Thursday, April 7, 2011

Letter to Lillian,July 25, 1922

Introduction to Letters to Lillian

Mendota Cal
July 25, 1922

Warfield Building, SF, 1922
Dear Lillian-Although we did not meet in San Francisco I suppose that I will have to call it alright. I was about ten minutes late myself so I guess that it was my own fault. I did not leave the company's office until a quarter of twelve and I had to go to the bank after that. But even so I would have been all right had it not been for the fact that I went into a store to buy this paper and ink to write you with. I have enough paper and ink to last several months now and plenty of envelopes.

     When I reached Oakland I put in a three month's subscription to the Tribune and also bought a couple of wireless instruments. I had to eat my dinner on the boat.

     We arrived in Mendota last night about on schedule. The truck that broke down when I was on it was not in yet. The part arrived only yesterday and he took it up yesterday afternoon, returning last night. This morning he tore down his engine and does not expect to go up until Friday. The other truck went up yesterday afternoon and came back this morning. We will go up with him this afternoon, soon I hope, as it is 3 o'clock now. The train will be in before we go. That same train left Oakland this morning. I say we will go up, as there are three of us. I have a cook and a mine foreman with me, besides plenty of baggage.

     How did the girls at the office treat you when they noticed your decoration. Personally I feel very proud of you. I have some sweetheart I'll say.

     Well I guess that I will have to cut this letter short as we will probably start soon. Well, the main reason of this letter is to start you writing so start right off if you have not already done so

     With the best of love
            Your Jim

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, the agony and the irony of missing a rendezvous because you were buying new stationery on which to write more letters later to the same person you were supposed to see soon! There's an O'Henry-style story in there ...

... also a vivid reminder of the world without cell phones.

it's margaret said...

totally off-topic m'dear --and hopefully allowed... just saw this at Peter Carey's blog and thought of you:

"If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party."

Frederick Buechner

Jan Toepfer said...

I wanted to mention that the "decoration" Jim gave to my Aunt Lillian is an engagement ring.