1920s Letters

  Dearest, Since Yale won, and I lost – and yet won – , I owe you a yankee dime, and I'll be sure and pay on the first occasion – mayhaps when I take my first lesson in astronomy , Howzat ? The Longhorns beat the Aggies, and so I'll let you pay me what you owe me simultaneously , Howzat? I'm waiting impatiently for the Norwegian dollar. I went down to see the T.U. - A+M game Thanksgiving and it was a humdinger. And also, I enjoyed a little comedy on the way down. There was a fellow which was all shot to pieces on the train, who stayed between two cars and wouldn't let anyone go from one car to the other. He'd grab hold of everybody and tell him what a “fighting [written in margin: not passed by censor] he was. Ralph Johnson and stayed there with him, and had some good laughs. I got an exam schedule the other day-- I start the 17 th , and get through the 20 th , and have to be back the 3_d. I'm sending you another Ranger – if they're too rare for you,...

Ma Cher é  Daux Hele ǹ e, Well, Yale beat Harvard, so I owe you a Yankee dime; Texas and A + M are still to be heard from. I certainly am obliged to you for offering me the bet, especially with that particular kind of stake. Did you ever get well? Where are you going Christmas - Carolina? Don't forget to tell me when you decide. They're starting to put the finishing touches on us down here and begin to get ready for the finals -- there's where we stand or fall. They've been having a big row down here over the "Negative hour system," -- have you ever heard anything about it? -- and now they've abolished it. There's nothing doing down here except studying and loafing, and I'm gradually becoming inclined to take to the latter. Who's that girl from Ranger you were talking about. I know some boys from Eastland down here, and maybe they know her. Eastland's just a short distance from Ranger. They sure are pouring it on us right. I've got a 6 ...

 Nov. 22, Dearest, I just got your letter a couple of minutes ago. I'm awfully sorry you've been sick, and that you don't like my letters; but I've been doing my best in the letter line. I forthwith immediately, etc., accept your bet of a yankee dime that Yale beats Harvard -- you can't depend on football dope this year and I likewise make a bet with you for the same stake that the Longhorns beat A + M. You're fooled all around this time, because I win whether Harvard and A + M win or lose. It was very sweet of you to make the bet. I just flunked another ZO quiz, and so I've got to lay off and dig in. You aren't sick now are you? Whenever you get sick, you ought to write and tell me all about it so I can give you some expert medical advice. Impatiently ('till I can collect the stakes) Henry. P.S. I got your card, too. Its pretty old place, but it doesn't look just right without any leave on the trees.  You owe me an extra letter for this, too. 

Mon C hère  femme, Somebody sent Ralph Johnson a Tattler the other day, and I saw where Helen Robinson excelled in English at Smith College. It seems that you are also excelling ing astronomy. Somehow I don't believe that the correspondence system of teaching is very efficacious, the teacher and pupil should be in close contact (in the narrowest sense of the word in some cases), especially with regard to astronomy. Don't you think so? I saw a good football game yesterday between Texas and Oklahoma. The night before, I went to the rally. The coeds all came in together -- and I didn't know there was such a mob of them -- they were an ornery looking bunch, hardly a good looking girl there. I broke training (or something like that) and went to see "The Bat" last week. We climbed five or six flights of stairs, and then parked our cares on the backs of the benches. Those benches sure have short backs, and they left me a marked man; in fact I was almost cut in two. You a...

Cleveland, Oh. Nov. 14, 1923 Dear Helen : Only in my last letter I promised to answer your letters as soon as they arrived and then the next letter I received from you remains unanswered for many days. I am terribly ashamed of myself for not answering sooner, but somehow or other the time was never there to write a good in answer to such a nice one as you wrote me, which I appreciate greatly, even though you did leave an empty, which is explainable however in view of the fact that you wrote it after you were supposed to be sleeping soundly (?) Your repeated mentioning of your dumbness as you choose to call it sounds suspicious to me, I will bet your making fine grades. Anybody is liable to make a mistake as to where and in what animals a smooth muscle is found, but when it comes to getting a grade of 54 in a week's test in Calculus like I did last week then the matter becomes serious and I am beginning to doubt whether I can even class myself as a dumbbell. The Freshman dance ...

The Owl Club El Paso El Paso Texas November, ?, 1923 Dear Helen :- I am going to warn you before you read this that this letter is going to be full of bunk as I feel rather bunky brite any way. Don't read too many thrilling Saturday Evening Post Stories they are not good for the lessons I hear. Next Friday  is the Bush Growers Convention at School. We are going to meet at noon in the corridors and shave and believe me some of us need it for we have been doing without for almost a week now. this is a hit at the girls, for they presist in making their toilet in the halls by the use of vanities. (which everyone knows should be abolished). Any way when they pull out their vanity cases next Friday we are going to tack our mirrors on the wall, lather up, pull out our razors and get to work. Dale Payne has us all beat in the amount of brush grown so far for you can't see Dale he is screened so well.  ¿ Comprende? I sure wish you could be here to see us make this lasting impression up...

