Written Correspondence

As her children left home, my mother corresponded regularly with those that had left. Usually she would write every week, at least for those who responded at more or less the same frequency and would send additional missives at anniversaries, etc. She never learned to type for all her letters were handwritten and she wrote separate letters to each of her correspondents.

I recall her once saying that she wrote about different things and happenings to each of her children so that a common letter would be unsuitable — at least it would not meet her specific goal. She would also send along with her letters, the letters she had received from the various of us. Pack rat that I am, I saved these over the years (along with her letters, of course). I don’t believe I adopted this practice until after I started working after finishing school. So her letters while I was at Iowa University and perhaps during my early days with Shell are lost.

One might well argue that this saving of old letters served no useful purpose — however in my case after we moved to Mountain View Retirement Residence I was able to go through the accumulation and return to my sister Vivian the letters of here which my mother had sent on to me. She was delighted to get them. I guess Vivian and I were kindred souls in reliving the past in this way. Perhaps after I have finished this writing of my recollections of my life I shall sift through all that I have accumulated (including those letters I have that uncle Carl saved during his days at business school in Des Moines), to freshen my recollection of times past.

My mother and her sisters and brothers, in later years, kept in touch by means of a round robin correspondence, until I suppose such time that the circle of siblings had diminished to only a few. She urged her children to adopt a similar practice and we did for awhile — I don’t recall just when or how it ceased. She would also accompany birthday cards to each of her children and grandchildren with a check for $10 to be used for whatever the recipient wanted.

Personally I often used these gifts for plants for the lawn and garden, and perhaps the plants are still growing and being enjoyed at 411 Bonnie Drive, for example. I recall specifically that I used the gift on one occasion for two Modesto ash trees for the parking strip in from of 411 Bonnie Drive. Those trees are now gone. When I put them in they were on the approved list of trees, but they had the characteristic of pushing up the sidewalks with their roots, and were later removed. Perhaps the city of El Cerrito removed the trees at the request of acceptance of the current owners at the time. When we drove by long after we left, and saw that the trees were gone, I felt a sense of loss as if a part of me was no longer there.



Google maps street view of 411 Bonnie Drive, El Cerrito, California

Although my mother was the principal correspondent, my father would on occasion write a letter. Most of those he wrote were in the period after the family moved back to the little brown house, but before his developing the Parkinson’s disease and the increasing shakiness of his hands made writing difficult for him.

As with my mother, the letters from my father were all in longhand. My father’s handwriting, though nice in appearance, was quite often difficult to decipher — I’d say the description “Spencerian” could be applied to his penmanship. Sometime in the 1920s my father had acquired a portable typewriter — a Remington I think — and I think he intended to type in a self-instruction program but he never did. I seem to recall him getting it out as on a Sunday afternoon and pecking away at the keys for awhile but he never developed any facility.

I think Clarice took the typewriter with her when she went off to school at the University of Dubuque. I acquired a used upright Remington about the time I finished high school. I’m not certain but it may have been a graduation gift from my parents (in lieu of the class ring which I did not purchase). It cost $15, and I dimly recall making the selection at a store on Central Avenue in Fort Dodge. This typewriter served Fort Dodge JC and SUI days and I think it eventually ended up in California. What happened to it I do not recall but it may have been traded in when I bought the Royal portable for Jean.