Ruth is busy and frustrated keeping up with work around the house, caring for children and her mother. Both she and Dave look forward to a planned visit over Decoration Day. They also remember that it’s Francis and Lydia’s first wedding anniversary.
May 17, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
Hello Hon,
It is 6:15 Sunday night so I’ll try my luck at getting a letter written to my sweet. However, I think the kids will make me a nervous wreck before I get very far.
Grace came up yesterday afternoon with Niles’s sister and her husband. They just left for home. She didn’t bring any of the children.
I guess I told you that I wrote to both her and Eva and told them if they came home, not to bring any of the children. Grace said she didn’t feel hurt as she knew I was doing it for Mom’s good, but Eva wrote to Grace and carried the idea I was only doing it to be mean. As far as I am concerned, if her feelings are injured, she will just have to get over it.
They all expected me to come home and do the work and see that Mom does things to make her better, but as far as my opinion goes otherwise, I’m only supposed to work and keep still. If Eva wasn’t so blind, she could have seen what excitement does for Mom just what little time they were here. She felt worse then than she has at all since I have been home. Just one time like that could offset any improvement she may have had in a week. I noticed that Eva acted cool but Hermann was alright. She wouldn’t feel right if she didn’t have a grievance against someone anyway. I suppose when she is peeved at me, she gives someone else a rest. No doubt because I don’t happen to be married they think I have no interests of my own. They all tell what they would do if they could and they also go so far as to say it is my duty to be home.
I am glad I can be home with Mom and I am willing to do all I can for her, but it does hurt to have people carry the idea that I am only doing my duty.
It hurts me to be so far away from you as much as it would hurt any of the rest to leave their family. I shouldn’t be writing all this, but I know you understand and it always helps to tell you things.
We are going over to the Dr. Wednesday and if Mom’s blood pressure isn’t down more, I will be pretty discouraged. Her weekends are hard on her as the kids make her so nervous.
I am about caught up on the work so this week I won’t have to work so hard. No one asked me to work up in the other house. I did it because I knew Mom would worry if it wasn’t done. I guess Harold intends to pay me for it eventually.
I haven’t done any work on my bedspread since I have been home. I am in hopes I will get some time to work on it this week.
I have been wondering if you made your trip or not. I have thought of you all day and wondered what you were doing. I used to look forward to weekends but now I dread to have them come as they are so long and lonesome without you.
Monday morning.
As usual, I was interrupted last night and when I did get a chance to write, I couldn’t think of anything to say.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot to reprimand you for giving your fly bites such a scratching. Do you remember the night we were up on observatory hill and the mosquitoes bit me so and you wouldn’t even let me give them a good scratch? Don’t let me catch you scratching any bites or I’ll slap your bare wrist or sompin’.
Well, honey, I seem to have reached my limit and it is nearly time for the mailman. I haven’t washed my dishes yet so it is time I got to work.
I love you, my sweetheart.
Oodles of love and kisses,
Ruth
May 17, 1936
Middleburg, N.Y.
My Darling Ruth,
It is 9:30 P.M. and I just got back from Florence’s. I’m tired, sleepy and have a headache so I hope you will forgive me if this letter is short. We left here last night at 6:30. Took about three hours each way. I guess everyone had a good time and I know Florence was glad to see us. She has a grand home there. Even better than the one in Norwich and I always thought that was pretty nice. I didn’t go down to Norwich at all. Except for a ride around Colgate University with Walt, I stayed pretty close to the house. Coming back I got sleepy and Lula drove from Cobleskill to Middleburg.
I had to read your letter in a hurry Saturday night so I’ll read it again now to refresh my memory. Every other letter has been read twice before I have had it this long.
I’m sorry you didn’t get my letter when you expected it last week. I didn’t write until Wednesday night. Thanks for writing just the same, darling. Just another one of the reasons why I love you so much.
It seems good to hear that you are doing something besides working all the time. I think that is a good idea of getting the horse to mow the lawn. Why not get a couple of cows, too, then I won’t have to do any of it when I come up.
You are doing pretty good with the dimes. A lot better than I am. You had better stop chiseling from your Mother and go to work on someone else. She is giving me enough when she gives me you.
Gee, honey, I’m just dying to hold you in my arms once more. You can’t imagine how lonesome I get sometimes. I’m coming up the Friday night before Decoration Day if I can stand it until then. I would make it next weekend but by waiting another week I can get in an extra day. I know the next twelve days will seem endless, but I guess I’ll just have to live thru them. I hope it will be so Lydia and Fran can come with me. I don’t like the thoughts of that drive alone, especially after a day’s work.
