Sept 29-Oct 5, 1935

Dave is disappointed that Ruth has decided to extend her visit to Adams Center. They reminisce about how they met about a year ago, in October, 1934. She and her mother go up to Gouverneur to visit Eva and her family, and she tells stories about that and of other family members. Lydia and Francis have acquired a couple of pigs and aptly named them Ruth and Dave.

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September 29, 1935

Adams Center, N.Y.

Dear Dave,

For some reason or other, I am in a mood similar to the one you were in the last time you wrote.  I wouldn’t attempt to name the cause, but I guess I’ll blame it on the weather.  It sure has been a gloomy day.  One minute there’s sunshine and the next minute it pours.  I predicted snow last night because it was so cold.  I’ll bet it isn’t so hot down there either.  It reminds me of the winter we have ahead of us.  Here’s hoping we have a place to go on cold nights.

I didn’t go to church this morning.  I guess it was lack of ambition.  Glenn and Dot came about noon and were here for dinner.  They wanted me to go home with them and stay a week.  I told them I would come over some day before I go back.  If the weather is a little warmer tomorrow, we are going to Gouveneur.

I just finished letters to Lydia and Loretta.  I have intended to write all day but someone has been here most of the time.  Mom and I are sitting up alone and we have a nice fire in the fireplace.  I wish you were here to share it.

I told Loretta I wouldn’t plan to go back to the city until she does (October 21).  That means I stay home four weeks instead of three.  The week of the 14^th I will probably spend at Lydia’s.  Maybe by that time you won’t be working and can carry out your plans.  I am glad you got a chance to work again.  I hate to be the cause of you taking even one day off.  I am sorry, however, that things can’t be as you planned, as you do deserve a little vacation.  Seems like our plans always go on the rocks for some reason or other.  Oh well, maybe we are getting a break and don’t know it.

Now that I have added another week to this vacation period, you will have a few more days to count.  Come to think of it, it seems like a bit longer than two weeks since I last saw you.  My vacation shouldn’t seem like so long to you.  A guy who can stay in Tennessee for a year shouldn’t mind not seeing only one person for only four weeks.  Why last year at this time you didn’t even know I existed.   Remember Fran had to drag you away from the fire to come to Albany October 7, 1934, and on October 14, I believe Lydia was the one who forced you to go on a roast or sompin’.  I remember how up until the above date, I had gotten fairly good marks, but after that I seemed to degenerate.  Not that you were responsible.  I guess it was just impossible for me to learn anymore.

I got that film developed.  Some of the pictures were pretty good.  Maybe being as how you bought the film, I’ll send you at least one but don’t let Lydia and Fran look at it more than once.  Bill took a picture of Joe and I, but I guess he must have moved the camera as it wasn’t any good.  There is a pretty good one of Carlton and I with our noble dogs that I may decide to send you.

Speaking of dogs, Lydia couldn’t have had Glenn’s cubby dog anyway because he likes her too well.  She is a darned good watch dog.  I knew Lydia would go up in the air when you told her about it.  Oh yeah, how is Tex and have you taught him any more tricks?

Did Fran shoot the stork yet?  They are dangerous birds to be at large.  I suppose that kitten under your training can lick his weight in goldfish.  If the cat is the right kind, I suggest we call it Hortense.   Grace has a cute little n***** kitten,¹ but Joe says this is no place for him.  He is afraid he will forget he is a gentleman someday and beat up a smaller guy than himself.

My mother is anxious to read me a story, so I guess I have to quit.  Maybe I will get a chance to add a little in the morning.

Good night, dear,

Ruth

Monday 8:55 a.m.

I can’t add any more as I have to get ready to go up to Eva’s.

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September 29, 1935

Middleburg, N.Y.

