Francis and Lydia have stopped bickering, and Lydia’s bridal shower was a success. There is concern that since Lydia is leaving Albany, Ruth will be there by herself with no family around. Ruth has agreed to find a home for Mrs. Finkelstein’s dog Buster. And there are plans for a “dog roast” (presumably hot dogs) at Preston Hollow.
April 22, 1935
Middleburg, N.Y.
Dear Ruth,
So its typewriter paper you want, eh. Well, here it is coming back at you only not so fast as it came to me. I also just discovered it is even larger than the paper I have been using so don’t blame me if I don’t fill a couple of sheets.
Arrived home at 4:40 this morning and had a good night’s sleep. Two hours. I’m not so sleepy now but I’m plenty tired after a full day of work. I daresay though I am no more tired than you. I’m not going to say I’m sorry for keeping you out late again. There is no sense in regretting a thing and then do it right over again. I just haven’t got the will power or won’t power as you say. Maybe the next time I come to Albany it will be just as well if you have your uniform on and I’ll try and get you back in time for work. Oh well, we are only young once and we’ll be a long time dead so why not make the best of all opportunities and enjoy ourselves.
Speaking of enjoyment, it strikes me that everyone was in good humor last night and enjoying themselves more than usual. Everything was perfect including you, my dear. Even Florence showed a decided improvement in her manner especially towards Ben. I have great hope that my premature congratulations will not be wasted after all.
Didn’t I tell you my Mother and I were pals? There are two kids here besides LaVere listening to Dick Tracy or sompin and they got a little noisy. She came in and bawled them out for bothering me when I am trying to write. How’s that? The jelly beans are still in my coat pocket. I haven’t had a chance to give them to LaVere. He wasn’t up when I went out this morning and I’m too lazy to go up and get them now. Anyway, I may decide to keep them all for myself. Alright, call me stingy now. And say, take it easy with that bawling out you are going to give me. Everything went so smooth last night you shouldn’t break the spell. You must have had some success in handling Lydia after all. Fran told me on the way home he was on the verge of saying something a couple of times that night of starting one of those friendly quarrels but he remembered in time to check himself.
How’m I doin’? Here I’ve nearly filled one sheet already and have only been writing about twenty minutes. Of course, I haven’t said much but I’m just stalling until supper is ready. After that I’ll go into my song and dance.
Fran just went by on his way home 5:45 p.m. Rather early for him but he probably has a vision of a bed in front of him also.
Some time later. 7:00 p.m. and you are still doing your stuff on New Scotland Avenue I suppose. What hours you do put in. Right here I’m going to change a suggestion I made last week into a request. Hereafter when I take up so much of your time on Sunday night I respectfully request that you refrain from taking time to write to me on Monday night and also running around the city after stamps. If you get a chance to write while you are on duty, O.K. I’ll appreciate the letter if it’s only a few lines. Since I can’t get enough will or won’t power to say good night before morning, I can at least wait an extra day for a letter.
While I’m on the subject of you and yours, here is something else. I have thought before what effect Lydia leaving the city would have on you but it didn’t dawn on me so fully until last night how much alone it will leave you. So I’ve come to the conclusion it wouldn’t be just right for me to desert also. By some hook or crook I’ll make it into the city at least once a week. Fran expects to get a car and when he does I’ll find some way to furnish the gas (even if I have to walk). This Sunday is a doubtful one. Fran probably won’t have a car yet and he may not have the station open by then. Also, it depends somewhat on Lydia’s plans. So even if I don’t get there this Sunday, I’ll be pretty sure to see you the following Sundays as long as you stay in Albany. How’s that?
I hope the shower for Lydia goes thru alright. She was sure bound to mix things up for herself but I guess it will come out alright. How come Evelyn is trying to give one, too, and the way she is going about it.
Fran wants you to do something for him. He was going to ask you last night but didn’t get the chance. I probably can’t explain it so you will know just how he feels but you will know what he wants anyway. Never having been married before he is a little ignorant of what sort of a gift he should get for her and I’m sure I wouldn’t know, so he wants you to help him with some suggestions as to what would be proper. So get on your thinking cap and come to the rescue. You should know what she would like better than anyone.