We have moved to another bridge now and I have to drive about seven miles on a dirt road over the mountain. That means getting up before breakfast tomorrow so I think I’ll close and say good night.
I love you, sweetheart.
Lonesome “me”
P.S. Remember a year ago tomorrow? How I wish we could be celebrating our first anniversary next year at this time.
May 18, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
Hello My Honey,
I see by the date that Mr. and Mrs. Sprague have been married just a year today. Gee, think of all things that have taken place in one short year. I wonder if there will be as many in the coming year.
Ogdensburg Journal
June 6, 1936
I saw in the paper today where Mrs. Edward Bartlet and Mrs. Lynn Parker were granted a divorce in Reno May 15. Both of the boys were charged with cruelty. Lynn said when he was here that the girls were coming home this last weekend. He didn’t say anything about their plans for the future and I never mentioned the affair. He stayed overnight at Richardson’s.
Gee, here I am writing to my darling twice a day. I was surprised when I received your letter this morning and I was tickled. I guess if it weren’t for your letters, I would get so lonesome I couldn’t stand it.
Speaking of cold weather, Saturday morning there was a terrible frost. Everything was just like it would be in the fall. Friday night June and I put two more blankets over us and took the flat iron to bed. Saturday morning we had fires in the stove, furnace and fireplace. We also used the oil stove to bake.
When the bridge you are starting now is finished, will you be through with the job or is there more than one?
Gee gosh, everything happens to me when it isn’t cold enough to freeze me, the mosquitoes bite me to pieces.
I haven’t answered Ruth Springsteen’s letter yet. I haven’t heard from Loretta since I came home. I really should write to both her and Zelma. Some day when I am in Belleville I will have to stop in and see Florence and Bill. The other time I was over, they had gone to Bill’s father’s funeral.
I did manage to get a letter written to Eva and Lydia last week. Probably had I known Eva was peeved at me, I wouldn’t have written.
If you could only see me washing the breakfast dishes mornings, you would get a kick out of it. I have one eye on the dishpan and the other three looking up the road to see if the mailman is coming. No one else ever gets a chance to get the mail, no doubt they are afraid they would get knocked down.
Guess what? We haven’t got our cat home yet. If we wait much longer, there will be six instead of one. We were keeping the cat deal a deep, dark secret from Bill, and June wrote him a letter and told him all about it. Bill always has a lot to say about my cats, but I would adopt a dozen cats if I wanted to. Anyway, Mom bargained for this cat.
Seems like I can’t think of much more to say, so I’ll call it a day and don’t forget that I love you, my honey boy.
Yours,
“Me”
May 19, 1936
Middleburg, N.Y.
Dearest Ruthie,
Received your letter today and I’ll answer it right away instead of waiting a day as I did last week.
So you think Eva is peeved. Well, don’t let anything like that worry you, hon. She will get over it. None of them realize the sacrifice you are making and no one but your Mother will appreciate it. Maybe they all think it is your plan to be home, but if you ask me, I think Bill is the one who should be there. Probably he couldn’t do as much as you but it seems to me he is the one most responsible.
Don’t be apologizing for telling me your troubles, dear. I want you to do it. I’d think you didn’t trust me if you didn’t.
I hope your visit to the Dr. will be encouraging. It would be pretty disheartening if some improvement wasn’t shown.
It rained today and we had to quit work at ten o’clock. That is the first time we have lost since April 29.
If I can’t scratch my bites, I’ll have to have a nurse to rub them for me. My left ear is swollen where one, or maybe several, bit me and my right ankle would match up quite well with Kate Smith’s.
This afternoon I was up in the pasture fixing a fence when Fran came up after those berry stakes. I came down and went to M. with him to help set them out. On the way we met Tex going to P.H. He is going away tomorrow so he went on down and brought Lydia back with him. We all stayed there for supper and just got back here.
I asked them about coming up with me the 29th and Lydia says she has asked Dan and Meadie to come out on his next off Sunday which she thinks is the 31st, so I don’t know how they will make out. She wants to come up and stay a week.
I was rather thoughtless in my last letter. I didn’t even ask if my coming then would interfere with any of your or your Mother’s plans or if you think it will be too much for her if we all come at once. I hope it will be all right to come then because I want to see you so much. Every day I look at the calendar and count the days even though I know just how many are left. The fewer they get, the longer they will seem. Do you know that this is the longest we have ever been apart, darling? If I don’t go completely daffy before I see you again, it will be a wonder. I love you, my sweetheart, and I’ve just got to see you before long.
