Thanks for the letter. I was quite tickled as I didn’t expect one until later in the week.
Ok on the postscript about specials. I shall remember. If I ever have to send one in a hurry I shall try to remember to put “deliver on south entrance.”
Honey bunch, I hope you get settled soon. It is no fun being upset. I know from damned bitter experience. Well, there is one thing we can be thankful we don’t have to worry about.
If you can wait, I guess I can. The ring suggestion is ok if you want it that way, but sometimes I just can’t stand not hearing you. I don’t know what I would do without your picture. As for the time and place, I would suggest that when we dice to make the phone call, you be at Huntoons. Then you can get in the bedroom or Johny’s basement room and we can do a little better. I shall probably confine myself to a phone booth at this end. If we arrange it by mail, it can be a straight “night” call and we will save a little on it. Maybe in a couple of weeks we can do something about it.
Your attitude towards the ring makes me awfully proud.
I’ve been reading the “Private Life of Helen of Troy.” It is a damn clever book and has a lot of good stuff in it. I shall probably send it or take to John, as I believe it will open a couple of new slants on love to him. Then perhaps I shall send it to you.
Doris is swell to offer her house for the glad event. But if we can do it out here, even though it will break a few family hearts, it would probably be much better.
Regards to Rae and “How” to Dotty. I shall write her and Fritz a little later on. Perhaps even this evening.
Huntoons must like you or something. They have never taken anyone into the family that way before. Of course, they raised me, which makes a difference, but I honestly believe they think as much or more of you. Personally, I like it that way. People ought to love you, although I draw a few lines on how they can show it, hi. Conklin got a letter out of me today, so you needn’t even say hello to him. I’m supposed to meet J.H. in NYC this week-end, and I haven’t a verification yet. I shall write to him and ask him how come. Hope he isn’t sick again. If I expect to get my laundry out, I had better stop. This letter is a mess, but it isn’t bad for 9 minutes. I shall make corrections in pen.
I’ll bet people would like to kill me about now. It is nine bells, Sunday morning, and no one else is awake. But they have consistently told me that the mill couldn’t even be heard downstairs, so I am writing on it anyhow.
I don’t believe I knew the fellow who married the Park Ridge girl, but she certainly is a sweet looking specimen.
The laundry bill is enclosed so that you may get some sort of idea of the prices we will run into out here. I haven’t had time to examine them closely, but they seem to be reasonable enough.
Al and I were both so late Friday that we couldn’t get reasonable seats for the Women. So we spent a pleasant three hours in a beer joint (3 beers each—believe it or not) and then he drove me around the better section of Philadelphia. I take back all of the nasty things I said about the place. If one goes in the proper sections, it is beautiful. I know you’ll love it when you get to know it better. The throat-cutting is conspicuous by its complete absence, among the right kind of people. Your experience with the place is a common one, as there is only one way to approach Philly, and that is through the worst part of the city. The misdirection a stranger gets is not malicious, it is merely that most Philadelphians are so wrapped up in their own affairs that they don’t know anything about affairs outside of their own lives. I got home about two or so, was tempted to write you, but finally talked myself into going to bed.
Broad Street Station, Philadelphia, PA.
Yesterday, I took a ten o’clock train out of Philly, arrived in NY at 11:30, and met JH at noon. Tell his folks that he is in good health, damned happy about his job, thinking it a big improvement over the Bando set-up, and is actually doing what the doc says about his food.
We went across the street to Childs and had lunch and a long gabfest.
And then we hopped a subway to Radio City and saw the program enclosed (indicated on pages 6 and 7).
The picture verged on the horse-opera variety, but it was rather well done, and the stage show was excellent. That is one of the places we will have to take in when we’re next there. After the show, we sat in the lobby and talked for another hour. Then we went down the street and had dinner, after which we walked about Broadway and tried to decide on what Hotel to patronize. About the time we settled on the Pennsy, I realized that even if we did stay over, I would have to leave by ten this morning. That would involve a night’s expense for the sake of a couple hours. So John hopped a cab for his station and I ran over to mine. His train and mine both pull out at 8. I got home about 10:30 (Camden) and talked to the folks here until after midnight.
