- Date: Monday night, 13 December 1937, 9 p.m. Eastern time
- Written at: Broad Street Station, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Stationery: Plain paper
- From: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- To: Miss Ruby E. Wilson, Planada, California
- Condition: Complete — 4 pages and envelope
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
PAGE 1
Broad St Station — Monday Nite 9 P.M. — Phila — E. St. Time
Ruby Sweetheart:—
Setting in the Station 1 hour to go — Back to Pittsburg. Had to make a trip down here in a hurry so back now. Came down Fri nite to Wash. & left early this A.M. and Honey it is very very cold every place you go — This country is sure dirty too — Dodie was sure glad to see me but she doesn’t look at all well — I am worried about her — Wish you would write them all a letter. She says she loves you cause you are so good and kind to me. Honey Dear. I just came in from the street and every step and minute I am thinking of you — the sweetest girl in all the world. You know what I said when we parted that I would think of you every minute of the day and night and to think now you are just closing up and going up stairs to our rooms — Wish we were going to Merced to have dinner together and then home so I could love my Baby — Honey it seems like years since I
PAGE 2
left you and Honey I am starved for your loving — Ill never get enough — when I get back — I hope I may have a date every night I can see you now — right now. Honey I love you so much it hurts. You said thanks for all the nice words — I cant think or rather I do not have the command to express my feelings and love for you. The reason I use to drive fast at times, you know was because I was speechless and wanted to tell you something but couldn’t, all I can say Dear is I love you with all my heart — over and over again — I am sorry I missed you for 2 days but when I am at Dodies I hope you understand. My Love you are sweet. There are a bunch of Greeks [?] talking near me so I am going to move. Hope you excuse writing cause I am doing it on my lap. We have been having some terrible weather I am sure glad my Honey is in Calif — cause I wouldn’t want her to have to take it. Its about all I can do to endure it. Oh Yes Honey — You write me as many letters
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as you care c/o the Brokers — They dont care & it is none of their business — no hotels because I dont know their names & then again I may not like some thing and move out at a minutes notice — To H—— with the brokers. Well I am at work on S——t Nose. I saw Nell & she is going to write Mrs Hess [?] the next time they are down to look us up and to be sure and come to the P.O. Then you can take her out in the store & introduce her to your mother & father. That will burn eh — Nell has gotten quite old looking & her husband is an old man now. Dont mention to Mrs. H tho — Eh Sweetie Pie. Wash has sure improved a lot just from what I saw — Hope Larry & Kath make it OK — Honey you should see Jacey & they call him Joe sure makes me happy — He sure looks like me — Dode says he acts like me too — I am sure proud of him & you would be too. He kissed me good night every night —
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may sound sissy like but not at all that way — Oh Ill tell you all that when I get back — Now is the time to tell you how much I love you Dear — I do with all my heart. God Honey how I miss you — You Darling — I notice they are berthing us so Ill go check in & write later — to much rushing at last minute. Made it now only a few minutes so Honey — Good Nite Dear and I love you with all my Heart — Sorry I cant kiss you but believe me Dear when I tell you that you are near me now. May God protect you — My Dear and watch over you until I return and Sweetheart I think of you every minute — Give my regards to your Mother, Father, Bill, Uncle Wilbur, Aunt Natalie & the boys — leave S——t N—— out — All my love to the sweetest little girl in the world my Baby Dear — Good Nite Lover —
As Ever
Joe
More from Pitts.
ENVELOPE (POSTMARKED 14 DEC 1937)
Air Mail
Miss Ruby E. Wilson
Planada, Calif
Merced County
Postmarked Philadelphia, Pa., 12:30 a.m., 14 December 1937, with two purple 3-cent George Washington stamps making up the 6-cent air-mail rate. “M.L.” is written at the left.
Notes & context
The date. Joe headed it “Monday Nite 9 P.M., E. St. Time,” at Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. The envelope was postmarked there at 12:30 the next morning, 14 December 1937, so the letter was written on Monday, 13 December. It falls between the letters from Cincinnati (Five Degrees Above in Cincinnati) and Pittsburgh (Beautiful as the Morning).
A weekend in Washington. Joe went down to Washington on Friday night, 10 December, to stay with his sister Dodie, and left early Monday. He was waiting at Broad Street Station, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s great terminal in the centre of Philadelphia, for the overnight train back to Pittsburgh — “they are berthing us,” he writes, as the sleeping-car passengers were called aboard. Back in Pittsburgh the next evening he wrote again (The M.L. Is “My Lover”). He went back to Dodie’s for Christmas (You Are My Pal).
“She doesn’t look at all well.” Dodie died in Washington five years later, on 10 March 1943.
Jacy. Dodie’s son Jacy — Joseph Clair Van Slyke, named after his uncle — was sixteen. “He sure looks like me — Dode says he acts like me too … He kissed me good night every night.” Seven years later Jacy, a B-17 tail gunner, was killed in action over the Philippines (Jacy).
“Hope Larry & Kath make it OK.” His sisters Laura (Aunt Larry) and Kathryn; what they were attempting is not said.
Ruby at home. At 9 p.m. in Philadelphia it was 6 p.m. in Planada, when Ruby would be “just closing up” the post office (The Postmaster of Planada). “The store” where she could introduce Nell to her mother and father was evidently the family store alongside the post office. Joe sends regards to her parents, James and Nettie Wilson, and to Bill, Uncle Wilbur, Aunt Natalie and “the boys,” who have not yet been identified.
“The reason I use to drive fast.” Joe’s explanation for his driving that autumn: he was “speechless and wanted to tell you something but couldn’t.”
Write care of the brokers. As in the Pittsburgh letters, Joe asked Ruby to write to him at the food brokers’ offices rather than hotels, because he might move at a minute’s notice.
Nell and Mrs. Hess. Nell, whom Joe saw in Washington, was evidently someone from Joe’s past who knew a “Mrs Hess” [?] in California; the point of the visit to the post office seems to have been for Nell to meet Ruby and her parents — “That will burn eh.” Who Nell and Mrs. Hess were is not known.
Joe’s own dashes. “To H——,” “S——t Nose” and “S——t N——” are written that way by Joe himself. Who “S——t Nose” was, whom Joe was “at work on” and whom Ruby was to leave out of his regards, is not known.
Uncertain readings: “Greeks,” “Hess” and the word after “Uncle” (“Wilbur”) are how the words appear on the page.