Love and kisses to my darling,
Dave
May 19, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
My dear Dave,
I didn’t expect a letter from you today. I thought if you went away over the weekend you wouldn’t get home early enough to write. You shouldn’t have written when you were so tired, but as you already know I was pretty glad to receive it.
I am glad you made the trip to see your sister. At least Sunday was a nice day.
Mom says to tell you that I’m not chiseling dishes, she gives them to me of her own free will. However, she says the only chiseling I have done is on her eats. She said the last square meal she had was the day you were here and she is waiting until you come up again.
Gee, I sure was glad to hear that you are coming up over Decoration Day. Now I have something to look forward to. It is only ten days off now and when you get this letter it will only be eight days away.
It so happens, my darling, that I know just how lonesome you get. Always remember when you are feeling lonesome, that someone is just as lonesome for you.
I think it is a good idea to wait the extra week so we can have two days together. Gee, we used to feel sorry for ourselves when we had to go a whole week without seeing each other, but I guess neither one of us hardly expected we would ever have to go through this.
I guess I have read all of your letters over about a dozen times or more. On the days when I don’t get a letter from you, I console myself by reading the ones you have written before.
I am educating June on how to wash dishes and she can do them as well as I can if she tries. At present she is roller skating around the kitchen. Everyone else has gone to bed and if she doesn’t quit, I’ll be forced to retire, too.
Today we went to Watertown and got Mom a new dress and hat. Tomorrow we go over to see the Dr. and I am anxious to go and yet I dread it. I am so afraid he isn’t going to find much improvement. She says she thinks she feels worse than she did when I came home. I think she worries a lot about herself. Yesterday she cried and said she didn’t think she would ever see Bill again. You can imagine how those things make me feel when I am doing all I can to get her better.
Well, my darling, it is only 7:30 but I think I’ll go to bed. It has gotten colder again tonight. I hope we don’t get any more frost.
I love you, my sweet.
Yours,
Ruth
P.S. All of your letters sleep under my pillow.
May 21, 1936
Middleburg, N.Y.
Darling Ruth,
Guess I had better get busy and catch up on my letter writing. Here it is only Thursday and I have had three letters already. I appreciate them, darling. It helps a lot to come home at night and find your letter waiting for me.
I’m still working off up on yonder mountain. Will probably be up there about four more days and then we start the bridge right near home here. When that is finished I don’t know what I will do.
I am not laughing at your cold weather. We have plenty of it here. Nearly everyone who had gardens planted will have to do it over. I guess we were lucky we couldn’t get anyone to plow ours. We are doing it ourselves now nights after supper.
Eight more days to go, honey. Each one is getting longer. I’ll bet I won’t even sleep the last couple of nights. I wish I were going to see you longer than two days that will go by so quick I won’t even have time to kiss you. I’m going to monopolize every minute of your time while I am there. I don’t think I’ll even let you go to bed Saturday night.
If I can manage it, I want to get off Friday afternoon so I can get there in time to spend Friday evening with you, too. However, I can’t plan too much on that because we might be doing something that day that would need every man.
I wish your Mother would show more improvement than she does, darling. It must be discouraging to try so hard and have her feel the way she does. Maybe you will get some encouragement from the Dr. when you see him.
Do you remember about the fellow who murdered the minister’s girl in Greenville? His trial ended this week and he was found guilty. He will get the chair if they don’t squirm out of it some way. Mr. McCord of Albany testified as to his degree of mentality. I think he said his mind equaled that of an eleven year old boy.1
Gee, honey girl, I wish I could write as long letters as you do, but I can’t and most everything I do write is the same as the time before. All I can think of now is that I love you, my sweet, and wish you were here in my arms. I don’t know how we are going to stand this all summer.
Guess I’ll close now and try to sleep. I have a headache for some reason. Had one all day yesterday, too. Maybe I’m growing a brain and it’s trying to make room for itself amongst the excelsior.
Goodnight my love,
Dave
May 21, 1936
Adams Center, N.Y.
Dear Davie,
Now to answer my honey’s letter and take myself to bed. Gee whiz, am I all caught up or am I. Ever since I came home I have worried about the lots at the cemetery not being raked and mowed for Decoration Day. Today I decided to take Donald and Ivan down tonight after school to see what we could do.2 Fortunately, Kent came over and he and I did about “steen” lots. I sure was glad he came over. We could never have done it without him. He was very nice to me and even rode in the back seat and let me drive the car.
