Before you even start to read the letters, there's a lot to see just by looking at them. 1st of all, 2 cent postage, what a bargain! Most of the letters are written in fountain pen except for a few in pencil (which he apologizes for every time, lol). He has pretty nice script too. I love his 'W''s. For awhile though, I thought his name was Sherman, as his 'H', looked like 'sh' to me. The quality of the paper varies, but it's generally thicker than today's typical letter paper, unlined, smaller than a std. 8.5x11 sheet, more like a 6"x10". Almost always folded in half (so it opens like a book). Some of the nicer stationary has a ruffled edge with a silver or gold trim. Some of the paper is pink, some white, some blue. He usually matches the envelope to the paper color. One of the envelopes was almost like linen rather than paper.
He starts out the letters as 'Hello old pal' in the beginning but then progresses to 'sweetheart' rather quickly. He signs them 'with oceans of love', 'loving you till the golden gates turn brass', etc. Most are S.W.A.K. (sealed with a kiss - lol I had to look that up, thought I knew all the texting type lingo). He talks about general day to day things, work, a few times he's looking for work, the things they'll need to start their life together. One thing I found funny was he did own a car, but never called it a 'car'. He always said Lizzy or just 'the machine'. Took me a little bit to catch on to what he was talking about. I guess Lindy was a moonshiner as well because he talks about her 'home brew' a few times (this was during prohibition). In one letter, he'd come down to visit her a couple days before and took back a bottle but somehow it broke and spilled all over this other guy on the bumpy ride home, he was really disappointed! Mentions a car wreck in another. Talks about getting sick with 'the gripe' a few times. A few of them he tells her to destroy after reading (obviously, she didn't listen :)). In one letter he mentions he'll be turning 22 that year, I'm not sure of Lindy's age but from what I could gather, she did still live with her parents. Another tidbit, he's always reminding her to 'keep her prize for him' (you know, wink, wink). In one letter he warns that if any other guy ever tried to be with her, he'd kill them both.
In the last letter he says it will be the last letter because he'll be coming to get her so they can be married. I assume he kept that promise because the very last piece of mail postmarked Nov. 1928 is addressed to Mrs. H. Anderson (no return address) and includes a "Baby's Lucky Penny" card with a 1927 penny included. The card is from a bank in Kalamazoo (letter is also addressed to Kalamazoo, so I assume they started their home there rather than in Cincinnati) and it suggests adding 99 more pennies to that penny in an account for the baby and making a deposit of pennies equal to the child's age every year. It says 'this will amount to $250 by age 21' !!!
The house in Dayton, OH where he penned the earlier letters from still stands. You can see it on either google street view or the Montgomery Co. Auditor's website (can't remember which I pulled it from). It was built in 1906 or '07. The houses at the other addresses are long gone. I considered signing up for an Ancestry.com membership just to research the records to see how their story continued (there's enough information included to do so), but I don't want to get too attached to these, need to let them go...lol
These letters were really neat. A realistic window into the times. Sure, people do mind what they're writing and don't tell all their secrets, but just the stories about the mundane things...what they ate, the cost to ride the train, the doctor's prescription for their ailments...is interesting...just to see how different things are.
When was the last time you got a letter from your sweetheart? I bet never, he'd just send a text now, or email, or call...A long distance relationship like what existed back then, doesn't exist today (unless one of you is living out in the back woods somewhere lol).
Also in this bunch was a postcard from Kalamazoo of the lake at sunset, a Christmas postcard, an old Christmas card, and a western union telegraph receipt showing charges of .43 cents.
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