Mar 11-14, 1935

Dave runs into a brother-in-law while he is in Albany looking for parts for the Essex, and is able to return to Middleburg with him in a Whippet. Both he and Ruth joke about the dance that he invited her to for March 15 (which she cannot attend). Dave puts the Essex back together with new parts and it now works. Ruth gets a night off and goes out with Lydia and some friends..

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March 11, 1935

Middleburg, N.Y.

Dear Ruth,

Have I spent a hectic day or have I. I usually have a good time when I come to Albany but not so today. It was 10:30 before I got to the city and then I started running from one end of the city to the other trying to find what I wanted. At 12:30 I still hadn’t succeeded and was just about to give up because the fellow I came in with said he would be ready to go back by 1:00.

As I was crossing State Street at Broadway, I heard a horn blowing and I turned around to find my brother-in-law driving a rather dilapidated Whippet car that belongs to an old man living out here near him.¹  I climbed aboard the chariot and found out he was just driving this pair of heathens around to do some shopping. Guess I forgot to mention the old man had his daughter with him and what a daughter. I could never find adequate words to describe her so will skip it. Anyway, I secured a ride home and a little more time in which I found what I wanted, or at least I hope it is. I’m going down in the morning to start putting the puzzle together and if the part I got doesn’t fit, you will probably hear me say darn or sumpin.

I would have liked to have called you up but I thought it best not to. They might not like it if they knew you were getting personal calls on their phone.

Gee it sure seemed good to have you out for the evening again last night. I guess you probably realize that by the length of time I kept you out. It was later than I thought but time sure does fly. I gathered the impression that Lydia didn’t like it any too well. I’ll try and do better next time, that is if you aren’t going to be too busy to see me next Sunday evening.

You should have been with us earlier in the evening and heard some of the remarks made by Florence. There I go again talking about poor Florence. I probably have left the impression more than once that I don’t like her but that really isn’t so. I like her well enough and enjoy having her with us but a few of her ideas and things she says burn me up. When we were talking about her and Ben being engaged I said something to the effect that she had better not change her mind again or she might get fooled. You should have heard her then. She started bragging about how she had Ben hooked and that she could change her mind as often as she wanted and still get him back. Well she probably is right but I hardly think it is the proper thing to be telling about it. On the other hand, maybe it is me that is crazy and anyway who am I to judge someone else. Better to forget all about it I guess.²

Yes, my stray pup came back or rather was brought back and is still here. If I can ever get up the courage or ambition, I don’t know which I lack, I’ll get some chloroform and dig a hole in the ground. I think that is the only permanent way of getting rid of him.

I suppose that very shortly you will be going down to take your dancing lesson. Speaking of dancing makes me think. How come you kept singing the song, “I’ve got an invitation to a dance”? I suppose you were expecting me to make some kind of remark about a certain dance to be held March 15^th. So, just to be mean as you would say, I didn’t mention it at all. Anyway after due consideration of the financial standings of brother Sprague and myself and the uncertainty of whether or not Lydia can go out that night, we have made the momentous decision to cancel all plans for a dance and to sit at home and twiddle our thumbs for the evening. Whew, was that a mouthful and I wrote it all without taking a breath. With a little more practice I’ll be able to run opposition to the great Huey Long.³

Say, me thinks I am shy one perfectly good five cent handkerchief. I’m not so much worried over the loss of the article, but I’m wondering if the inventory value of it could be made a deductible item on my income tax report. If it can, I’ll just about come under the wire with no tax to pay. How’s that for close figuring with no algebra involved.

Me also thinks that when I started this letter I intended to make it short so I could go to bed and now look what I have gone and done. However, since this may be the last one I will have to write for some time at least I guess it won’t do any hurt if it is a little lengthy and windy. And, anyhow, since you are going to be so busy you won’t have time for writing letters. You will also be all over feeling lonesome and will have no further need of any letters from me. Nevertheless I’ll be expecting your reply as usual and what’s more I’m quite confident I will get it. (That sounds like Florence.)

Too bad I can’t go on and fill this page but my eyes are getting the best of me so I’ll say good night.

Dave

P.S. I thought it was funny I had been sitting here so long and no remarks from my Mother. However, she got one in just in time. She says to tell you the ink bill is running up something terrible. Guess we’ll have to revise the family budget.

D.W.C.

P.P.S. If you dare come back with a statement that this is a short letter, I’ll tear all my hair out.

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March 11, 1935

4 p.m.

70 Jay Street

Albany, N.Y.

Dear Dave,

Since I find myself with nothing to do for a few minutes, I will give in once more and write to you. It seems to be a habit which I have recently gotten into.

Mrs. Finklestien is sleeping now but I know not how long it will last, so if this ends abruptly, don’t say anything.

Woe is me. I suppose I have a dancing lesson staring me in the face for this evening. Maybe I don’t dread it some. Probably I’ll be such a success that I won’t have to take but one lesson of ballroom dancing and the rest I’ll take of tap dancing. You already know what a swell toe dancer I am.

Somehow I managed to wake up this morning, but I haven’t figured out yet what caused it. Something tells me I will have to have a big Ben (not like Florence’s). I seem to be surrounded by a dense fog today.