Dear Ruth,

Sunday once again.  I just finished eating dinner and I have a half hour before time to start for church so I may as well start this letter.  If you stay away long enough, I’ll be getting the church-going habit and won’t be able to break away.  Speaking of staying away, I received your letter with the bad news yesterday.  I had just reached the point where I could say there was only one week left before I could see you, and then you stretch it into two.  I’m not going to tell you what to do or ask you to come back as I don’t want to be guilty of coaxing you away from home.  I will say this much though, if you decide to stay another week, I’m coming up the following weekend whether you are ready to come back then or not.  If you aren’t ready to come back then, I can drive my own car and have plenty of time to see you.  That’s that.  If and when you get ready to come back, should I still be working, I can get off a couple of hours early on a Friday afternoon and get a bus that would get me in Watertown at 8:45 p.m.  Would it be possible for you to meet that?  Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to get to A.C. until 4:45 p.m. Saturday.  Whatever you do, let me know before Friday.

Back from church at last.  Times must be getting better.  There were sixteen there today.

You must have been quite busy canning all those peaches.  We got a bushel at the fair and Mother and Lula canned them.

Have you been to Belleville yet?  How did you make out?  Not too badly I hope.  I realize it is not easy for you, but don’t worry about it too much.  You shouldn’t feel that you are in any way to blame.

I got by the first day at Gallupville O.K. but maybe that was because Jacobsen was too busy to check up on me.  I only saw him twice all day.

Went to P.H. Friday night.  Lydia had gone to Catskill with the Salisbury’s to see the Italian fireworks.  Guess I’ll go down there again now.  I suppose if I keep on, I’ll wear my welcome all out down there, but it is the only place to go and I don’t enjoy staying here so much.

I guess this won’t be a long letter like you asked for.  There isn’t any news to tell and I’m not going to write about myself so there is nothing left but to say but good bye.  I’ll leave this open until I get back though as there might be something to add.

1:30 a.m.

Just got back from P.H. or rather Albany.  Lydia and Fran seemed in the mood for a show so I thought I would take them while they were in the mood.  We went to the Hall and saw Broadway Melody of 1936.  It was a good picture but I could have enjoyed it a lot more had you been along.  I also stopped at the bus terminal and found out the dope on the bus to Watertown was all wet.  You have to have a thru ticket from N.Y. to get on that, so it will have to be the 4:25 bus into A.C.

Guess I’ll call it a day and crawl in.

Good night, dear,

Dave

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October 1, 1935

Tuesday 7:30 p.m.

Adams Center, N.Y.

Dear Dave,

This is the third time tonight I have started your letter.  I just threw one in the fireplace.  I seem to have the jitters tonight, everything gets in my hair.  Now that the kids are in bed, I’ll attempt again and if anything goes wrong this time, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a day longer for an answer.  You can feel lucky that you are two hundred miles away.  I sure do feel crabby and for no special reason.  It even annoys me because Bill yawns so much.

Mom and I went to Gouverneur yesterday and came back tonight.  Hermann did some work on the car.  We got a Goodrich tire from him.  The spare we didn’t think was very good.  When I consider what just a few things on a car costs, I think it would be rather foolish of me to let it go.  Somehow or other I know I will manage to pay Lydia, but goodness knows when I would ever scrape up enough money for another car.  It isn’t worth much anyway, but it is a lot better than nothing.  Ever since I have been old enough to drive a car, until I went to Albany, I had a car to drive.  I don’t know how it would seem not to have anything.  I’ll keep it awhile anyway and see how things work out.

I haven’t been to Belleville yet.  I’ll have to go over and see Mr. and Mrs. Tryon someday.  They haven’t heard anything about Herm since he went away.  They wrote to ask if they could see him and they said it wasn’t advisable.  Tryon’s may have made mistakes, but I guess they feel pretty bad now.  When I think of what he was like when we were in school, I can’t make it seem possible such a thing could have happened to him.  The winter after he graduated he had a fall and his folks seem to think that may be the cause of his trouble.²

If you are still working when I get ready to go back, I will expect to see you Saturday, October 12.  Don’t buy your ticket only to Adams so I can come and get you there.

