helen lived in Buffalo, NY with her Mom). 

 

 As the years pass (I’m currently in 1936) there is a greater variety of authors.  Helen was obviously a very popular girl and had a large circle of friends, cause as she traveled or her friends traveled, letters came to Helen from all over the place.  By the time she was 13 she had a boyfriend, Freddie, then there was Howie, and currently Toy (real name was LeRoy).  Those are really cute letters, which make me wish I had the letters Helen wrote to these guys, as on occasion someone (particularly Toy) will go round and round in arguments, obviously responding to something Helen wrote.  

 As a result of this project, I am learning an entirely new language.  If something is really fun or exciting to do, it is ‘swell’…everything seems to be ‘swell’.  If a guy is very good looking, and you want to date him, he is ‘smooth’.  Cars are also ‘smooth’.  It was very ‘smooth’ when the family bought a car with a radio, for the first time ever.  

 This is turning out to be a fairly slow process.  My typing desk is not ergonomically correct, so I can only type 3-7 letters at a time before I get cramped up with the way I am sitting.   

I am very much looking forward to when the letters pass the date of December 7, 1941, cause by then these young men will no doubt spend some time in the military.  I’m also looking forward to when Helen starts dating the man who will eventually become her husband, Brian.

Most of what is written is trivial information.  Occasionally something is very reflective of the time and/or place.  If nothing else I get an in-depth look at how Helen evolved from an 11-year-old to her early adult years.

 The best I can say at this point is that I’ve got my fingers crossed that some interesting insights will be shared from the perspective of these kids regarding world politics and WWII.