I hope JH isn’t peeved about my running out on him, but I didn’t see too much point in staying over for just such a short time with him today. I think he felt about the same way.
I haven’t yet written to Aikens, but I shall today.
Oh yes. Jimmy sent JH the five bucks for me. Apparently Jim doesn’t yet know that I’ve left Chicago. His note was rather clever so I shall quote it.
Dear Cy—
Here are the five stones I so unmercifully hit you for in our last conversation. You should have been haunting me for them, because I have no conscience about accounts payable, etc.
Thanks a lot, and now you can drop over and see me next time you’re out without feeling like you are dunning me for the dough.
Jim
I shall write to him today, indicating that I am out here on a business trip, but not indicating that I am permanently installed.
Your two boys missed their gal yesterday. Don’t let him ever know that I told you, but JH says he misses you more than anything else out west. He seems to think I would be a damn fool if I waited for you after you were clear. His idea is that we should go ahead and forget college, etc. Perhaps if he had been a little closer to the world in general and seen jobs much more sure than mine fold up completely, he might not be so anxious for me to step out before I at least get a lease on that last year of school. His theory that I would be rather well established by virtue of having worked for the RCA for a couple of years is correct. But he doesn’t seem to realize how much more valuable I would be if I could unhesitatingly point to a degree in addition to the experience. Well, I don’t think it will hurt him too much if I don’t take his advice. That is one of the problems we shall have to work out together.
I hope you don’t mind the way I use two sides of the page. It keeps the postage down when I have enclosures etc.
Another thing you might tell the Huntoons, especially Jim, the next time you see them. When I wrote them, working on the theory that either John or I would eventually want the cow pasture hill receiver, I asked them to investigate possibilities of shipping it to me. Johns says he has also asked them. As I can’t use it and he can, and since I only wanted it out here in case one or the other of us should need it, tell them to ship it to him.
I was all set to take a walk today, but since it is nearly ten, and yet looks like midnite, I suppose I had better not venture out in the rain and fog until it is time to eat.
Mother wrote Friday and seems to count rather heavily on your visits, not so much from what she said, but from what she didn’t say and the place she put it in the letter.
I doubt if it will happen for some time, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if a mutual friend of ours lost control in respect to a very young young lady in a rather conservative New England state. Don’t worry, he has been properly enlightened. I checked into that yesterday.
Well, Darling, I’m sitting here more asleep than awake, as you can see by the typing. I shall leave this sheet in the mill and go back to bed. When I get up again, I shall see if there is more to be written. It was probably being with JH and the memories that aroused, as well as having talked of you most of the day, but I missed you so tremendously last night that it was almost unbelievable. Maybe I can get some sleep now, precious.
For goodness sake! It is 12:45. Imagine me sleeping that late. Sfunny—I’m yet sleepy. But if I expect to get any sleep tonight, I had better get up and stay up right now. I have a bunch of letters to write, my hair to wash, and some studying to get done. So I guess I had better quit.
Thanks for the letter today. By now, you should have two letters from me, one to the house and one to the office.
I’m glad your birthday was such a success. I think Maw Huntoon, was awfully sweet to work it out with us the way she did, and the type of present she gave you sort of puts a lump in my throat.
I’ll bet your ears were scorched over the week-end. JH* and I did little else but talk about you. He arrived about 1:20 P.M. Saturday, and I went over to Philly and met him. Then we came over here for lunch. After talking for a couple of hours, we walked over to Philly again and took in the Bellevue–Stratford Hotel, City Hall, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and several similar sights.
The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, PhiladelphiaThe Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, interior, PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia City HallIndependence Hall, PhiladelphiaThe Liberty Bell
Then we had dinner, and planned on a show. But we finished too late, so we walked all the way back to the ferry, took it across the river, and then walked up to the house. Total walking for the evening must have been between 8 and 10 miles. We talked for about fifteen minutes and then hit the hay.
