3/7/39
Camden, NJ
Martha Dear:
Thanks for the letter. I imagine I have answered most of your questions in the letters I have written in the past couple of days.
I’m glad to hear that the week-end turned out nicely for you, for that will probably help to pass all too slowly moving time. It is over the week-ends that I miss you the most.
How’s about stopping in on a nickelodeon joint and having a snap shot made of the hairdo? Just a small snap, but please darling. I want very much to see it, but I don’t feel that we had better have a good picture made until after the brawl is over, but we’ll have one then—although maybe a “double exposure”. It might be used agin’ us. Frankly, I don’t think the beauty shop you used to go to knew a hell of a lot about their work.
I imagine the plaid jacket looks right pert with short sleeves. I can’t remember the blue dress well enough to visualize it.
Imagine you in a church supper! Well, I think it is a good idea, and later we may have cause to get back into such activities in addition to our beer joint expeditions.
I wrote to Skippy and OB the end of the week and he therefore has my address. I have nothing against him, darling, but the people with whom he associates are abominable. It is for this reason, and this one alone, that I suggest that you forget his invitation. Also, the boys aren’t above being slightly plotched, even in the YMCA shooting gallery, and after nearly getting plugged by our dear friend Smitty on New Years, I would never get over it if anything happened to you. If you must get out with the kid, pick a safer place. Another point, seeing me wouldn’t carry any weight against us in court as you were an old friend of mine. But going out with someone new would certainly raise a stink, and it would get out eventually if the suit were contested. I’m just jittery, honey, because the outcome means so much to me. It’s not an order, not even a request, but just a suggestion that the stakes are too high to take any chances at this time of the game. If you must go, ok, because I trust both of you. But be careful all around. I’m getting to be a regular old grampaw.
The phone call will materialize, barring accidents. Financially, it should be possible about your birthday. Yippee!
I must love you or something. Here I am on the second page and I have already written to you almost every day for the past couple of weeks.
Let me know when Mother’s birthday is. I haven’t the slightest idea, and I’m counting on my wife to keep me posted on such things.
I don’t know what to do with Willy*. It is probably more what he almost says than what he says. Of course, we both expect the worst, and therefore probably give him credit for more than he is actually responsible. It will be easier if you forget the past and consider Gordon’s** attitude to be the same towards you as it is towards the other girls. But keep your eyes open and don’t let anything fast slip by. Let’s don’t go pulling a “Nena.” If you want to leave, find a better place first, not afterward. Your chances of finding a better place after you have left a job are practically nil. There I go getting fatherly again. But I would talk to you the same way if I were only with you, and you would tell me to laugh it off if you didn’t agree, so I guess it won’t offend you. I do know how you feel, though, when you’re trying so hard to keep everything on a pals basis to have someone get smart. I’ve had it happen to me too many times not to know your exact reaction.
About the week-end out here, there are a couple of sane remarks I might make. First, it would cost at least $100, which is a lot of money in our language. If I go back there to school, I shall see you in either September or January. If I don’t go back there, I hope that I can send you a one-way ticket to Camden by the January date. That $100 would buy a lot of furniture, –or safety pins. Looked at over a 6 month’s period, I agree with you. But for a long time proposition, maybe we’d better think carefully before we go ahead. But, gee, precious baby, I do so want to see you. It’s awfully hard to be practical and hard-boiled.
Have you seen anything of Dotty and Fritz or Don and Ann? That should take care of a couple of Friday nights. And how’s about Wayne. Remind him that he owes us a supper—even beer! I am spending next week-end with the Aikens. He’ll probably walk my legs off and then kill me off by slow stages in some technical discussion. But I love it.
Hope your cough medicine wasn’t spelled “g-i-n!” But I am glad to hear that it did the work. That old gurgle has had me worried for some months. My cold is all gone and also the cough. (Imagine me going to bed at 10:30 every night!)
Holy H Smoke! Page number three! Will I never run down.
Work at the office was rather tiring today. Apparently my boss, Gunther, yet loves me.
So you liked Helen of Troy, didja. I thought it was swell. By the time you have read all of the quotations which I send you over the week-end, you will probably not like the book so well. Johny has it now, and is to send it to you when he finishes. You might drop him a note and tell him to send it back here when he gets through, unless you want to read it a third time—which is unlikely.
Incidentally, speaking of books, the reason Skip wanted my address was so that he could return that P.G. Wodehouse book which he borrowed.
From all appearances, whether I want to or not, I shall possibly have to have a top-coat this spring. How would you like to pick it out for me? I could send you the measurements, you could buy the coat (I might even send you the money for it) and ship it out. Then I could have it re-hashed out here if necessary. Something gray would probably do the trick. I won’t be able to afford it for a month or two, but you might look around and let me know what you think. I don’t have any incentive to buy things anymore, now that I can’t do it with you and watch the kick you get out of it.
The fellows that I eat with always take the same table, a round one in a corner. One of the men, Herman Reeber, an eligible bachelor, always sits where the waitress stands when she serves. She’s engaged to a young doctor, and Herman kids her about it and sundry other things. No one is ever allowed to sit in Herman’s pet seat. Today, when I walked in, he got up and very ceremoniously surrendered his seat to me. Boy, was my face red! I must have blushed, because Betty and the gang darned near died laughing at me. It turned out that Herman was in the dog-house for something or other, and all the rest of the fellows, being married, wouldn’t take the seat. Also, I was about 5 minutes late, and the conspiracy got under way without me to defend myself.
I could go on talking to my precious forever, but I suppose I had better take my trou to the presser and shut down the mill. I’m beginning to realize what the old “better half” thought really meant. There’s something deeper there than just a clever term.
Love, little girl. Cy
IMPORTANT Darling: Too many letters are going to 506 and it will be noticed before long. Can you get a PO box in the old Post Office in Chi? What do you think of the idea? I’ll pay for it if it is convenient. Please let me do this for us.
*William Kennedy
**I believe this is a reference to Marty’s boss at work.