- Date: Sunday, 5 December 1937
- Written at: On board the San Francisco Overland Limited, crossing Nevada
- Stationery: San Francisco Overland Limited (Chicago & North Western Ry., Union Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific)
- From: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- To: Ruby
- Condition: 4 pages; envelope not found; the letter ends without a closing, so a last page may be missing
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
PAGE 1
Sunday —
Ruby Dear —
Sent you a card by slow freight but couldn’t say much on it cause you know how we like to read them. Sweetheart, it was hard to leave you and had I known it would have come as it did I wouldn’t have gone home at all the last night. We are going thru Nevada now & it is the worst place yet just desert & sage brush and I am lonesome for you Dear. It is almost time for you to make up the mail but even if I could only be in the same place I would be very
PAGE 2
happy only to be near you because I love you — Dearly and know you are the sweetest girl in the world, you are so good to me and all my thots are of you Dear. The few hours, and now Dear they seem few, were entirely to short and far apart for me. You are beautiful Dear and sweet too a combination that is rare and seldom found but believe me Dear in my estimation you are the exception. This Dear is to show you I do love you and don’t worry about any other because you have all any person could want and I am not and never can find anyone like my own Sweetheart.
PAGE 3
I spent all day Sat going around. I went to the office in a.m. got my ticket & instructions & expense money, got home at 11 — Larry & I went to Chestnut town to get check cashed and razor blades, shaving cream, tooth paste etc & home for lunch, at 100 I had appointment to have my feet fixed & they sure had a time cutting & they are so sore today I can hardly walk. We went down town & I bot a new top coat — a double breasted form fitting cause that is what they wear in the East so Ill have to get a gray one when I get back to go with yours, then to O’C Moffitts to get underwear — Mrs Mays [?] almost ruined all mine so had to replenish supply and then bot a kit to put razor, soap — Tooth Brush, comb, shaving cream, T Paste etc —
PAGE 4
rather nice looking — too — Cath replaced my wallet with a very classy brief case so I am pretty well fixed up — Except you Dear — If you were only with me all would be OK, because I love you. Then home to dinner & left at 800. Couldn’t sleep much last night but will catch up on it tonight, I hope. There is a man across from me a Lt Detective from L.A. going to Cheyenne to bring back a murderer big blow hard and bluff wants to talk all the time will cut him short pretty soon. Going to drop the folks a line. More later — Now Dear we are in some pretty country & quite a bit of snow
[The letter ends here, without a closing or signature. A last page may be missing.]
Notes & context
The first day on the train. One of two letters Joe wrote on the first full day of the trip; the other is Every Click of the Wheels. Joe left San Francisco on the Overland Limited at 8 o’clock on Saturday night, 4 December 1937, and wrote this the next day as the train crossed Nevada. He mailed a letter air mail at Ogden, Utah, that night (its envelope survives with Every Click of the Wheels), and asked about it the next day: “Hope you got my letter today I mailed in Ogden last night” (My RUBY). The train reached Chicago on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he wrote from Cincinnati (A Dead Ringer for Mama).
The date. Joe wrote only “Sunday.” The run of the trip fixes it: he left on Saturday night, wrote this on Sunday in Nevada, met his sister on Monday in Nebraska, spent Tuesday in Chicago and was in Cincinnati on Wednesday, 8 December, the date of the postmark on the next envelope.
“A card by slow freight … you know how we like to read them.” The card survives: A Card by Slow Freight, written as the train reached Battle Mountain. The line is a joke between two people who handled the mail: Ruby was the postmaster at Planada (The Postmaster of Planada), and anything written on a postcard could be read by everyone it passed through. “It is almost time for you to make up the mail” — to sort and bag the outgoing mail at the end of the day.
Saturday in San Francisco. Joe was staying with Aunt Larry at 3355 Octavia Street. He collected his ticket, instructions and expense money from “the office,” and went with Larry to “Chestnut town” — probably the shops on Chestnut Street in the Marina, a few blocks from Octavia Street — then had his feet seen to, bought a double-breasted topcoat “cause that is what they wear in the East,” and replaced his underwear at O’Connor, Moffatt & Co., the San Francisco department store. “Mrs Mays,” who “almost ruined all mine,” was presumably his laundress at home.
Cath. Probably Aunt Larry’s daughter Catherine, who lived with her mother. She gave Joe “a very classy brief case” in place of his wallet.
The detective. A lieutenant of detectives from Los Angeles on his way to Cheyenne to bring back a murderer — “big blow hard and bluff.” The case has not been identified.
“Dont worry about any other.” Joe was leaving Ruby for two months, and he took care to reassure her.
Uncertain readings: “Mrs Mays” is how the name appears on the page.