Philadelphia-Camden Ferry
Sunday, we went out for breakfast, and then came back to the house for more gabfest. Then we walked over to Philly again, took the PRT out to the west end of Philly, and waited two hours until Goodman and Jackson showed up. Then the three of them drove on up to Hartford together. They are both nice fellows, even if two hours late. After leaving JH, I came back and went to the show. Shirley Ross was the nuts, both voice and physique, and was on the stage. Judy Canova and Annie and Zeke were also pretty good. The orchestra was a cross between Alex’s ragtime and jitterbug Joe, and wasn’t too good, although rather torrid and excellent rhythm. I then came home and hit the hay rather early.
Today didn’t go too well, but I’m not worried about it. I expect to get my 10 week’s job finished in 5 weeks. I don’t know what the hurry is, but I like to work that way when I can.
Easter was clear and cold and today was fair. Tonight it is quite warm, almost like a summer night. I can foresee great difficulty in working and studying under such pleasant weather this summer.
JH made a bit hit with the folks here. My tea-room gang thought he was my twin brother!
We’re getting closer, Honey! Yipee! With all my love, Cy.
P.S. John says please don’t send him anything for his birthday, and I know he will feel better if you don’t. I invited him to our house for dinner for the first birthday he has after we get our house, and he says that will be ok. I shall probably see him in NYC the 20th. Tell Bill.
Editor’s note: On April 17, 1939, Stalin signs a pact, aligning Russia with Britain and France against Nazi Germany.
Also, in April 1939, the U.S. military war planners completed their initial assessment of the potential threats from Germany, Italy and Japan. Their concern was the build-up of Naval forces by Japan in the Pacific and fear that if Germany and Italy joined forces and established a foothold in South or Central America, there would be risk of invasion. They established a series of “Rainbow” plans to prepare for the possible scenarios. “The most limited plan (RAINBOW 1) would provide for the defense of the Western Hemisphere south to the bulge of Brazil (10� south latitude) the Western Hemisphere being taken to include Greenland (but not Iceland, the Azores, or the Cape Verde Islands) to the east, and American Samoa, Hawaii, and Wake (but not Guam or the Philippines) to the west.” These plans were further refined by June 1930.
This plan also included a much needed build up in the Air Force, Army and Navy resources to protect the western hemisphere. Manufacture of airplanes, ships and military equipment became an urgent priority.
4/17/39 #1
Baby Girl:
Don’t be frightened by the special, as everything is all right. I was a bad boy, and didn’t find the time to write you yesterday, and I knew that would worry if you didn’t hear from me. So I hope this gets there either tonight or tomorrow morning. Looking at the weather, it doesn’t look like there will be much sky traffic today.
Saturday I bought a couple of reams of paper and went to work on my short story. I also wrote Aiken and asked if I could go up there next week-end, or sometime soon.
Believe it or not, I finally got in touch with Rettenmeyer. I was invited to drop in on his office Tuesday. With the invitation, I shan’t feel that I am taking his time.
Went to the show yesterday which was lousy. The stage show was good. Chick Webb blew hell out of everything with his drums, Ella Fitzgerald swung the pants off of Deep Purple [Click link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nghXDkurkjk ], St. Louis Blues, and a bunch of others. Peg Leg Bates put on a swell tap show, in spite of being minus a leg, as also did Chuck and the Chuckles.
Peg-Leg Bates
Then the orchestra went to town on a jam session. No kidding, we had jitterbugs in the aisle and everything! Gee, I wish you had been with me. You would have gotten a big kick out of it.
Well, Darling, it is time for breakfast, and I have to walk about 8 blocks to the Post Office before I eat. I shall try to write more completely this afternoon or tomorrow night. Good-night, precious, –I hope you’re getting this tonight. I’m waiting for you, and always shall until I finally have you.
Your husband, Cy
# 2
Precious Girl:
Well, here it is, the same day, and I’m writing to you again. I have two of your letters to answer, for that little note this morning didn’t say much.
As concerns the Thursday trip to NYC, you probably know that it was all a mistake. I do want to see the kids, though, so I hope I hit them on their way home.