Gee, how did you ever manage to get Lydia and Fran to go to a show?  It must have seemed good to be out with them once again.  It is too bad they can’t get away often.  I have thought some of taking Mom and the kids to Watertown to a show, but I probably won’t get around to it.  I hate like the deuce to leave home to go anyplace.  I didn’t even want to stay at Eva’s overnight but I’m glad we did as we had a very good time.  She sure has her hands full with her two.  Hermann is so darned helpless, he is really pathetic.

Eva wrote to me last week and asked all of us up for dinner Sunday.  It was her birthday and also their anniversary.  She gave the letter to Hermann to mail on his way to the station.  Sunday after she had dinner all ready and we didn’t come, Eva got peeved and said we could at least have let her know whether we were coming or not.  Hermann hadn’t heard anything about it yet, he reached in his coat pocket and pulled out the letter.  Eva was so mad he said he thought she could have killed him.  I guess he has a habit of carrying letters around in his pocket a couple of weeks before he thinks to mail them.  He did that with a letter Lydia wrote to Fran once.  They found it after Fran got home last fall so Eva burned it.

Hermann kidded me all the time I was up there about going with a Jew.³ He says “David” is a Jewish name and Mom should have more sense than to let me go with a Jew.  He also says you could never go to Germany with them as Hitler wouldn’t let you enter the country.  He sure has an awful line.⁴

I hope the job continues to go good.  How much longer do you think the job will last?  Maybe it will last as long as the other did.  It will be more apt to last until two days after I get back.  Just enough to fix it so you will have to hurry back.

I should think you would be glad I had extended my vacation.  When I get back you’ll probably get tired of seeing me and wish I was up in the wilds again.

I was up late last night so I think I’ll climb the golden stairs.

Good night,

Ruth

Wednesday morning

I guess there isn’t anything new to write about, only we had another frost last night.  Today we are going to start making a quilt for Lydia.  Mom wants to surprise her with it when I go back.  I guess my mother wants to go to Smithville or someplace and I have to wipe the dishes.

Well, sweet, be good and don’t spend too much time counting days.  I’ll try not to make my vacation last after October 12.

“Me”

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October 1, 1935

Middleburg, N.Y.

My Dear Girl,

Well here it is Tuesday evening and this time it is your letter that hasn’t arrived and isn’t lying in the mailbox either.  It will probably arrive tomorrow, but if I wait until then to write, you won’t hear from me until Friday.  So I’ll scribble of a few lines at least.  I hope all my letters arrived last week.  I wrote so many I’m not sure of the exact number but it was at least four and this is number two for this week.

It is raining quite hard tonight but it has warmed up a lot.  Sunday night was real cold.  Before we started for the show Fran and I had quite an argument over topcoats.  I didn’t have mine with me because I wasn’t expecting to go any place when I left home and so Fran wouldn’t wear his.  Finally, between Lydia and I we made him change his mind and we all went up in the dark room looking for it.  After hauling everything over he remembered he had never brought it down here from Middleburg, so he got his way after all, and just to be different I guess I wore your coat.  Yeah, I took it off before I got out of the car but it didn’t feel bad at all while riding.

If that picture we saw ever comes to the Madison at a time when I can take you, I’ll do so because I know you would like it, and it is the kind of picture I would enjoy seeing twice.

Last night coming home from work I passed two girls in M. and they both had their thumbs stretched way out in the air so I gave them a ride.  They said they had hitchhiked from Duanesburg and were going to P.H. so big-hearted me took them on down there.  I went down to the station to get some gas and it was locked and not a soul around, but the pumps were open so I helped myself.

Gee, Ruth, I’m sure counting the days until I can see you, ten more days providing you don’t change your mind again and come back this weekend.  It seems as though I’m thinking about you fifty-nine minutes out of every hour but I just can’t help it, and you can bet your life I won’t wait longer than next weekend to see you.

