Seventy Years Ago: November 2016

Nov 28, 2016

Thu, Nov 28, 1946, Thanksgiving: marvelous time

“game & dance -- had marvelous time -- dancing better now - cocoa cookies for Browns”

--Entry in my mother’s diary about a date with my father.

Nov 24, 2016

Sun, Nov 24, 1946: great time

“he was worried – we went for walk after dinner & had great time – went to church & MYF”

--Entry in my mother’s diary about a date with my father, while they were both students at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas. MYF is Methodist Youth Fellowship.

Nov 16, 2016

Sat, Nov 16, 1946: are we married?

“assembly parade (his sweater!) won 3^rd, tho- game. Stanley too Sellers Open House. Elbert’s question- are we married? Dance – not too good – asked to kiss goodnite”

--Entry in my mother’s diary about a date with my father.

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