Precious, three days to go! We have put in nearly a year of restraint on an order of which we can both be justly proud. For my part, it has not only shown me how much I care for you, but also, and of more importance, it has shown me how deeply rooted that care is.
I shall try to drop Sam (you said Bill, but it is Sam) Vandivert a line sometime this evening. I doubt if JH would make the trip, although if he is ever down here again, we might hook up for a while.
You should have the card for Mrs. Huntoon by now. I couldn’t find another envelope large enough to house it, so you will have to scare one up.
OK, precious, on the holidays and stuff. Keep me posted and I shall be a good boy. I suggested to JH* that he have a picture made for his mother’s birthday.
I wish I had Andy’s confidence. I feel like I’m sitting on a volcano. I shall make few definite plans about anything until that is cleared up. I suppose when it is we should wait until fall to make a formal announcement. I have no objections to telling your folks, but I would wait until we are ready to announce our engagement. Then we could give her the chance if she wants to, and if she won’t do it, I would be more than pleased to have Doris and Cliff do the honors. I’m afraid I shall always consider them as my real in-laws. We would make a lot of our friends embarrassed if we announced it as soon as we both want to. By fall I should be able to handle the ring situation a little more effectively.
Did you get to see Orrin? I’ll bet it was good.
So you like my idea! Well, good! I feel insanely happy about it, so let’s not think any more about it until the present battle is cleared up. When it is all out of the way, we shall elaborate on this other plan. As you say, we will have to watch out for that little blonde.
I can’t see a chance of being able to stand up under a strain like the one we underwent in those 8 months or so in Chicago, and we can handle the marriage situation if we use our heads.
For goodness sakes. Of course I have no objection to your wanting your things from the farm. Of course, I yet don’t feel that you have much chance of getting them, but there is the chance that once this other is cleared away, your Mother will be so sick and tired of the Kennedy family that she will accept anything, even me! Who knows, maybe after I tell her to go to and stay a couple of times she will begin to like me.
I got a card from Fritz tonight saying he was going to be out here most of the week. I shall call him and see if I can’t have dinner with him once at least. His hours are not so hot for much of anything as he works until 10 P.M. But it certainly was good to hear from him, and I shall get a big kick out of talking to the old horse-thief.
Don’t ever tell him I told you, and I mean that, but Johny says that he misses you more than anything he left in the middle west. I must be nuts, but I’m not the least bit jealous! I’ll bet we have a lot of week-end company one of these days.
Baby girl, we have an awful lot to accomplish in the next fifteen years, but I’d rather work at it with you than with anyone else in the world. There are a lot of things I could say, but I can express the meaning better by just not saying them. You’re still my baby, and I love you, and I guess that’s about all that we can let count at this stage of the game. Still your best friend, but a lot more, I hope.
Gee, that was a hell of a letter I wrote you yesterday afternoon! After I ate my supper, I felt a lot better.
I shall write to Dr. Maynard of Brooklyn, whom the Aikens recommended to me, and try to make an appointment sometime in the next month. Mrs. Aiken says to see him some Saturday morning and stop by Marthasville for the week-end on the way home. This will kill two birds with one stone.
I bought the Aikens a couple of bucks worth of flowers the last time I was there, and they were well received. Since Herman drove me up, I saved almost that much on train fare, so I about came out even.
Baby girl, I am going around in circles. There is an awful lot for me to learn. I positively must finish up that college education, for I am lost without some of the knowledge of the senior year. Then it is essential that I get a master’s within the next ten years.
I want you rather terrifically, for a number of reasons. I have only been here two months and I am tired of the entire set-up already. If I had a normal home life with you, I wouldn’t reach this stage for a couple of years. Last night was another awake most of the night. It rather infuriates me. When I can get a liberal supply of exercise, such does not occur from one month to the next.
The work today went a little better. I studied last night but didn’t learn much. I shall take another crack at it this evening if I get down to brass tacks before bedtime.
I am reading Guns of Burgoyne, a new historical novel. Thus far, 38 pages, it has been most interesting.
Speaking of books, what is the name of the book that I bought in NYC last summer by Benchley? Don’t laugh, but I think I have gone out and bought another copy of the same! Darling, I need you for things like that too.