Mother just handed me a big dish of homemade ice cream and is it good. She says for me to drop some on the paper and tell you she sent it. But you wouldn’t like it. It’s chocolate.
Now that is gone and my ambition with it so I’ll give up and get me some sleep. It is 8:15 and you will probably soon be doing the same. I hope so anyway.
So long until next time.
Dave
April 22, 1935
70 Jay Street
Albany, N.Y.
Dear Dave,
I just called Bedell to let him know about the eye so that is over for another two days. The “Big Shot” around here thinks he isn’t helping her much. He certainly is a wise guy if I ever met one. I told him that Bedell or anybody else couldn’t help her as long as she refuses to eat. I never thought the day would ever come when I would have to defend a doctor such as he. I suppose he thinks the nurse isn’t doing her part. Nuff sed, I had better shut up about him or there won’t be room for anything else.
Mrs. Thorn is out this afternoon so I am busy answering telephone calls. Miss Fulder is here, but she is deaf so she isn’t much help. By the time I get through here, I will be a full-fledged real estate dealer.
I did such a good job of collecting my belongings this morning that I find a strange handkerchief among my possessions. It might belong to your sister. At first I thought it was Lydia’s because it had an “L” in the corner, but upon second thought I decided it could still belong to your sister.
When you find the kittens, don’t forget to save me a cute one to keep in Preston Hollow. I am sure Lydia won’t mind. Oh yes, and since I have agreed to send Buster to the country I think it would be nice to send her to the Coffin homestead. I am sure you would be glad to give her the best of care and buy her lamb chops every day.
Tell Fran, when they wire the house to be sure and have a floor plug in the “spare room” so I can have my radio down there. I also want my room to have a northern exposure so the sun won’t annoy me in the morning. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.
I didn’t have such difficulty getting up this morning as I did last week. I woke up with a swell headache, but I took an aspirin and it soon wore off. For a few minutes I had all the symptoms of a good, long hangover. I haven’t felt very tired yet, but I probably will tonight. Did you get home in time to go to bed or did you try thirty-six hour duty? You shouldn’t neglect your rest like that, no wonder you have a rapid, irregular pulse, high temp and a jaw that jumps out of joint.
Will you pul-ease refrain from chuckling any more about me going up the wrong steps. After all if a certain person had parked in the right place, it wouldn’t have happened. Just think how you could have laughed if I had walked in. I get heart failure just thinking about it.
Mrs. Thorn told me that as long as her mother is alright on Sunday nights, I can get her ready at 7:30 and leave. I thought that was very nice of her. If we change time next Sunday, that will fix it so I will be through work at 6:30 by your time.1 If the weather is warm and Lydia isn’t afraid of her health, we might be able to have our dog roast. Last Sunday it wasn’t as cold as it was the 14th of October and she said then we would have a roast if there was snow on the ground. After all, I feel we should do something drastic on the last night “Lyd” is to be with us for several weeks. What do you think? Maybe I should ask Fran instead of you as he seems to be the one who has an appetite to equal mine.
I just talked with “Lyd” and she told me in a very mournful voice that she had to get home early Thursday night. She has consented to meet me and take me and the suitcase up to the house with her. Everything will be swell now, unless she makes different arrangements. I also called Zelma and she isn’t feeling well so we won’t take any dancing lesson tonight.
My patient is a tiny bit better today. She seems to take liquids without quite as much persuasion unless someone else besides me is in the room.
I have a rash on my forehead today which I thought might possibly be the measles, but I guess it was caused from whiskers that were shaved down and not up.
I’m going to mail this letter tonight and see if you get it in the morning. If you don’t I won’t try it again. I think I’ll call it a day and see what luck I have in forcing Mrs. Fink to take some nourishment.
Just “Me”
P.S. How does it seem to get some decent stationery for a change?
April 24, 1935
Middleburg, N.Y.
Dear Ruth,
Yep, it worked. I got your letter Tuesday morning or rather it arrived then. I didn’t see it until I came in the house Tuesday night. When mother handed it to me I had to look at the calendar. I thought maybe I had lost a day somewhere and it was Wednesday after all. Of course I see I wasted a lot of ink telling you not to write to me Monday night, also to go easy on the bawling out.
