Portrait of my father as college senior, Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas, 1946-47.

Around early September 1946: rural home missions

“I spent Friday of that week [Aug 16] sightseeing in Chicago with Dot – the big city certainly does fascinate and thrill me, and still I want none of it.  We saw the Chicago Temple, Chicago University, drove around Lake Michigan at night, looked out over the city from the top of Stock Exchange Building, went through the Chicago Library—wouldn’t I love to spend a week in there writing a termpaper!...

“Some of you may know that our work on the Caravan this summer helped me to make a decision I have been working on for a long time—my field of religious education.  It is now definitely rural home missions, so I chose for an interest group at Convocation ‘What is the mission of the church in rural life?’ and met here people young people from all over the nation who are going into the same sort of field.”

-- Letter from my mother to “friends from Missouri” (likely a draft letter).  My father had visited Chicago two weeks earlier. My mother and father had yet to meet.

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.

Tue, Jul 30, 1946: a civilian

"Have you wondered what has happened to me?  I'm a civilian now -- and have been since about noon last Friday -- but there has been no time to write until now....

“Last Friday at 6 A.M. Walt Brunhumer came by my room to awaken me. After a hearty breakfast we still managed to get to the discharge center behind only Jim Spillane and Phil Walker--two Boulder men.  By the time they unlocked the center (7:45) a sizeable crowd was gathered.  We were early enough to go through with the first group.  After filling out many forms and hearing a number of instructive lectures, 23 signatures and five finger printings later -- we had our discharge buttons and certificates in our possession.  The center had a congenial staff--the old medical captain with his amusing quips: 'Were you nervous in the service, son?' and 'Don't you know that you were too old to have measles?' the personnel man who gave us a lot of angles on GI benefits which we hadn't thought about--some of which might evade the spirit of the laws, and the athletic-minded chaplain with his anecdotes about football: 'Even though the football season is over keep in there pitching for the old school'--this he applied to our case by substituting the words 'country' and 'war'....

"My plans call for a trip up to Chicago tomorrow to see John.  Aunt Nell thinks it would be nice if I stop here on the way back through since Uncle Orville's Aunt Frances, and Joyce will be here--so I'll be around for the family dinner Sunday--and I may stay on until Tuesday since Aunt Nell thinks it would be a good idea.  Also, I plan to stop over in Missouri -- so I don't know exactly what day I'll be back home."

--Letter from my father, Decatur, Illinois, to his family, Bloomington, Kans., Tuesday, July 30, 1946.

Sat, Jul 27, 1946: funny notions

“I bet you think I’ve fallen in.  But I haven’t.  Now the problem is to get two weeks into less than a pamphlet. Well, I can’t be as detailed as I’d like.  Somehow last week was simply swamped and rushed.  If only I had a typewriter now!  Well – I made the preacher’s wife jealous in California [a town in Missouri]….

“I am anxiously awaiting further discussion of later summer plans.  It looks as if Dot’s folks could take me to St. Louis & I could leave from there.  However, I will do what you want me to.  I promised this summer to go where sent & conduct myself as a good servant of Jesus Christ, so I guess another week wouldn’t hurt.  I at least know my traveling companions for that week….

“Mr. Hesler at California was marvelous.  So was Mr. Yoes[?] at Dexter.  But Mrs. Heslor was a funny one – an Easterner – no sense of humor & Mr. Hesler was clever as can be – She got funny notions. However I had no intention of taking her husband away.  I didn’t even know she had this notion until we left…."

--Letter from my mother, Charleston, Missouri, to her family, [likely in Hutchison, Kans.], Saturday, July 27, 1946.

Thu, Jul 18, 1946: overseas jobs

"Monday morning I dropped over to the Pentagon Bldg. for an interview with Mr. Nott who is handling overseas jobs for the War Dept.... Tuesday he called up Mrs. Farrow -- the Korean War Dept. worker in our offices who handles proficiency tests -- and said that he had jobs for five of the men who had applied -- my name among the five.... Tuesday night I was all set to accept the job [in Japan] until I went home at 11:30 P.M. to find Mom's letter waiting for me.  Mrs. Sellar's has a room open; so I decided to go to college & get my degree-- and I left the door open for a job next summer in Japan."

--Letter from my father, Washington, D.C., to my grandmother, Bloomington, Kans., Thursday, July 18, 1946.

Thu, Jul 18, 1946: real farmers

“We gals became real farmers—drove tractors, watched turkeys hatch, ‘snoopervised’ the building of a new turkey house, and had blackberries and turkey eggs for breakfast.  All this was at the home where Dot and Ruth were lucky enough to stay at Gray Summit, or rather out of Gray Summit on ‘Hardeman Boulevard.’  These same Hardemans were three-fourth of the reason we had such a good start to our summer.  None of us had ever known a family that made such a place in our hearts in such a short time.”

--Group letter from my mother, Ruth Murray, and the three other members of her Methodist Youth Caravan, Thursday, July 18, 1946.