I started to write yesterday morning and then didn’t make it. I had my plans Sunday to the effect that I’d be at Fremont, Ohio Thursday, with George Friday and Saturday and then maybe home Sunday.
Mr. ONeil thought that I might be able to get back for a few days to see about some of the people in my territory and see how Deerdorf is coming.
I don’t know whether you should say anything to Berniece about me coming or not because I might not make it and that would be bad. You might call her ma and tell her to keep Ber close to home or at least be able to tell me where she is. If I can come I’ll wire you Saturday some time.
I’m feeling okay and with my expense and salary checks I’m filthy with cash so don’t worry.
I’ve taken care of the first payment on my little wreck. I’m sure I own at least the chassis now.
I hate to leave so much room on the paper but I’m out of time so I’ll be quiet for awhile.
You’ll hear from me Saturday if I am coming home or if I’m not. I’ll tell you why and where I’ll be. I shouldn’t wonder if I’d be coming right back because I haven’t got into much cooler work yet.
Love and kisses…..roger
P.S. If I work with George Saturday, I’ll probably go from Fremont to grandmas Friday night so I’ll know how grandma is when I wire you.
Just a line to tell you of my distress. Friday night is Swanee’s Spring Dance and I can’t make it on my present budget. I had already said I would go or I wouldn’t press the matter. Don’t ask the folks because I promised them I’d cut my social affairs. If you can raise an extra buck, I’d be able to make it. I hate to disappoint Ruth because she’s been pretty nice to me. I have cost the folks too much this year and I want to cut out all I can. I know you can see the spot I’m in and I would have had the money had I not paid up my fraternity bill a little ahead. I can’t enjoy the affair or any affair that I know takes money they need there. You can see why I don’t want you to ask them.
If you can help me out I’d really appreciate it. I’ll pay you back as soon as I can. I didn’t want to spend any more until the Sigma Chi Spring Dance.
We have a meeting this evening that I think will end “Hell Week” in the Sigma Chi Chapter at Butler. I’m glad I can be one to get rid of it even though I didn’t go through a real one. It’s a passed thing.
I will be home Saturday evening if I go to her dance. If not I will be Friday nite. Let me know about my job as soon as you hear.
Your ‘buddie” Ralph
P.S. Tell your wife I’m making you pay for introducing me to ‘Swanee”
The clothes arrived okay yesterday and I’m all fixed up now.
We sold a unit and a Fordson tractor today. I made a service call on a 4 cam cooler today ad spent the morning on it. I went back again tonite and just got in about 20 minutes ago at 9:00. I am going to eat when I go to mail this letter.
Take good care of the family, yours, ours and mine.
Dear Folks…I haven’t written much lately so I’ll try to catch up now. I saw Cory Friday nite and had supper at their house in Cortland. They treated me like along lost son. Corey is a census taker in Johnson Township. They have sold their farm as you know and have moved into Cortland. This D.C. Osborn knows Cory well. I seems they were on the Fair Board together. Cory is going to do some judging at the various county fairs this summer, some of them in Indiana so you may get to see them then.
I went over to Alliance this afternoon where Taylorcraft Planes are made. The fellows were very sociable and even offered to take me a ride…for nothing. I managed to worm out of it gracefully even though it would have been quite a thrill to fly a brand new plane. They tell me that fellows have taken off and landed these planes with as little as 15 minutes dual instruction.
I hope mother enjoyed her day very much, I wanted to send some flowers to her and Berniece both but I am running a little close on cash right now.
I still haven’t heard where I go after Wednesday of this week so til I wire you where I’ll be, I won’t be disappointed if I don’t get any mail.
I had a fair week. Only two unites but plenty of parts and fly spray.
They are going to send Redding a new pump so if Dad wants something to do some afternoon, he might sneak out and see if they got it in okay.
I just wrote 5 pages to Berniece so I can’t think of much more to say.Me and the care are both running fine. I’ll have to clean it out and wash some of these days because it really a miss now.
My clothes are holding out fine and I’m fixed for two more weeks if necessary, anyway as far as clothes go. I’ll let you know when I found out where I go from hither,
(Taken from the Frankfort Morning Times, Wednesday, November 15,1911)
When we reported for duty Tuesday morning and the editor of the Times said to us. “Your assignment today will be to go to he country home of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Moore, in Jackson township and write-up the celebration of their golden wedding anniversary,” we said to ourself, ‘that will be a pleasant task.’ ‘and such, indeed, it was. The weather was a bit too bracing to be comfortable for road travel, but once arrived at the Moore homestead the warmth and good cheer banished from the mind all thoughts of a cold day. The beautiful lines of Longfellow intruded themselves upon our thoughts when we had reached our destination and had extended congratulations to the bride and groom of fifty years ago.