My last short story is the best by far of anything that I have attempted. I am going to mail it Saturday to the Good Housekeeping. Darling, pray for luck this trip, for the financial situation is going to be our biggest problem for the next couple of months. I want to get both of us out of debt and a little ahead before we go ahead.
It all goes to show you. I was going to be selfish tonight and only write you one page. That’s why I just had to get up and get a second one. And I’ll bet I have to get up and get a third one also.
The enclosed pamphlet will answer a lot of questions which people have been asking me for years. It should be mildly interesting, since it is inside information on a new business.
These week-ends with the Aikens excite a most violent reaction in me. Darling, the more I think of it, the more I realize that someday I shall have to have a place out in the country where I can work and not mess around with all the dirt and grime of city life. That breaks down into making a profession of writing. Perhaps I can work in consulting and engineering as Aiken does. Precious, that should be an ideal situation if we can arrange it. They are only 40 minutes from New York, and yet they are back in the mountains and have deer in their backyard in the winter! Big dreams, precious, but if we hit the ball for the next ten years, we can make them come true.
Darling, and another thing. I am through with this last story, and have been for a couple of days. And yet it will be Saturday or next week before I send it to anyone. It takes me so damn long to turn out perfect typing copy that by the time I finish the final draft, I am so tired of the story that I can’t even write letters to editors about it. Gee, darling, you’re surely getting yourself into a tough job.
Why the heck should I think of it now. Let’s go to a dance tonight. I think that would be great sport. Maybe we could have some fun between numbers too, although the weather is a little too chilly for moonlight strolls.
Betty, pet waitress where I eat, says to tell the girl out west that I looked nice tonight. Dragged out the gray suit and summer ties.
Your clothes sound good. Visions of that joint out in the Watchung Mountains pop up again.
The Watchung Mountains (a/k/a “The Blue Hills”) of New Jersey
Speaking of Betty, there was a quite a stir a couple of evenings back. I thought I would die laughing. The gang out the tea room have all adopted a material attitude towards me. One of their steady customers was in a couple of evenings ago and had apparently never gotten a good look at the half-man-half-dog from Chicago. This she proceeded to do, all unknown to me. Betty, apparently knowing the girl quite well and there being very few people in, went over and gave her hell for trying to flirt with me, politely informing the kid that I was taken by a very cute girl from Chicago! Well, precious, your interests are being looked out for even out here.
Gee, I knew I couldn’t stop at two pages.
Did you get to talk to the boy wonder at Hartford?* Speaking of which, he bought a pair of gray suede crepe-soled shoes just before he came down here, and I gave him hell for it, telling him, as is true, that they are hot as hell in the summer. The joker lies in the fact that I think I shall buy a pair for myself this Saturday, for they will last well, and will go with this gray suit. When I get some wash suits this summer, they shall all be gray. In spite of the old story that I look well in brown, the blue and the gray make me look more alive and less like a ghost. Then the shoes will go with that also. I shall probably forget white shoes, as I have a pair here which will do if the occasion is urgent, but aren’t worth cleaning up otherwise.
Nertz. I have a short story that I want to write and an article on graphs. Then on top of that, I have to mail this and don’t even know where to get stamps. The weather looks good, and I hope you will get it sometime tomorrow.
Well, darling, I’m still waiting for you, and I hope that it doesn’t have to continue for too much longer. You may have to put up with a lot of irregularity the first couple of years, but that is better than having to put up with that plus being apart. At least, I think so.
Thank Maw Huntoon for the birthday card, and tell her I will write as soon as I get a chance. It was really from the entire gang, so thank the bunch of them via Maw. Incidentally, don’t mention that I suggested it, but in your big sisterly way, get JH* to do a little financial budgeting. I’m afraid that maybe his lack of parental restraint on the finances may not do him much good after a while. He should be able to save roughly $80 per month, minus payments on the car. This allows him a liberal beer expense or what have you.
Goodnight, Baby. Our first tough year is almost gone. The next will be hard, but I doubt if it will be as hard as the first one was.
