Mon, Aug 26, 1946: wild P.K.

“At Chaffe[, Missouri,] there’s a wild P.K. [preacher’s kid] to reform.  The girl is adopted and has a bad reputation.... Sat nite... she is at the neighbor’s but comes after several callings, with her hair up, eyebrows in an unnatural shape, greets us politely.  She is tall, blonde, thin, wears short skirts...Sun morn: Dr. Polhamus gives further information that she is maybe going to Baldwin-Wallace [College] this winter, and that she has had a beauty course & is licensed.  He says to me nearly in a whisper ‘I hope you can get hold of my daughter for Christ and his church.  She thinks a lot of you.’  At table he defends her about missing these 2 years since hi school.  She has gotten some heck raised, a beauty course finished, and some growing up done.  Mother is less sympathetic about the matter.... Mom [a fellow caravanner, not the woman’s mother] says (Mom is very bashful) that she is boy-crazy & ‘acted bad with boys.’  One never knows what Mom means, but she also said some of the women refused to have her in their houses.... Wed morn... Went to town with her.  Interesting remarks:... She worships the ground [her father] walks on.—She has to see, feel, or touch to believe – She thinks people are interesting and tries to be nice to all. Isn’t too crazy about going to school.”

--Letter from my mother, Grand Rapids, Mich., to her family, [Hutchinson, Kans.?], Monday, August 26, 1946.  My mother had been in a youth caravan in Chaffee, Missouri, the week of August 3.

My mother, left, at Methodist Youth Fellowship, National Convention, Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 25-29, 1946.

Thu, Aug 15, 1946: almost homesick

“Yesterday, I was almost homesick for Kansas because I was certainly sick of Missouri weather.  It rained all week and by yesterday I had all sorts of aches and pains preparatory to catching a good cold.... Another thing that I was put out about was Dot going home sick for the third time this summer, and I’m sure she didn’t feel a bit worse than I did.  But I refuse to stay home as long as I can navigate.”

--Letter from my mother, Lutesville, Missouri, to her family, [Hutchinson, Kans.?], August 15, 1946.  She was finishing up her Methodist Youth caravanning trip in Missouri and preparing to go to the Methodist Youth national conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Fri, Aug 2, 1946: spillway

“Morgan from East Prairie took us to the spillway.  It seems the Mississippi cuts up every so often, so they built levees & paid the people ¾ land value who lived in the spillway.  At flood time they break the levee & save Cairo that way.  It’s all share cropper country, mostly Negroes.  They look like the Southern picture.  We passed one cotton field full of Negroes chopping.... Since I seem to have sleepy companions, I’ll just try to get ready to wind up this week now.  I told you about the illiterate girl.  This Taysley family used to live in the spillway.  Annie Bell is 18 & in the 2^nd grade.  Ellie May is 21 and in the 1^st grade.  They never went to school or church until they moved out here...”

--Letter from my mother, Dogwood, Missouri, to her family, [Hutchinson, Kans.], Friday, August 2, 1946.  She was on a Methodist youth caravan trip in rural Missouri.