Harold Parker and his children, Ivan, Joyce, and Lewis
We went over to see the Dr. yesterday. He says Mom’s BP is 210. She doesn’t feel very well and lies down most all day. Yesterday morning she nearly had a heart attack. I was awfully frightened. She is a lot worse than when I came home. If she doesn’t take a change, I think we will see another Dr.
On the way back from Belleville we stopped at Glenn’s. When Dot came out to the car, she asked if we had come after our cats. It seems our cat had become the mother of five little yellow kittens. Since we had already bargained for her, we had to take her family, too. We brought the half dozen cats home in a box. The mother cat took herself off and stayed all afternoon. I thought she had left us flat and gone home. I had visions of myself feeding Mrs. Cat’s family with a medicine dropper. When the kids got home we sent a searching party for her and finally they returned with their charge.
Listen, sweet, you know it is alright for you to come up at any time you find it most convenient. Mom will be glad to have you and also Lydia and Francis. Mom lies down a lot no matter who is here and as far as I am concerned, you know I need you and can hardly wait until I can see you again.
I have been managing the kids pretty good lately. Once in a while they are a little difficult. Donald and I have had one run-in since I came home, however, since then I have had no trouble. June is sort of impossible tonight. Maybe it is because I am tired.
I get up at 6:15 every morning and build the fire. That is something I never did before. I try to have Mom stay in bed until after the bus comes as she seems to have her bad spells in the morning.
If I don’t work all of the time, the work gets way behind and the house looks like the deuce. I’m so worried most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing. The others say they are worried and one thing and another and tell what should be done, but they should stay here a week. Mom says she doesn’t know what she would have done without me and I don’t either. She says she realizes what foolish things she has done that has helped to put her where she is. I have begged her for years not to do such heavy work for other people and only look out for June and Billy. Now the ones she has done the most for are the ones that can’t see the cause of all this. At present I seem to be the only one in a position to be of much assistance. I am only thankful that I can be here. I know Mom realizes what it means for me to be so far away from you. There isn’t a day goes by that she doesn’t speak about the sacrifice I am making. I think she appreciates it more than I deserve.
Gee, dear, I bet you get tired of reading nothing but woe in my letters and that seems to be all I write lately.
I had a letter from Loretta yesterday. She is still on the same case. She says Ralph has given Jane a ring. Jane is elated, but not any more I bet than I was.
Harold went to see the fellow up the road, who is building a barn, yesterday. Lydia said Fran might like a job so Harold spoke to him about both of you. He said to send you to see him when you come up. It might not mean anything and there is a chance that it might. Kent said if you had been up here, he thought you could have gotten work at the plant this summer.
I think I have exhausted my supply of information so I’ll retire. Gee, there are just eight more days before I will see the one I love. Isn’t it funny how anyone can be awfully lonesome when they are with a lot of people. It must be because their better half isn’t among those present.
Good night, darling.
Oodles of love and kisses,
Your Ruthie
P.S. How is our Fluffy cat these days? Don’t you think you should adopt a nice little yellow kitten for a companion for her? I dreamed one night that you gave Fluff a bath.
Albany Evening News, May 4, 1936;
photo from The Poughkeepsie Eagle News, Feb 12, 1937
Footnotes
- The story of the murder of a 9-year-old child, Helen Glenn, was front page news at the time. Alfred Volckmann, a 19-year-old working for his father in a butcher shop, had confessed to the murder the night she was found stabbed to death. The article included here came out around the time his lawyer was trying to plea insanity. Volckman ended up being convicted and sent to death row at Sing Sing Prison (still an active correctional facility in Ossining, NY). The lawyer, Mr. Tennant, appealed the sentencing as his parents desperately tried to save him from the death penalty. The girl’s father, Rev. Ernest Glenn, was against any clemency. Volckmann was electrocuted at Sing Sing on February 11, 1937.
- Ivan Parker (1926-1981) was Harold’s oldest son. He is shown in the photo with his father, younger brother, Lewis (1928-1992), and their older sister Joyce.
Thank you, Julie! I only knew how well Mom and your grandmother and Aunt Eva got along in later years. Encouraging that time heals. And gives us hope ❤️
Of course they all got along! I find it hilarious that your mother was roller skating around the kitchen driving them all crazy. 😀