I must admit I'm a bit disappointed. I have so many questions about what happened when Grandpa got back to Iowa. Also, it is known within the family that Grandpa worked for a tomato canning factory when he lived out in California. I was really hoping he would've written about that in his letters at some point. I guess him just saying he "got work" was all the more he was going to say about that in his letters.
- How long did it actually take him to get home?
- Did he end up helping with the corn harvest in Iowa that fall?
- Was his reunion with Grandma all he was hoping for?
Grandma's last letter to Grandpa in California was dated Oct. 9. In it she revealed she had started a night class at the Central Iowa Business College. She also answered a question Grandpa had apparently asked about what she wanted him to bring her back from California...
"Well, you can bring anything and everything from a toothpick to a fur coat, including a keen sheik, if that is satisfactory with you. If not, bring one of Henry Ford's 'best.' If you can't pick anything within those limits, I will be S.O.L."I also noticed quite a bit more in this letter from Grandma that she was maybe trying to impress Grandpa with her advanced vocabulary using words like: compulsory, arbitration, conciliation, and habitual. Unfortunately, she wouldn't use them in quite the right context making her come off as not very smart after all. One particularly disjointed sentence went like this...
"I will remark about the 'burning love.' You might be burning but I don't think it is that kind of love, so you had better connect a detachment."I don't remember Grandma talking very much as I was growing up. Perhaps she was told at some point that what she was saying didn't make any sense, and so she just didn't speak her mind very often.
However, her frequent times of silence could have had something to do with another part of this last letter...
"I am still that same girl always saying something crazy if there is anyone around to say it to. One of the girls (you know the one I mean) at work acts so inhuman sometimes toward her guy. If I were him, I would show her a few things. The way she acts reminds me of the way I do and I think to myself that I am going to try to get rid of those crazy habits and not be so silly. I might be a little more cultured in that respect when you get back and still you probably won't see any difference. It remains to be proved and seen."
What unique turn of phrases they use....although many may have been common for the time. I wonder , too, about that first meeting upon his return....
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