I’m off on the wrong track again and there is nothing more to write about, so it’s bye bye.  Be good, dear, and please don’t neglect to write even if it is only a few lines.

“Me”

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October 2, 1935

Middleburg, N.Y.

My Dear Ruthie

Your letter came today so I’ll answer it now.  I was sure glad to see it because it seemed like an awfully long time since last Saturday when I received your last one.  There must have been a train off the track somewhere and you can’t blame it on the M. & S. either because they don’t send the mail over that anymore.  Have you noticed the early morning postmarks on the last couple of letters?  I dropped them in the P.O. on my way to work.  I don’t suppose it makes any difference in your getting them though because I imagine it is the same up there as here.  Any mail that comes in in the p.m. is not delivered until the next day.

Thanks for the picture.  It is quite good I think, but then I’m no judge.  Anything with a picture of you in it would look good to me.

Just a year ago today I arrived home from Tennessee.  It doesn’t seem like half that time.  So you think I shouldn’t mind not seeing you for four weeks just because I was able to stay in Tennessee for a year.  All I can say is I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have stayed there that long if I had known you then.  As it was, there wasn’t a thing to call me back here and if it hadn’t been for Fran coming home, I might have been there yet.

I don’t exactly remember having to be dragged out on October 7, 1934.  It didn’t take as much persuasion as Fran tries to make you think.  If anyone was dragged out, I think it was you.  I remember Lydia saying in some of her letters she didn’t know if she would be able to get you to go out with me or not.  And now aren’t you sorry you did?  Look at all the money you have had to spend on stamps.

Listen, sweet, don’t ever say anything again about sitting in front of your fireplace and wishing I was there to share it.  I’ve never been homesick, but that made me come closer to it than anything so far even though I have only been there once.

Lydia says you will have to sleep on the floor if they don’t get their bed.  They had to take the cot back to Snyder’s.  Fran wanted to know who were the dogs in the picture you sent.  You’ll have to settle with him for that one.  He also says he killed the stork and Lydia says she thinks he is right.  Figure it out for yourself.  It’s too deep for me to explain.

The clock tells me it is past bedtime so here goes nothing.  I mean me, not the letter.

Dave

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October 3, 1935

Adams Center, N.Y.

Hello Davie,

The kids have taken themselves down cellar to play and it won’t be long before they retire.  There isn’t much use of trying to write with them around.  I just had to stop Billy from fighting with the cat.  I was afraid that Billy would get hurt.  I don’t think I ever heard such a noisy bunch of kids.  We were little angels compared to them.

So my letter didn’t arrive Tuesday.  I’m sorry but I guess I did all I could about it.  Thanks a lot for writing just the same.

I had a letter from Loretta yesterday.  She has seen Mrs. Hewitt and we can board there for five dollars a week plus one third of the telephone expense.  That is better than anything I have struck yet.  Did I tell you that Loretta just paid $250 for a fur coat?  Gee, I could buy a complete wardrobe and make a down payment on a Packard with that much money.⁵

This has been rather a wild day.  I haven’t been anywhere today, so I haven’t been outside only a few minutes.  I went out and played with Pat.

Bill said that someone with a new Ford ran into the milk truck Lynn was driving and smashed it up (the Ford I mean).  Seems like someone is always hitting him.  This is the third or fourth time and he hasn’t been to blame any time.

So you wore my coat, did you?  Me thinks just for that you will have to haul my uniforms for at least two weeks without any chewing gum.

Guess it’s about time I got back to Preston Hollow.  Are you sure those girls you gave a ride were hitchhiking?  Sounds sort of fishy to me.  Nuff sed!

How are your chickens doing?  How many have you left and how many eggs do you get a day?  Did the ones that had fur on their feet turn out to have feathers when they grew up?

How is Pete or haven’t you seen him lately?  How are Ruth and Dave?  We should feel flattered that they were named after us.  Someone said it costs about a quarter to even take a look at a pork chop.