Dear Girl, Well, I think I'll pack up, beat it home, and start in Junior College. Here is a sample of the kind of grades I make: Physics 10, ZO 49, Chem 75 - they don't look very hopeful, do they? Talk about work -- WOW -- I've got a theme and a book report to write; I've got an English quiz and a French quiz coming; and I'm behind in everything. My penant hasn't come yet. I've sure got a funny old prof. in Physics. Did you ever see one of those ads: "Wake up and (Chew Brown's Mule."? Well, he looks just like the farmer in one of them. He's got a bald head, a little grey goattee (got phonetic--I don't know how to spell it.), and his clothes look as though they had been made for a larger man. He's a humdinger though -- and he tells a joke once in a while to keep you from going to sleep. My imagination is stretched past the breaking point, and I can't think of a thing to say -- same way I feel in a quiz. It's time for breakfas...

 Since you're so wild about astronomy, and I think I ought to know it, I'll let you teach it to me next summer, How's that? I was a little bit puzzled about that theme you were going to write; it seems to me that College Bread  would have an economic rather than a social value. You sure scared me when you were going somewhere with "Mack;" at first, I thought she was a he. I really am worried about Mr. Champlin. what kind of a guy is he? Have you been telling me about all the dates you've been having? I'm sending you a couple of Texas Rangers -- the old boys have a "keen sense of humor," so I thought maybe you'd like them. They're pretty good fellows. In case you do make a moderately low grade or two, you'll have me for plenty of worse company. Don't worry about that! I took another Physics Quiz yesterday, and I'm still hoping that I might have gotten a little credit on one of the four questions So you dreamed about me, did you...

P.S. Mother unsealed a letter to me so she could put this clipping in – she thought I would be interested, and I sure was. Ha! Ha! [The newspaper clipping reads, “A letter from Mrs. Eems, dean of Smith college, was received by Mrs. Warren. In her letter she praised Helen Robinson, a former student highly.] My Dear Little Girl, Its cloudy here today, and looks like rain. I'm sorry you don't like my weather reports, but I can't think of anything but the weather to write about. Would you like a little more mush or have I been giving you too much already? I can't think of any thing to say now, so I think I'll step out and get a bite of breakfast and see if that'll help me think of something. But before I go, I want to know whom you had that date with, that you told me about in your first letter. Is he good-looking? Oh, yes, I was over-joyed at getting two letters last week, I almost forgot to tell you that. Well, I'll see what a full stomach will do t...

Sunday        EST Dear^ Helen It surely was sweet of you to send me the little flower. I almost wish you would flunk the mid-year, so I could have you down here. My Mind is greatly eased to hear that men are so scarce up there, and that ten o'clock rule sounds good, too. You're probably safer up there, because there are a lot of boys down here, although the good looking girls are awfully scarce. All the fraternities thought I was too much of a hick to be of any value, so I didn't pledge to any of them. And also some little birdie that told you I know how to play the banjo, had a very muchly mistaken idea. In three days you will be 18 whole years old, about the day before you'll get this letter. Oh, how I wish I could be there to give you 18 whole kisses! Would you give them to me? Texas beat Vandy (Vanderbilt) 16 – 0 yesterday, at Dallas. The only hitch about your flunking and coming to Texas U. is, that I'll get kicked out of here at the same time you get...

 Dearest Girl, (answers to questions) 1. There's not anything to tell about myself. 2. I like the school very much. 3. I am taking Physics 1, Zoology1, Chemistry1, Chemistry107,English1, and French A. 4. I eat, sleep, loaf, and pretend to study, and that's about all. 5. I ought to study very hard, but I can't absorb any knowledge, so there's no use trying. 6. I went to a dance the night I got here and haven't been to one since. 7. I still do think about what I told you to think about. I almost got drowned last night. It sure was a narrow escape. I shouldn't have gone swimming on a night like that, but I couldn't help it. You see, I went to a football game in the afternoon, and it started raining about the beginning of the last quarter, and by the time the game was over, it was raining like the very d___l, so I started swimming for home. I finally got there, but I was half-drowned. Your report of the dance sounded very favorable; the scarcer the boys a...

 Oct. 11, 1923 Dear Helen : I received your letter several days ago and it certainly was good to hear from you. I realize that I should have answered this letter a long time ago, but school has kept me so busy that I have really not found enough time to answer your letter as it should be answered.     Your mention of inviting me to Smith dances if I were close enough to Smith so that you could do so certainly was a great compliment to me and I want to thank you for wishing to invite me if it were possible. As far as I am concerned nothing would suit me better than to go to some school where we  could see more of each other, but that is impossible, I am afraid. There are so many boys around there who beat my dancing all over that you will not miss my ability any, what little there is of it.      At present yours truly is out for the football team, trying to make it, but  with little success. Anyhow I get to sit on the bench at all the home gam...

