Tag: School

1938 May 12 Confessions of love

5/12/38
Dear Marty:

I am writing this against my better judgment, but I trust that you will destroy it as usual.

I sent a letter to you yesterday via Vera, which didn’t say much, and you may get this one before the previous one gets to you.

I’m awfully glad that you had the day with my folks.  I think they are peaches, and they all said how much they enjoyed your visit.

Wish I could help out on the speedwriting, but can’t see it just now.  Maybe after I get out of debt I can do some good.  I’d do it for any of my pals, and haven’t forgotten all of the things you did for me.  Certainly hope you can get located.

I shall probably hear from the Army by the end of the month.  I shall be in Chicago for a couple of weeks before I leave, and shall certainly haul my shoulder around to be cried on.  Do you remember the night I left for college?  Seems as if I did a little crying on yours then, so it is your turn now.

I was afraid you’d find fireworks in Wheaton.

Thanks for reading my article.  I hope someday to write something that human beings can enjoy, and not just engineers.  I have a book in the process which might interest you if I ever finish it and get it published.

About Bill and Jo*.  They were all set for us to go places together.  I didn’t give them any encouragement one way or the other.  They think more of me then they really should, and as a result, they felt a little badly towards you when you married Bill.  I have always kept my mouth shut on the subject because there really wasn’t anything I could say.

Well, you asked for it—“what you really think.”  And please don’t be hurt by it, honey, as you know I feel towards you.

I’ve been waiting for this to happen for the past two years.  After you were down here that week-end, I determined to pop the fatal question as soon as school was out and I was sure of my ability as a college-trained radio engineer.  I had no idea that you and Bill were so serious.  When I got home that summer, I couldn’t make connections with you and didn’t [know] what to think.  When you called me at Johny’s that night and told me the dope, I was practically floored.  I wasn’t the least bit mad, just scared stiff.

The net reaction was my wild summer with Marje.  I haven’t been balanced emotionally since then.  Although my social standing is better now than it ever has been, I have dropped to a first-class drunken bum and less.  That is really straight shooting.  My grades have dropped in proportion to the amount of alcohol I have imbibed, and they are plenty low.  I’ve recently gone on the wagon, about 1 beer per week, and grades are already higher.  But it hurts like heck not to have the stuff.  I have the reputation among the bums around school of being able to hold more beer per evening and yet walk straight than any engineer around, and that is saying plenty.  Well, that gives you an idea of how low I’ve dropped.  I’m going to snap out of it, or know the reason why.

That may explain the Army business to some extent.  I want to get away from all personal responsibility for a while and just think straight and figure this whole mess out.  In the Army, I will be supervised to death, but it will be an easy life for a while.  That will also give me enough money so that that restriction will be removed.

It’s a fine pickle, honey.  Perhaps I never should have let myself want you the way I did.  I do feel very responsible for the entire situation though, as I could have averted things for a while if I hadn’t been such a damned little sissy, and at least asked you what you thought of the idea.

But we’re both bawling over spilled moo-juice.

As to the future, I think I had better let that do until I talk to you.  I want to very badly.  Do you realize, Marty, that during all of the time we have known each other, we have never had a scrap of any sort?

Please let me know what days you have off, if any.  If I have an article in Radio this month, and they said I would, I shall have enough spare cash for a trip up there.  No one need know that I left Lafayette, so it would work out ok.

Drop me a line and give me the dope.  Please don’t draw any conclusions from this letter, as it is too sketchy to justify a complete picture of the situation.

73,  Cy

I shall not sign for obvious reasons.  In case letter should get misplaced or something.

*Bill/”Willy”/”Conk” and Jo Conklin

 

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1944 May 23 Going to Egypt for Communications course

[No date or location]

HELLO:

THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER.  I HAVE JUST COME UP FROM THE CLUB WHERE THEY ARE SHOWING ONE OF THE CORNIEST MOVIES I HAVE EVER STARTED TO LOOK AT.  IT STARTED OUT IN A NAVAL ACADEMY, AND WHEN I LEFT IT WAS DRAGGING ALONG, WITH A DROOPY GUY AND A GAL SINGING AT EACH OTHER ON THE OBSERVATION PLATFORM OF THE TRAIN, AT WHICH POINT HE CONFUSED A MARSHMALLOW WITH A POWDER PUFF AND ATE THE LATTER.  WELL, IT IS BETTER THAN NOTHING, I GUESS, BUT I DON’T GET MUCH OF A KICK OUT OF IT.

I REALLY SHOULDN’T COME UP HERE AT NIGHT, AS THE CLERKS LIVE IN THE BACK ROOM AND I MAY BE INTERFERING WITH THEIR SOCIAL LIFE.  LULU BELLE THE WAC IS ON DUTY TONIGHT AND THE SGT BOYFRIEND IS UP PLAYING CARDS WITH HER.  FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, SHE CAN’T TAKE BUT THE FIRST PART OF THE NIGHT SHIFT, ALTHO THE BOYS WOULD PROBABLY BE ALL IN FAVOR OF A FULL TOUR OF DUTY.

I SAW A NEWSREEL OF SOME FIGHTING IN THE PACIFIC, AND IT SURE DID LOOK INTERESTING.  I HOPE I DON’T GET ALL EXCITED ONE OF THESE DAYS AND GET INTO SOMETHING HOT.  IT IS AN AWFUL TEMPTATION, BUT I BELIEVE I’M OLD ENOUGH TO BE SENSIBLE FOR A CHANGE.

THIS WILL PROBABLY BE THE LAST REAL LETTER FOR ABOUT THREE WEEKS, FOR I SHALL NOT HAVE A MILL ON WHICH TO WORK.  I WILL PROBABLY BE SPEAKING EGYPTIAN IN THE NEXT ONE.  OR AT LEAST “HENGLISH.”

IT IS APPARENTLY ALL SET THAT I GO UP TO THE ADVANCE HQ ONE OF THESE DAYS WHERE ALL THE CONFUSION ORIGINATES.  THERE ISN’T ANY MORE UP THERE FOR ME TO DO THAN THERE IS HERE, BUT THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER IS ALL STEAMED UP ABOUT ME BARGING IN TO GET ALONG WITH THE BRITISH.  IT IS AN ART NOT ALL OUTSPOKEN AMERICANS HAVE.  CAN YOU IMAGINE ME BEING DIPLOMATIC?  THAT IS A LAUGH OF THE FIRST WATER.

THIS TRIP IS BAD FOR IT WILL GIVE ME ABOUT ANOTHER 1000 MILES OF TERRITORY TO EXPLORE LATER WITH YOU.  WE’LL PROBABLY SPEND THE REST OF OUR LIVES TRAVELING IF WE CAN AFFORD IT, HI.  SERIOUSLY, I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU A CONDUCTED TOUR OF THIS PART OF THE WORLD.  IT IS EXTREMELY INTERESTING.

WELL, HONEY, THAT’S ALL I CAN THINK OF.  BE A GOOD GIRL AND I’LL BE HOME WHEN I GET THERE.  I WILL NOT BE IN A POSITION TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT UNTIL I’VE BEEN OVERSEAS AT LEAST 24 MONTHS.

LOVE,

 

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