Miss Salisbury was here again today. She happened along just as I was about to down my lunch. Talk about wealth, it won’t be long now before I won’t even condescend to speak to common people.

9:20 p.m.

Here I is, sitting up in bed writing when I should be down taking a dance lesson. If I don’t take one Wednesday night, Lydia will disinherit me or sompin’. Honest and truly, I had good intentions but at the last minute what should it do but start raining. Of course my umbrella was at home nice and dry and I knew you and Lydia would bawl me out if I went down street without it. (Excuse No. I)

Excuse No. II

I seem to have developed a lump under my jaw which is sort of sore when pressure is applied. I think I got a sock last night. My lower lip is swollen and has several blisters on it (not very large) so I resemble a coon. My tooth felt like it might ache and I was afraid I might catch my death in the dampness.

Excuse No. III

For some unknown reason, I seem to feel sort of sleepy and tired. My poor “little” feet refused to be walked on, etc.

Excuse No. IV

Last Saturday I neglected to do my weekly marketing which consisted of some soap and fruit. You see I have to be sure of my fresh fruit every day so that I get enough vitamins. Otherwise my resistance would be lowered and a million little micro-organisms might attack me. I had to have the soap because people might talk if I ran around with a dirty face.

Excuse No. V (Last but not least.)

I planned to stop at Sam’s to get my laundry because I thought I might need a clean uniform tomorrow. I got down to the corner of Jay and Swan Street when it suddenly dawned on me that the laundry was on Lark Street. Was I pleased? I was so darned disgusted that I just naturally decided to come home and let the laundry go to ______?

You didn’t hear me swear that time, didja? If Lydia doesn’t learn to keep secrets, I shall have to find some way of coming back at her.

My eyes are swiftly closing, so I’ll be cutting this to one sheet.

Ruth

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March 14, 1935

Middleburg, N.Y.

Dear Ruth,

Received your letter this morning and I can’t quite figure it out, whether I owe you one or not. I don’t think you had received the letter I mailed Tuesday when you sent yours but I suppose if I don’t write now, I’ll be accused of not answering your letters when I see you Sunday.

I guess the above paragraph is rather muddled and disjointed. I just read it over and can’t quite understand myself what I meant so if you can figure it out, you’re good. Anyway it is just another proof that I can’t write letters, so there.

I have the Essex running at last. Spent nearly the whole day Tuesday putting in all the parts I could find and when I was finished I didn’t have the courage to try it out. I went in and talked to Fran for a while then dashed out and stepped on the starter. I don’t know if I expected it to explode or what but anyway after a few feeble groans and a great clashing of gears it slowly went into motion. Did you notice the fact that I mentioned a starter? I have done away with the Armstrong starter but as yet haven’t discovered anything to substitute for that type of heater. Have you any suggestions?⁴

Say, you sure had a raft of excuses for not taking your dancing lesson and they were all pretty good. Who did you meet in the hallway after I left? There surely must have been someone there to waylay you or else you never would have gotten all banged up the way you tell about. You must be more careful going thru dark hallways.

No, I didn’t hear you swear when you so absent mindedly missed the laundry, but the only reason I didn’t was because the radio didn’t happen to be tuned in on an Albany station at the time. I’ll bet the air was blue for several blocks around you. Now you see what kind of an opinion you have led me to form of you, and don’t blame it on Lydia. I didn’t need her word for it to find out you were quite a professional in the use of profane language.

Friday, 12:15 p.m.

Ran out of words last night and I don’t know as I am any better off now, so I’ll just scribble off a few lines and call it good enough.

Right now I am trying to write this and listen to Honeyboy and Sassafras on the radio.⁵ Have you ever heard them? They sure are good, at least I think so.

Haven’t been doing a thing today but sitting around and reading. Pretty soft, don’t you think? However, I’ll get out this afternoon and do a little work providing it doesn’t start snowing again.

I’ll be seeing you Sunday.

Dave

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March 14, 1935

70 Jay Street

Albany, N.Y.

Dear Dave,

I suppose about this time you are feeling sorry for yourself because you didn’t receive a longer letter. I wrote the letter Monday night and intended to mail it Tuesday, but due to the fact that my mind was elsewhere, it didn’t get mailed until Wednesday. However, I suppose you consider yourself fortunate that you got it at all.

So you feel quite confident that you will get an answer. Just for that remark, I should make you wait a week.

Talk about ink bills, since I started school I have used a whole bottle. This is the last of it in this ________ pen now, and believe me, if I wasn’t such a nice little girl, I’d call it a ___________. I think I had better go easy or I will have those blanks filled in and then you would have to go all over last Sunday’s lecture. I survived it once, but I’m afraid I couldn’t again.

Now, Mr. Wise Guy, get a load of this. I didn’t take a dancing lesson Monday and I stayed in Tuesday night. Last night I met Lydia at the Madison and we saw “David Copperfield”. Tonight I am leaving work at 7:30 and Lydia, Zelma, someone else and I are going to the Kenmore for dinner.

