Letters Home IV ~

The next correspondence I find

 is written in

 December of 1938.

The writing is small and cramped

 as he crowds his thoughts onto a penny postcard.

“Dear Folks,

I received your letter this morning Mom

 and was very glad to get it.

 I know you have been expecting me home every day

 and I should have written to let you know how I was.

 It looks now as though I won’t be able

 to get home for Christmas.

 I still can’t keep any food or liquids down,

 so until I do they won’t let me out of here.

So I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas

 and please go ahead and have a very good time

 even though I don’t get home.

 I’ll be thinking about you.

If I should suddenly get better,

 Ilene said she’d be willing to wait

 and come home with me on the train

 on Sunday morning.

 Otherwise she’ll be home on the train

 on Saturday night.

It seems to me the doctors haven’t been doing

 very much to try to cure me.

 Their idea seems to be that my stomach

 ought to get better by itself.

 I’m tempted to come home and see 

what Dr. Olson can do about it,

 but probably that would be foolish.

 It would mean a lot of inconvenience

 when I did get home.

Well, I hope the old stomach

 straightens out pretty soon.

 And I hope to be able to see you soon."

Merry Christmas

Sincerely,
Gordon

*  *  *

His parents will travel to be with him

 for Christmas this year.

 Their youngest daughter will join them.

 His oldest sister and two brothers will remain on the farm.

*  *  *

Spring will come, then summer,
 and with summer will come Gordon’s passing.

 Cancer will have claimed his young life at the age of 22.

Sincerely, Gordon

Letters Home III ~

In November of 1936, Gordon will observe his 20th birthday.

 His letter home begins with thanks for a birthday gift.

 He also expresses appreciation for the gift

 his two sisters have sent him.

"They sent me a swell desk set for my birthday.

It is colored red and all the pieces are

 made with a leather covering. The set consists

of an ink container, a nice little desk calendar 

of the perpetual type,

 and then there is a pad of blotters with a 

leather covering, and a container for

 pencils, etc., and a desk pad.

 It's a swell set."

All of his letters, with the exception of one, have been

 written with a fountain pen.

It is the year of a national election,

and he closes his letter with the following words:

“Well be sure and vote for the right man next Tuesday

 so that the money will start flowing into everyone’s pocket.

 I don’t know which is the right man

 but perhaps you do.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt will receive 98.49% of the electoral vote;

 it is the eighth year of the Great Depression.

Gordon was unable to make it home for Thanksgiving that year.

“Well we managed to get by Thanksgiving

 without overeating or anything,

 but I had all I wanted to eat and then some.

 We went down to Jacobson’s boarding club for our dinner.

 It cost 50 cents, but we had a swell meal.

 Turkey, sweet potatoes, two pieces of pie and then

 a lot of other stuff.

 We all ate until we felt uncomfortable for a while,

 but we wanted to be sure and get our money’s worth.”

December approaches, and with it,

 hopes for a trip home for the Christmas holiday.

“The going home for Christmas spirit has gotten in the air

 and we already have it all planned out how we will get home.

 We’re going to rent my roommate’s car

 and then take all the kids from Wheaton home with us.

 We can get the car for $5 round trip. It’s an old car but it has a heater in it and runs well.

 There will be about six of us, so including gas and oil

 and the rent on the car,

 we figure that we can get home and back here

 to school again for two dollars a piece.

 Of course if there happens to be a lot of snow by that time

 so there is danger of our not being able to get through,

 we’ll have to find some other way to get home.

 Otherwise I think this is about the cheapest way possible.”

Sincerely, Gordon

*  *  *

It will be a memorable Christmas.

Letters Home II ~

 Time has passed

and it is now the spring of 1936.

Gordon's laundry has become

a well-seasoned traveler

as the train carries it to and from home.

"I didn't get my laundry off in time to catch the train yesterday

so I'll have to mail it Monday. They collected

the mail earlier on Saturday than they

usually do, that's why I didn't

get it there in time."

His section of the dorm has rented a radio for

 the remainder of the school year.

"We finally have a radio in our section now.

It comes in pretty handy to listen to the baseball games.

The whole section on our floor went together

 and rented a radio until the end of the year.

We got it for $2.50. There are eight in our section so

that amounts to about 30 cents each

 which isn't so bad."

Spring will pass into summer

 and summer into a new school year.

Prices in the cafeteria will rise once again.

"The price of food in the cafeteria has gone up so terribly much

that in order to keep within my quota of 50 cents a day

I can't eat enough to ever really fill up

which is probably a good thing."

Being a typical college student, he does manage a trip to the theater however.

"We went to the movies the other night

 and saw the moving pictures

of the Minnesota-Washington football game.

The pictures weren't so very good...

but the other movie we saw in connection with it

was good though, it was

"The Crime Of Dr. Forbes."

As he closes, he writes:

"Come to think of it that last letter I sent you

must have sounded pretty gloomy.

I guess the sudden change of food and a lot of inactivity

all of a sudden upset me in more ways than one.

I went down to the doctor and got some

nice little pills and now

I feel okay."

Sincerely, Gordon

*  *  *

for Gordon

still unaware

the clock is ticking

 

Letters Home ~

It was the autumn

of 1935

and

my uncle

the next to the youngest

of five siblings

has left the family home in

rural Minnesota to

attend college 400 plus miles away

he admits to being a little homesick

and then goes on to tell

of a new morning practice

"We [he and his roommate] have been eating breakfast

 in our room the last week.

 We get some rolls from the bakery.

This way our breakfast only comes to 4 cents.

If we eat in the cafeteria it cost 10 cents.

Of course we have nothing to drink

 so the rolls get pretty dry."

 He describes the practice of a friend

 who sounds a bit homesick himself.

 

"He writes home once a day and sometimes twice a day. 

He writes three page typewritten letters.

He got a new portable typewriter

 just before he came down here."

 

Or perhaps he was taken

 with that new typewriter.

He speaks of needing work,

and his classes

 

"I believe German is going to be my hardest subject ..."

 

and freshman initiation

 

"They have been using paddles and of course

we have to wear green caps."

 

Sincerely, Gordon

*  *  *

Unbeknownst to him or his family

difficult days lie ahead.