I suppose you have listened to the World Series while you were at work this week.  I haven’t listened to the radio much, not even the Amateur Hour.  Harold was telling me all about some ballgame yesterday and I told him to can it.  I think he is even more interested than you are.  Bill just offered to read us a detective story, but I didn’t feel inclined to listen.

Mom says we are going to H20 town in the morning.  I don’t know what for unless it is more embroidery.  I seem to have the embroidery fever just like I used to have the song sheet fever.

How is business at the station, if any?  Lydia sure breaks her neck writing to us.  We have had one letter from her since I came home.  If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even know they existed.

I suppose next Sunday will be your last Sunday in church until I come home again, or maybe I’ll go on day duty and you can go then.

Were you the boy I heard say you didn’t need your top coat?  You had better not try coming up here without one.  One day we have nice weather and next day is like winter.

Friday morning

I just got up and haven’t eaten breakfast yet.  Mom says we are going to Watertown and when we get back there is a lot of sewing to be done.

This is letter no. 3 this week.  Seems like I write all the time, but I guess I don’t say much.

Well, sweet, be good and how about a six volume letter Sunday?

Ruth

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October 4, 1935

Middleburg, N.Y.

Dear Ruth,

I think someone in the P.O. department must have a grudge against me and is holding up your letters.  I just received your second one tonight.  Second this week I mean.  Both of them came two days after you mailed them.  The one you wrote Lydia came thru the next day.

So you were in a cranky mood when you wrote.  I didn’t think you would get that way when you are home and having a good time.  You should be wearing a smile all the while.

Yeah, Hermann may be right at that.  At least I’ll have to admit the name is of Jewish origin, but you can tell him for me that I can eat a guy like Hitler every morning for breakfast.  He sure pulled a fast one when he forgot to mail Eva’s letter.  Be sure you don’t give any of your letters to him to mail.  I can just imagine how mad she was.

If you were coming back this week as you had planned at first, I could have gotten a ride right into Syracuse.  The fellow I work with is leaving for there five o’clock tomorrow morning.  I had to exert quite a lot of will power to keep from going with him anyway.

You say you are going to try and not make your vacation last longer than next week.  I couldn’t help but notice that little three letter word and its significance.  It means you aren’t sure yet when you are coming back, but I am sure of one thing that I have already told you that is I’m coming up next weekend anyway.  One more week of this is all I can take.

Seems to me like the score is four and two this week and I don’t mean the ball games either.  However, I just happened to think this letter won’t reach you until Monday so it will be a start for next week.

We have a frost here nearly every night now and I guess old man winter is just around the proverbial corner.  Fran says he is going to get some heaters in so I suppose I’ll buy one off him if he does.  I’m not going to freeze to death this winter as we came so near doing several times last winter.

Well, darling, when I write so often I can’t seem to think of much to write about except the one subject of how I miss you.  I suppose you get tired of hearing that in all my letters, too, but somehow I can’t seem to keep it out.

Yours till the board walks,

Dave

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October 4, 1935

Adams Center, N.Y.

Dear Dave,

June wants me to use her pad to write on so she can say this letter is from her.  You haven’t done bad at all about writing this week.  You deserve a nice long credit mark.  I don’t know if it will be safe for me to return to Albany or not.  I was supposed to have written to Zelma and Florence.  I have written enough letters, but they have all been to one person.  If they say anything because I haven’t written, I expect you to take the blame.

I think Miss June has been trying this pen out and it works like nobody’s business.  I guess I’ll try Mom’s pen for a change, not that it works much better than my own.

Gee, it nearly takes my breath away when I think how early you must get up mornings.  The letter you mailed from Schoharie was post marked 7:30 a.m.  I don’t get the letter the same day it is mailed, but I do get them the next day when you mail them on the way to work.  Once when your letter was mailed from home I wouldn’t have received it until two days after, only I was in Adams Center and sent Joyce to the P.O.