I suppose after reading my letter you felt like using some profane language. I don’t know what to say about Sunday now any more than I did then. I was under the impression Lydia was going down to Athens or Catskill Sunday and wasn’t planning on seeing Fran and I think he was of the same opinion. I had to go down to the P.O. last night after some more chicks and I stopped in at Fran’s for a few minutes. He didn’t know any more about what to say than I did. Of course I would like to go on a dog roast and it would be O.K. with Fran but we will have to leave it all up to you and Lydia. So if you can get her to see the light of day, just let either Fran or me know by Saturday and we’ll find some way of transportation. Even if he has the station open, we could come out here.
So, you go around snitching other people’s handkerchiefs. Yeah, the L could stand for Lula as well as Lydia. She hasn’t said anything about it so she probably never missed it.
I haven’t found the kittens yet and probably won’t until they are big enough to come out themselves. I’ll save you one but if Lydia won’t take it for you, it’s going to be just too bad for that cat. You needn’t bother about sending Buster out here. It was hard enough to get rid of one dog without getting another. Anyway, who wants a Jewish dog around.
It was pretty good of them to say you could get out early Sunday nights. And the change of time will make it just about perfect. Let’s hope it continues that way.
Sorry, but it will be impossible for me to refrain from laughing when you make mistakes like the one last Sunday. That was funny. No doubt it is what caused the rash on your forehead.
Will you forgive me if I cut this letter short? My mind doesn’t seem to be working tonight. If you and Lydia decide on the roast, let me know.
Dave
Second installment.
After writing that letter last night I had sort of a sneaky feeling I might be doing you an injustice by trying to put over such a short one and my conscience bothered me all night. I’ll take a little time this noon and see if I can’t stretch it out a bit.
Have I been busy this week or have I? The first three days I was burning brush and by the time I got thru last night I felt just like I imagine a thoroughly roasted hot dog feels. I don’t think I ever will get the smoke out of my lungs. Today I have been cleaning up around here. Yeah, I think spring is here at last, at least that’s what a little bird told me.
I haven’t given Fran the specifications for the spare room yet. When I do I’ll tell him to build a cute little dog house in one corner so you can keep Buster down there. Maybe it would be a good idea if he planted a jelly bean tree and a popcorn bush just outside your window. You wouldn’t even have to get out of bed to eat them.
What’s this about Zelma taking dancing lessons? I didn’t know she was supposed to be taking them also.
Well, Stubby, here is where I ring off for another time. Guess I didn’t make the letter much longer but it is the best I can do now.
Dave
April 24, 1935
70 Jay Street
Albany, N.Y.
Dear Dave,
Being unoccupied at this time, I will take a few minutes and get the answer to the letter I haven’t received yet started. What I do now, I won’t have to do tonight. I have a little work to do when I get home tonight and besides it is very difficult for one as ambitious as I to remain idle. Laugh that one off!
I managed to get tomorrow off so now I may have some new clothes for a change. Not that I ever get a chance to use them, but they are kind of handy to have.
I went to the dentist yesterday and he filled the roots to my tooth. Friday he will finish filling it. He told me it would be sore and he sure was right. You don’t know how lucky you were that he didn’t fill it last Friday so it would be sore over the weekend. I would probably have been so crabby you couldn’t have stood me. I’m bad enough under normal conditions.
Monday night when I finished work I was all ready to go home and retire. My intentions were alright but I ran into a bunch of the girls gossiping on the corner and of course I couldn’t pass up a chance like that, so I joined the crowd. While we stood there a couple guys came along in a Ford Roadster. I guess they felt the need of a couple of nurses, but I didn’t feel like playing they part of the “Good Samaritan” so the party broke up and one of the girls went home with me. After we had spilled all the dirt we had heard in the last three months, I asked her if she had her picture yet. She said she had had it for a long time and mine was at school. Tired and sleepy as I was, I pulled myself back together and walked up after it. While I was up there, I fell into a conversation with another bunch of the girls. I also talked with Miss Van Deusen and I find that I have to put in twenty-one weeks and three days of practice work , that leaves me with nine more weeks and five days more to put in. Five weeks of which I have to put in at the hospital. Mrs. Thorn is worried that I will have to leave before her mother gets better and she doesn’t want another nurse.
