4/2/39 #1
Martha:
I don’t like to send things to the office, but I feel that you will get it sooner this way.
You will never know how relieved I was to get your letter this noon. I sat around waiting for it, and didn’t get a thing done until it came. And now I am too happy to settle down to anything. I think I shall go out to lunch and then take in Yes, My Darling Daughter. Joe Louis and Joe Venutti are on the stage, which should be good.
It didn’t seem possible that we could get kicked that far behind the eight ball, and I guess it wasn’t. Thank Heaven for small favors. Get that blood pressure up, honey. You aren’t slighting that appetite of yours, are you?
I shall not answer your budget questions until I next hear from you. You will have had time to read my letter of yesterday noon by then and may have something different to say, hi.
OK on Willy’s vacation plans. Keep me posted, and I shall try to get out to see him off. I shall also mention it to JH if I remember it. I wrote to Stegall this morning and suggested that I meet him in Philly or NYC if it fit in with his plans. Maybe I can combine the two into one week-end.
More grandchildren here last night. One, Mary Lee, is about six. Dark hair and coal black eyes. I yet feel all woozy inside from being liked by such a swell little specimen. She spent most of the evening sitting in my lap or hanging around my neck. Was I flattered, and I mean that too.
Well, Darling, after that past two weeks of worry, I just can’t get used to being clear of it. That’s had me scared for the past year, and concerned for the past four. Now we only have one major obstacle to clear and a couple of minor ones.
I’m about starved, so I shall stop. Thanks for the special and the information.
Love, Cy.
4/2/39 #2
Baby Girl:
Now that it is all over, and I have had a chance to think about it and get used to it, I can write a little better letter. I shall probably not finish it until tomorrow night and mail it then.
Darling, you’re OK! I lost ten years when I read it. Maybe, precious, the old eight ball is getting tired of trying to stay in front of us. After four years of work, perhaps it is going to resign and gives us a chance. Gee, I hope so. I think the chief thing that I was afraid of was that you might feel that you had to back out of the situation. Well, let’s forget that for a long time.
OK on the Battle-axe’s letter. Another way of answering such things is to completely ignore them, just as if you hadn’t received them. But use your own judgment. It is generally more than good.
Do I remember the ping-pong I played with you? Have I forgotten anything about those first glorious months with you? Some, maybe, but not much.
As concerns the coat, if it continues to rain for another two weeks as it has in the past two, it will be warm enough to go without a coat. On the real warm days, many of the fellows have already done that. If I do really need it, though, I’ll promise to get it.
Your budget sounds like you’re going to town ok. Nice going, precious. Perhaps I need a little of your budget sense to enforce my careful estimates.
The rest of this may sound horrid, darling girl, but I think you will probably agree with me. It is going to be awfully straight shooting, and I know you can take it.
If we can afford the excursion rate out here for you next fall, I am all for it. You know as well as I how much it would mean to me to have you for even a day or so. Maybe we could do it over a holiday, Labor Day for instance. Let’s not plan on it, but let’s do our best to make it work out.
Now for the tough part. At present, I owe John $173 plus interest. He has not asked for it and won’t, but I intend to give it to him at a reasonable rate. Call the total debt with interest $180 even. I need another $40 in Postal Savings to total $100, which is what I should have for safety. That meant that I have at least $220 to save to start out with.
Figuring that 20% of my salary will go to depreciation on clothes and equipment, I make $141 per month clear. From this I deduct $1.50 per day for food and $4 per week for room. The food also includes general running expenses. This totals a potential savings of $78 per month. This means that I should be able to clean up my debt to John and get the safety fund up to $100 by the end of June (2.8 months from date). This will be within the time that I estimated when I borrowed the money.
Assuming that I shall have no family emergencies and that my baby girl doesn’t need any help, the following estimate should be valid. If I go to school out here, and that seems advisable, I shall need about $800 minimum for the nine months of my senior year. This could be saved at the above estimated rate in 11 months time. That brings me to the end of May 1940. By the end of the summer I could have an additional $230 saved, which, added to the $100 Postal account I should have this June, would make a total of $330 emergency fund. I would then enter school and graduate, I hope, in June, 1941. If I was short credits, I could probably hit the emergency fund and clean up the shortage in summer school.
That leaves me in June or September 1941 with no job and between $330 and nothing in my pocket, NOT a very good start for a married life. Assuming again that I got a job at the same wage and that I yet didn’t have my folks to look after, I would have $500 again by either December 1941 or March 1942, depending on when I graduated from school. With that, we would be safe in going ahead. If we intended to lay in a stock of furniture, it might be desirable to wait another $500 worth, as I would like to have that much in the dog-house fund as a minimum. It would be another year before starting the family.
So far, we have made the assumption that my expenses and salary will remain constant over the entire period. If I continue to climb at the same rate as in the past, I shall be making $50 in March 1942. This is only $2600 per year, but I think we should be able to manage easily. The increase, you will note, is approximately $5 per week per year.
This stalls us off until 1942, which is a hell of a long time to ask my girl to wait, especially after waiting five years already. But I don’t see any other sane way.
Since you’re the kind of a pal you are, I feel like I can talk this over with you without losing you in the process. If you see a better way, say so. I’m just speculating.
There are two points which seem to be fixed. The first is that I don’t anticipate any spectacular increase in the Stafford Inc. yearly income. It will be increased only by the sweat of our brows. Secondly, until I get a degree, I am a concentrated nothing in this man’s puddle. Without it my income has about reached a peak. With it, my income hasn’t even started to increase yet. With this in mind, if I stay in my right mind, I won’t permit myself to be selfish enough to marry you until that is out of the way. After that, we can get my advanced degrees together. One more dose like the Kennedy financial fiasco, in spite of all “of the contacts out west,” and similar allusions, would be a little more than my darling baby deserves to put up with.
You may not realize it, but if it hadn’t been for your wonderfully sane outlook on us, you would now have a Reno divorce and we would have been married. I hate to admit that I formulated such a foolish plan but I did. I don’t seem to be able to think clearly when I have you in my arms.
Honey child, this has been a hard letter to write. Maybe it’s the old bugaboo popping up again. I can’t live without you, and I can’t yet support you in the style which I know you must have to be happy. Maybe that old ten-year estimate wasn’t so far off after all. Please, darling, write to me and let me have your comments. I must know truly how you feel about this and if you can see a better plan, or flaws in this one.
It has been a tough day. The strain of waiting for your letter about wrecked me this morning. And now the thought that my own little wife is perfectly healthy has to be spoiled by these rather terrific calculations. But nothing can spoil those three smiles over there on the book-case, and I feel that nothing can prevent our eventual complete life together, distant as it may now seem. Note, darling, that the 1942 estimate gives us roughly 10 years for our family, which isn’t too far out of line.
I shall be rather frightened if I don’t hear from you about this, so please do answer. I need you pretty badly just now. Oh, oh! Three pages. You’ll get another letter tomorrow.
Your true husband, Cy.