Seventy Years Ago: January 2016

Jan 27, 2016

Sun, Jan 27, 1946: a little blue

"This afternoon we went over to Causey's. Jay is home and brought not only his discharge button but also a bride. She is an Alabama girl; seems rather attractive but acted like she was just a little blue."

-- Letter from my grandmother, Bloomington, Kans., to my father, Boulder, Colo., Sunday, January 27, 1946.

Jan 19, 2016

Sat, Jan 19, 1946: Japanese movie

"Thursday was the usual Japanese movie. But it was novel to me because I took a date. I believe that she had a better grasp on what the movie was all about than I. It's amazing how little of the movies you can understand after 14 months here -- and I'm doing better than average."

-- Letter from my father, Boulder, Colo., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., Saturday, January 19, 1946.

Jan 5, 2016

Sat, Jan 5, 1946: shot another pigeon

"Sunday morning I shot another pigeon. District Supertend Brown and Joe were there. Sunday afternoon I walked up to Billy's but he wasn't at home. Dad got a new tire for the car last week and is worring about his income tax receits."

-- Letter from my uncle, Stanley Reeves Brown, Bloomington, Kans., to my father, Sidney DeVere Brown, Boulder, Colo., Saturday, January 5, 1946.

Description

I have about a thousand of my parents' college letters, Navy letters, and love letters from the 1940's. These include letters my father wrote and received when he was at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kans. (1941-43, 1946-47), and when he was in the U.S. Navy serving stateside primarily learning Japanese (1943-46), letters my mother sent and received on a church trip in the summer of 1946, and especially letters my mother and father exchanged when they were engaged to marry but living in separate towns in Kansas (June 1947-January 1948). Many of the letters are from my father's family at their farm in Bloomington, Kans. I am reading these letters exactly seventy years after they were written and posting interesting quotes from them once a week or so.

Seventy Years Ago