Fifty years ago yesterday, November 14 1861, Mr. Thomas Moore son of Mr. and Mrs. John Moore, and Miss Martha Jane Major, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Major, Clinton county pioneer families, were married at the home of the bride, on what is now known as the Joe Smith farm, being located about a mile and half east of Prairie Center Church. Their golden wedding anniversary was celebrated by about one hundred relatives and friends at their home about a mile north of the place where they were married. The wedding fifty years ago, occurred at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the Rev. Mr. Thomas, a Presbyterian minister, officiating.
Mr. Moore was 23 years old and his bride 18. They went to housekeeping in a log cabin about a mile south of the present Moore homestead. They lived in this cabin for a few years while Mr. Moore tilled a forty-acre farm and saved enough money to build a frame house. Another forty acres adjoining the original farm was bought in due time, and this farm was the home of the Moores for 34 years, and here ten children were born to them. Sixteen years ago they bought a farm of eighty acres a mile north of the old home place, built a modern house, and here, they live today, surrounded by all the creature comforts of an advanced civilization. They have a big comfortable house that looks homey outside and in and suggests that good old-fashioned hospitality of the generation now passing away. The comparison of times and conditions now and fifty years ago, is a wonderful story of contrasts. The most striking that suggests itself at this time being the illumination of the home. In the log cabin Mr. and Mrs. Moore used old tallow dip, in their present home they light every room perfectly with acetylene gas.
In the spring of the year of 1861 Mr. Moore had broken up thirty acres of his prairie farm. It being the first time the sod had ever been turned over. This ground be planted to corn and used an ax to do his seeding, chopping a hole in the sod and therein depositing his seed. The corn made forty bushels to the acre. The country in 1861 was, compared to today, sparsely settled, the roads muddy and almost impassable at least during two-thirds of the year. All of the changes that have come to pass during the past 50 years, this good couple have noted and they have also done well their part in helping to bring about the present ideal conditions that make our county and their own neighborhood ideal for home life.
The guests were served a ten course dinner that contained items sufficient for a dozen courses. The ladies in charge of the dinner preparation were assisted by a professional caterer Jack Reed who looked after the wants of the guests at the table.
After the dinner the hours were informally spent and good cheer prevailed during all of the day while the bride and groom were host and hostess on their golden wedding day, a pleasure that is given to the exceptional few to enjoy, but which emphasizes as no other occasion can the peace that fills the cups of those who live and marry and live their lives aright.
Dear Dad…..Well pop, your wandering boy is still wandering. This morning I went to Allison Engineering Co., at Speedway (Indiana) and I got more encouragement than I have anywhere else. I’m going back in the morning with more sales talk.
I expect Ralph (his brother) and I will be home Friday nite unless he decides to work.
Your itinerate offspring…..roger
Dear Family….Hope you don’t think I forgot you. There is not much time every day. I am writing this after the swimming period Tuesday. Mother I met a gal who knows you; a Miss Jean Scott.
She asked about you. She is from Indianapolis.
Don’t think I’ll swim much. The water isn’t bad but I found a shower that gets me just as wet. love roger
This is going to be an experience for you and for me….I have been going thru 4 boxes containing the history of my family, from as far back as the 1800’s. I even have a statement showing where our family names and family tree came from in the year 1000. Dang…..
I have been reading wonderful letters written by family members during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s (so far). Yes, I am sure some day after my death, they will be thrown in a trash pile and the moments written about will be moments rarely thought of and fade away.
Some generations cling to their family history more than others….I am so glad the Mormon Church keeps log after log, and volume after volume of town, county, and state history. I especially love diaries.They are so cherished in some families and so quickly discarded in others…..I am in no way saying there is a right or wrong….just admitting that this is the way it is.
My generation (I’m 74) is a ‘keeper’ generation and so were my parents and theirs before them. And so…..I have my 4 boxes of memories….mostly written in letters on a very regular basis. Hopefully I will read each one of them and learn about those who lived the years when I was not even born, or a small child….even more perhaps, than my parents wrote or remembered as they aged and remembered, before passing.
I will begin posting some of these letters here and hope that you will enjoy them. If your family is far away, passed away, or just distant in their lifestyle, perhaps you will include yourself as the receiver of these letters and enjoy the life of these wonderful days many years ago…..That is not to say the times were opulent, or full of war ration books, and internment camps, cold weather, and late planting…..but it is a wonderful picture into how we lived, in a different time.