Yeah, I seem to have in my possession a stray handkerchief, but you should worry because it belongs to your brother. Gee whiz, I have to stay in Sunday night and make out my income tax report.

There is nothing the matter with Florence, after all she can’t help it if Ben is sap enough to take it. I think even if I did know I had someone wound around my little finger, I would at least keep it under my hat. I still say I’ll have to find out how she does it. She will change her mind forty times yet before she marries him (if she ever does), so I for one am not going to waste any effort in offering congratulations.

I don’t think Lydia cared much how long we stayed out Sunday night. She hasn’t mentioned it yet. The sign out in front of the house said you weren’t supposed to park over an hour, but I don’t think it means you can’t leave sooner.

What is this I hear about you riding around with a fair damsel in her limousine? You had better take it easy because they tell me there are some rather wild women around Middleburg. In fact all the natives in that section of the country are sort of wild. No kidding, I insist on having a complete description of her. It looks kind of serious to me when you even take “the old man” along.

Thursday, 11:45 p.m.

Well we went out to dinner and are still alive to tell the story, or at least I am. The dinner was very good but the floor show wasn’t so hot. The orchestra wasn’t bad. At least we had our long anticipated evening. Nobody drank beer but Zelma and she didn’t even smoke.

I had a letter from Florence and also one from “My Mom”. My mother said Billy hadn’t punished Joe yet, but he threatens to if he torments old Ike. He told me when I was at home that Joe would get punished as soon as I left. I sure get a kick out of those kids and you should see me discipline them. Billy didn’t learn to swear from me either, Mr. Smarty, because I didn’t even know how until I came to Albany. You can’t begin to know all the bad habits which I have gotten into since I left home. I begin to believe environment has a lot to do with a person’s behavior. Looks like I’ll have to revise my essay.

Lydia invested in an alarm clock for me, so now I don’t have to worry about not waking up. I told her to ask for a big clock with a small noise, but she says she asked for a small clock with a large noise. I don’t know yet but I will in the morning, which she got. It has an organ grinder or sompin’ and a monkey on the face of it so it should be good.

I am sitting up in bed trying to write so you probably can’t read this, not that you could anyway.

I suppose the Essex is all set for action by now or didn’t the part fit. I didn’t hear you cuss so I guess it did.

The next time you come to meet me on New Scotland Avenue be sure and park on the opposite side of the street, otherwise I may forget myself and visit for a half hour or so.

Someone gave me a pain in the neck and the funny part of it is I woke up with it Monday morning.

I am awfully sleepy and I think I will turn out the light, put up the window and crawl down in my little trundle bed. Station SLEEPY now signing off until further notice.

“Stubby”

P.S. Pages VII and VIII are written in blank verse or invisible ink.

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Footnotes

1. Whippet cars were built by the Willys-Overland Company in Toledo from 1926 to 1931, these cars were the smallest and most economical of American cars at the time. The name comes from the dog breed for being small and fast (boasting a 24 hour endurance run on the Indianapolis Speedway with an average speed of 56 mph). Willys-Overland was taken over by Chrysler during the early part of the century, but as Chrysler bought out other companies, John Willys got his factory back and started production of the Whippet. The onset of the Depression and WWII lead to the end of its production. This company instead started producing Jeeps, now sold by Chrysler, for the war effort.
2. Florence Walker and Benjamin Stevenson were married in Watervliet, NY on September 3, 1937. Ben was considerably older than Florence, by about 20 years. They lived in the Watervliet area when Ben died in 1965. He and Florence (date of death is unknown) are buried in Memory Gardens Cemetery in Colonie, NY. They did not have any children.
3. Huey Long (1893-1935) had been a U.S. senator from Louisiana since 1932 up until his assassination in 1935.  Prior to this, he had served as governor of Louisiana since 1928.  He ran on a “Share our Wealth” platform. Under Long’s leadership, hospitals and educational institutions were expanded, a system of charity hospitals was set up that provided health care for the poor, massive highway construction and free bridges brought an end to rural isolation, and free textbooks were provided for schoolchildren. He was nicknamed the “Kingfish,” after a character in the Amos and Andy show who had tried to lure them into get-rich-quick schemes. Although he was a supporter of FDR in 1932, he had been planning his own bid for the presidency for the 1936 election.
4. Many thanks to the Classic Car Restoration Club for deciphering this passage! This is what they had to say “”Armstrong” is sort of a tongue-in-cheek term to describe something you’ll need ‘Strong Arms” to do. In this case the Armstrong Starter he is describing refers to is the engine crank. The crank was inserted through a crank hole in the grill, the ignition switch would be turned on and the crank was turned by hand to start the engine. They could be hard to turn and require strong arms to do so. If you weren’t hanging onto the crank properly and the engine backfired and the crank didn’t release, you could break or dislocate fingers, thumb or even a arm. Many cars in this era came with either standard or optional electric start and all had crank start capability. Crank starters remained as a starting option on many cars well into the 1940s although the crank hole became more disguised.” The full story and response can be found here.
5. Blackface is a distinctively American form of theater that contributed to racial stereotypes. More information about the history of this type of entertainment can be found here and here.