 Sunday Dearest Helen,     The name of the street is Nueces -- But I think I have about all the letters you've written, and I don't call them gobs. Who did you go to the Fish Frolic with, and how many boys are there around that place? You might have written that last note on Sunday and made it a letter instead of dashing it off between classes. Will you reform?     I went to another football game yesterday and watched Philips U. get murdered with a score of 51 -- 0. I haven't seen any of the El Paso bunch of girls lately, but I guess they're all right. I sure wish you were here. "Sweetheart, how I miss you," -- thats "nothing but the truth."     I took my first Physics test yesterday and came out with about a -- 0 grade -- and you're to blame. Every time I pick up that doggone book, or any other, and start reading along, my my mind starts to wondering about Helen, while my eyes read on to the bottom of the page. Then I wake up and start ...

 Sunday a.m. Dearest Helen, I had just decided that you weren't going to write to me anymore when your second letter came the other day. (I don't see how it is that I owe you so many, I've received two letters and this is the third I have written. I sure wish you would make your letters a little longer. Your second one was a little more like it.     I'm glad Mary L. is going to stay, and that everything's so "jake." I believe your Mother misses you almost as much as I do, but my Mother said she seems to be feeling better now.     I wish you would ship a few of your "beautiful creatures" down here, they don't grow down this way. By the way, I heard that M. L. thought there was a "cute" boy on the train with you. Were you dancing with him in those "quiet, secluded corners." There are bunch of wild looking ones down here, and I expect there are a lot of wild ones up there, so watch you step . I think I'll have to star...

 Sunday Dear Helen,      It seems an awfully long time since I've seen you. I sure do wish you were going to the University down here.     I finally got registered Friday, after waiting in line for six hours -- from 6 a.m. to 12 am. I haven't had but one letter from you so far -- I guess the reason is that you didn't know where to write until about last Friday, isn't it?     I saw Clare the other day and she said that she hadn't heard from you. She was all worn out from being rushed around so much.     There are quite a bunch down here from El Paso, and Ralph Johnson, Sam Miller and I board at the same place. We started today and they sure gave us some handout -- fried chicken, roast, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes with marsh-mallows on top, peas and a bunch of other junk.     You said to write c/o Smith until the 24th. You won't get this until after then so I guess I'll let your Mother forward it. Lov...

 September 17, 1923 Dear Helen:     Your mother's letter, saying that you were coming thru Cleveland took me by surprise, I do now know why, because in your letters you wrote saying that you were probably going East to school,so that it was not so unusual to receive a letter saying you were coming thru. Nevertheless I was stunned and this may account for the fact that I did not say much at the depot that Friday evening. Besides you three girls had so much to say to each other that it was rather difficult for me to get in a word once in a while, but I certainly was glad to see you and Mary Louise again. It seemed like a page out of history to see you two standing there after having seen you last more than a year ago several hundred, not to say thousand, miles away and as I sit here writing and smoking my pipe I can see a room all lit up and several couples dancing back in old El Paso. Well that is enough of that.    How do you like it there at Smith. Has col...

 Sept. Morn, Sunday. Let's leave off the parentheses next time. Deare(est) Helen, I am glad you're having such a keen time, and all that, and that you can get a single room. But----- I've read your letter clear through, three times, and I don't like the attitude you take, when you say that your letter is so horribly long that I probably won't read that far. And right after that you say "I should worry." This doesn't sound as though you had been thinking of what I told you the night of the Monday before you left.     Your Mother called me up last night, and asked me if I had heard from you. I told her you were freezing to death, and she said she was afraid you would. Ha! Ha! She likewise said it was mighty lonesome out there.    Jack Vowell [I would meet Jack Vowell 60 years after this was written, but he would not mention to me that he knew my grandfather] just came by and slipped me a date card, and made several dates for me with his fraternity. I got...

New Orleans La 1106 Nashville June, 1921 Dear Helen : -     I suppose it is about time to write you so here goes. Say this is some city, you hit a paved street once in a century. After you get off a street car you think you have been on a pitching horse. The news boys come right through the cars selling papers. There is a park near here that is about 20 blocks long and 15 blocks wide. There is a lake on it a mile long and they rent boats for $.50 cents an hour. There is also a swimming pool and 10 or 12 tennis courts a zoo, Playground etc. I am going on a yachting trip tonite + don't know what to expect. Yesterday my cousin had her class over (30 girls) to practice their school song, I was the only boy. About 5 blocks from here is an insane asylum and 11 blocks away is the river (Mississippi) and 4 blocks away is an orphans home so you see We have lots of company. The Mississippi is about 4 blocks wide 10 ft deep on the sides + 100 in the middle. We just got the ...