My nieces and nephews, now in their 30’s have often said they envy us for living in the 50’s and 60’s…..and wish they had been part of even their grandparents’ time……It will be fun to see if they will find these letters online and see what they have to say.
If no one reads them…..that will be okay with me….because I have read them and they filled me with great memories and the proof I had a wonderful family who always cared for one another…..by thought, word, and deed.
About this time each year, things start changing on the beach…It’s baby time, new shell time, creation time, once again. One never knows what will be found each day. Like shells seem to congregate together, and so when their lives are over, they roll into the beach in bunches. Every time a wave breaks on the shore, new shells are visible and others are hidden. Mother Nature always is always game for a game with beach goers.
Right now I am looking for the smallest I can find. I make cone-shaped trees from shells and need all shapes and sizes for my projects. I can only do it so long and then I start mumbling to myself. I definitely have to walk away and let my 74-year-old hands rest.
I see them for sale online and just know I can do better….hence the mumbling. The Sanibel Shell Show is the first of March and I am definitely put to shame there. There is shell art from all over the world and it is breath-taking. Sanibel and the surrounding beaches are known for their wonderful variety of shells, but there are others world-wide that are exquisite.
I had a wonderful neighbor who did shell art and entered into this show….it was wonderful. She covered a piece a piece of furniture with exact size, color, and matching shells. I have never seen her mumble and I can’t understand it.
So today I am cleaning baby shells, (empty only…don’t ever take a live one). They are in the sun drying and I will roll them over a few times to get the sand out…..(yeah, right).
Life is good on this beach….this is not a money making venture, just one of uniting pretty things to make them more pretty….. I am a lucky girl…..
I am making myself a promise this year to read more closely….the bills I receive and the charges they expect me to pay. I am constantly keeping I mind that the contract I make with these companies really has nothing to do with whatever they want to charge my household.
So today we are reading the small print received in my Verizon bill for Jan/Feb. Please note the reasons and excuses for this additional charges…stated in a very grade school level language.
“Explanation of Surcharges”
Surcharges include (i) a Regulatory Charge (which helps defray various government charges we pay including government number administration and license fees): (ii) a Federal Universal Service Charge (and, if applicable, a State Universal Service Charge) to recover charges imposed on us by the government to support universal service; and (iii) an Administrative Charge, which helps defray certain expenses we incur, including; charges, we, or our agents, pay local telephone companies for delivering calls from our customers to their customers; fees and assessments on our network facilities and services; property taxes; and the costs we incur responding to regulatory obligations. PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ARE VERIZON WIRELESS CHARGES, OT TAXES. THESE CHARGES AND WHAT’S INCLUDED, ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE FROM TIME TO TIME.”
This is an important read…as boring as it is….because they can do it but we can’t! Sometime when you have had too much coffee and it is 1:30AM…begin to think of all the regulatory and surcharges we could incur in our household, and day to day expenditures…..and the fun we might have (as well as the money we might make) if we were allowed to do the same as service companies do…..
In all seriousness, please get your bill in the mail on a piece of paper called statement. This is absolutely the only way you can read the large print and the small print and examine how your bills undulated with misc. charges the previous months.
Yes they want you to pay online and check your statement on-line, but we all know that after a while, we just go to the bottom…look at the statement and write the check or make the deposit. Get the paper….keep it for a year and look over the past month and the current month when it comes to billing, usage, and misc. charges.
Verizon is today’s “small print’ blog, only because I received it and wrote the check. Wait till you see ATT/Direct….or even better, call 5 times for 5 different quotes and see what you get. Also they love to give you ‘free’ things you are totally unaware of and then remove them and charge you for having them after the specified time they gave them to you are no longer free. When I ask my friends about their TV cable/satellite service …they look at me, moan, roll their eyes and say Direct. We end the conversation by saying we can hardly wait for buying the channels we want, receiving a fair price for the service, and end the array of channels showing us how “Dr. Ho Relieves Back Pain”.
Jane Fonda and Robert Redford joined to make another remarkable movie…..Our Souls at Night….watched it on Netflix.
It was made in 2017….and I am sorry it is not in theaters now. It is wonderful, warm, real, soft, magical, human, and loving. The two are made for the parts and for each other. It is so nice to see acting that shows how ‘real’ people would respond in such situations….and how brave we can actually be when admitting everyone needs someone.
Get comfortable tonight and enjoy this memorable movie of caring.
seriouslyscorpio 