- Date: Sunday, 5 December 1937
- Written at: On board the San Francisco Overland Limited; mailed at Ogden, Utah
- Stationery: San Francisco Overland Limited (Chicago & North Western Ry., Union Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific)
- From: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- To: Miss Ruby E. Wilson, Planada, California
- Condition: Pages 2 and 3 and envelope; page 1 is missing
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
PAGE 1 IS MISSING
Joe numbered the next page “2,” and it begins in the middle of a sentence, so at least the first page of this letter is lost.
PAGE 2
you have just opened up for the mail — Even if I was in Planada I couldnt be with you for one hour anyway but I would be haunting you as I am now. I am lonesome Honey and want to be with you and to think every click of the wheels take me further & further away from every one I love but we will make up for it when I get back believe me. I am going to wire Kathryn Sharmer in Sidney from Cheyenne tomorrow a.m. at 730 & I get
PAGE 3
in Sidney at 1030 so I can see her for 5 min and may stop off a day on my way back — Let you know later. Again I say “I love you Baby.” Honey will you please be sure and mention to Haywood to feed Cannery — or else Miss Head — You know how to do it and let me know — Honey I am going to clean up a bit and I love you Darling and miss you so much — Hope it wont be long before Ill be here on my way home —
All my Love Dear
Joe
More tomorrow Sweetheart
ENVELOPE (POSTMARKED OGDEN, 5 DEC 1937)
Via Air Mail
Miss Ruby E. Wilson
Planada, California
A red-white-and-blue air-mail envelope with two purple 3-cent George Washington stamps, postmarked Ogden, Utah, on the evening of 5 December 1937.
Notes & context
The Ogden letter. The next day Joe wrote, “Hope you got my letter today I mailed in Ogden last night Air Mail” (My RUBY). This envelope, postmarked at Ogden on 5 December, is that mailing.
Two letters on Sunday. Joe also wrote Desert and Sage Brush that day, crossing Nevada. Each letter has its own first and second pages, so they are two separate letters; which was written first is not known. Either or both may have gone in this envelope.
“I am going to wire Kathryn … from Cheyenne tomorrow.” He did: his sister Kathryn and her husband met the train at Sidney on Monday morning, and she rode with him as far as North Platte (My RUBY). Joe calls her Kathryn Sharmer, her maiden name; she had been Mrs. Earl Kratz since 1918. Instead of five minutes they had more than three hours together.
“You have just opened up for the mail.” Ruby was postmaster at Planada (The Postmaster of Planada).
Cannery, Haywood and Miss Head. Joe’s cat Cannery needed feeding while he was away. Haywood — who reappears in Convict Catcher — was evidently someone near Joe’s place who could do it, “or else Miss Head.” This suggests that “the Head,” who “would break her neck to squeal to J.S.B.” (Fighting Those Subways), was a real Miss Head rather than a nickname. In the end Cannery took matters into his own paws and moved in with Ruby.
“May stop off a day on my way back.” Whether Joe stopped in Sidney on the return journey is not known.