When you see Lydia again, tell her that Mrs. Ticehurst is dead.  She was the first person Lydia ever worked for.  You can also tell her Fred Rogers is dead.  She used to work for Mrs. Rogers in Watertown.

I’ll bet this weather makes you wish you were still in Tennessee.  I shiver all the time.  Mom got tired of seeing me around with that brown sweater with the worn out elbows so she and Bill made me a present of a new one.  I sure do dread the cold weather.

You tell Fran that I don’t mind in the least if I look like Pat, but I would resent it if anyone insulted my dog by saying she looked like me.

My mother has a bad cold and is going to bed, so I think I’ll dope her up a little.  Maybe I can write more in the morning.

Night, Hon,

R.J.P.

Saturday morning

Billy wants me to eat with him but I thought I had better finish this letter.  See, I’d rather write to you than eat.

June says she is anxious for you to come up, but she says you can’t take me back.

Just about a week from now you can count hours instead of days.  What time do you leave where ever you start from?  How are you going to get to the bus?  What time does the bus get in Adams or does it come by Lowville?

Next weekend I will be feeling sorry and glad.  Sorry that my stay at home is ended and glad to see you.  It will make it a bit easier to go back with you than it would be if I had to go back alone.

Tell Lydia I can sleep on the davenport if she hasn’t any other place for me to sleep.  She let you sleep there, so I guess I can.  Looks like we are going to have snow today.  I found my old Mickey Mouse shirt this morning, so now I am wearing it.

I suppose since you are coming up next weekend, I won’t have to write any letters next week at all.

If I don’t hurry up and finish this, I’ll be eating dinner instead of breakfast.

Ruth

P.S.  If this letter sounds crazy, don’t blame me.  I have written with about six talking.

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Footnotes

1. Censored to prevent association of this site with that word as a search term.
2. The newspaper clipping describes a Herman Tryon from Belleville NY, but his age indicates that he was not the same person who Ruth attended high school with, as described in this post, May 8, 1935. This older Herman may have been an Uncle or other relative. It’s not clear whether she was referring to this accident from 1934, or a different incident involving her friend from high school.
3. Hermann Niebuhr was born in Gross -Eicklingen, Germany in 1904, and came to the U.S. in 1929 at the age of 24, at a time when Germany suffered from economic instability, made worse by the New York stock market crash in 1929. As mentioned in this post, he married Eva Spencer in 1930. They had seven children: Hermann Edward, Frederick, Margaret Ruth, David Earl, Doris Esther, Robert Spencer, and William Oliver. He and Eva divorced in the early 1960’s. He then resided with his daughter Doris’ family for a time until his death in 1974. He was survived by 19 grandchildren at that time.
4. Antisemitism in both Germany and the U.S. was high due to a number of factors, particularly Nazi party propaganda in Germany, which cast blame on Jews for losses from the First World War and economic hardships since. This was made worse by the rise of Hitler in 1933, and the passage of the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935, just two weeks prior to when this letter was written. These laws excluded Jews from citizenship of the Reich, prevented intermarriage between Jews and those of “German or related blood,” and forbid employment of German females under the age of 45 in Jewish households (housekeepers). These laws did not take effect until 1936, but gradually led to the removal of Jews from German society. In 1935, not Hermann or anyone around him could have imagined that these oppressive laws would eventually lead to the arrest, imprisonment in concentration camps, and murder of 6 million Jewish people. The atrocities of the Holocaust began to be only leaked to the public in 1942, and were later revealed in more detail in 1945, after the fall of Hitler. More on the history of antisemitism can be found here and on the Holocaust here.
5. Taking inflation into account, $250 in 1935 is equivalent to about $4700 now in 2019! In 1935, the Packard Motor Car Company (Detroit, MI) began production of the “Packard One-Twenty“, which was a mid-priced (but luxurious) vehicle that sold for around $1000 from 1935-1937.