Remind me to show you that swell class picture. You’ll laugh yourself sick. I was sort of disappointed in it, but I guess it isn’t so bad considering what they had to start on. They have a lot of the names spelled wrong, but for a wonder, they got mine right.
Tell Fran that Mr. Thorn wasn’t looking at him Sunday night so not to flatter himself. How do I know? Well, Monday he asked me if I had a good time and I said “yeaph”. He says “He has a nice car, hasn’t he?” and I answered “yeaph”. You see he was only looking the car over and not its occupants.
Did you get your other fifty chickens yet and what are their names (if any)? Don’t forget to keep one little one for me. Did you find the kittens yet? I hope you don’t find them until they get big enough to be cute and then you won’t have the heart to dispose of them. I suppose if I don’t keep still, you will send them to Adams Center by Fran.
Tomorrow night ends Passover and I can’t say I am sorry either. I think you would make a much better Jew than I. I have been here nearly twelve weeks and I bet you know more about the customs now than I do. They tell me I have eaten matzos like a good Jew should (not to mention the candy bars I keep concealed in my coat pocket). Their religion is a big joke to me or at least part of it.
By the way, let me congratulate you on your success at putting an end to the arguing. You sure did a swell job. How did you ever do it? Fran must be afraid of you. Now it is our turn to fight. The only trouble is you are too darned good natured to even let me start an argument. I’ll get you peeved yet!
10:45 p.m.
Didn’t I tell you I would have something to do when I got home? Florence and Ben came up after me from work and they have been here in my room ever since. We have been fixing a mock wedding ceremony. I am supposed to be the minister. I even let Ben come up instead of making him wait in the car for two hours. I told him he would have to make his voice as feminine as possible.
Florence and I have a dog roast planned for Sunday night. Whether Fran can come up or not we are bringing Lydia, Ben and the dogs to Preston Hollow just as soon as I finish work. I think Lydia plans to go to Catskill Sunday night, but for once we are having our own way and if she won’t cancel her plans, we can do it for her. She has all next week to go to Catskill so she is staying with me Sunday night.
I’ll let you know what I think she would like so you can tell Fran later. She said once nothing, but she would. I think the shower will be a complete surprise. Florence says Evelyn still plans to have one.
It is now eleven o’clock and I’m tired so I’ll sign off and see you Sunday. We may have to use force with Lydia but I’m just the person who can do it.
“Me”
P.S. I had to pay my rent before I got your letter!
Class picture, 1935. R.J.P. is in 2nd row, 3rd from the right
April 26, 1935
70 Jay Street
Albany, N.Y.
Dear Dave,
As usual I am waiting at the dentist’s and I guess there are about a half dozen ahead of me. I stopped on my way down and got your letter and also one from my Mom.
The purpose of this note is to clear up the doubts surrounding our roast. We have succeeded in getting Lydia to consent so you may expect to see us with Ben and Florence some time during the evening. Lydia is going to spend the remainder of Monday morning with me. She gave up her former plans with very little persuasion. Of course she wanted to go to P.H. to see her furniture or at least that is what she says.
The shower was huge success. Lydia didn’t tumble until she walked in and they started playing “Here Comes the Bride”. She was so surprised she didn’t know what to do so she started backing out the door. I had to grab her or she would have been going yet.
The wedding ceremony was perfect or at least that is what they tell me. Meadie was the bride and Evelyn was the groom. I sure got them married and how! Any time you hear of anyone who wishes to get married in the right way, let me know and I will see what I can do about it.
If this sounds queer, don’t blame me. There is a little girl in here about four years old and, boy can she talk. I only wish your mother was here to put the soft pedal on her.
I didn’t get to sleep last night until after 2:30 and I have to work tonight, just my luck.
The family is supposed to go to Temple tonight and in the morning for a memorial service for their sister who died several years ago.
Don’t forget to bring me a chicken to P.H. so I can see what they look like. The first ones must be nearly grown up.
Gotta have my tooth filled. See you Sunday maybe.
“Me”
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