- Date: Sunday morning, 2 January 1938
- Written at: New York, New York
- Stationery: Hotel Taft, 7th Ave. at 50th St., New York
- From: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- To: Ruby
- Condition: Complete — 3 pages and a note on a fourth sheet; kept with a Hotel Taft envelope postmarked 30 December 1937
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
PAGE 1
Sunday A.M.
1045 here
My Own Sweetheart:—
I was sure sleeping until about half hour ago when the phone rang & said a special in my mail box and I thot it would be from you but no such luck — one from J.S.B. sent to Wash & they forwarded on to me here — and am I burned up. He said he had only rec’d 5 letters from me since I left so I just finished letting him have it. I wrote 5 alone from Wash & he answered all of them so I referred him back to them but I think he forgets a lot —
Nevertheless you dont want to hear about that anyway because I dont want to bore you with all that trash any way — I suppose the Head asks you if you have heard from me & perhaps you said yes & she got busy on the phone & told him I was writing to you instead of the office or her — She is dangerous Honey so dont tell her when you get my letters and as soon as
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you finish reading them — Burn them up.
Today is Sunday & the 4th one away from you — God Honey how I would love to be with you right now — we could have breakfast together and then go for a ride in the Gob instead I am stuck in this G.D. town. The sun is shining today and I am going to take a sight seeing bus — around the town as I want to see some of it anyway — It rained & snowed all last night but it is almost all gone this A.M.
Radio just come on and Baby — what did you think of the football games. Good old Cal & Santa Clara — I sure enjoyed them both in fact they are the first games I have listened to from start to finish this year — Didnt we have a bet Sweetheart? Let me know so I can send the 5.00 back to you. But it is the only thing I have with me to keep looking at and remind me of you Dear. I am sure lonesome for
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you Dear. You told me when I left to be sure & write to you Dear — well I hope I am not boring you by sending them to fast but I love you better than I have ever & Honey I am thinking of you constantly so I have to sit & write you Dear. I know you understand but Honey why don’t you write me a little line Please. I am lonesome for you — Sweetheart — Going to get dressed and go out & see the sights via Greyhound so I can tell you when I get home —
All my love to the sweetest little girl in all the world — You Dear
Love & Kisses Dear — As Ever
Joe
Did you get the package from Gretchen? Thats not for Xmas only going away —
NOTE ON A FOURTH SHEET
Here comes Major Bowes on the Radio — Would like to be with you Dear. Now
Envelope kept with it (postmarked 30 Dec 1937)
Notes & context
Dating. On New Year’s Day 1938 California beat Alabama 13–0 in the Rose Bowl, and Santa Clara beat LSU 6–0 in the Sugar Bowl. Joe heard both on the radio — he wrote a letter during the Rose Bowl itself (Good Old Cal) — so this “Sunday A.M.” is 2 January 1938. He wrote again from the Taft at 3:30 that afternoon (“Your Special, Mailed New Year’s Eve”). In the morning he begs Ruby to “write me a little line”; by afternoon her special-delivery letter had arrived.
The envelope. It was found with this letter: Hotel Taft, “Room 1446” written in, two purple 3-cent Washington stamps and an air-mail arrow, postmarked New York, 30 December 1937, with Joe’s “M. L.” again. That postmark is three days before the bowl games, so it probably carried an earlier letter from the Taft — most likely Joe’s first, written the morning he arrived (Here I Am in the Big City) — and the two were later kept together.
“Burn them up.” Ruby didn’t, which is why this site exists.
“The Head.” Probably someone at Joe’s office in California whom he suspected of reporting to J.S.B. Who she was is not known.
“The 4th one away from you.” If 2 January was his fourth Sunday away, Joe left Planada in the first week of December 1937.
The $5 bet. It seems Ruby gave Joe a five-dollar bill on a bet over the games. He carried it as a keepsake: “the only thing I have with me to keep looking at and remind me of you.”
Major Bowes was one of the best-known voices on 1930s radio, famous for his Amateur Hour. He also had a Sunday program from New York, which would be the one Joe switched on that morning.
Gretchen was Joe’s niece, the daughter of his sister Dodie (see the Pittsburgh letter). Joe says the package was “not for Xmas only going away”, so it was probably a going-away gift for Ruby.
“The Gob.” Their name for the car. A letter written on 18 January confirms it: “you use to come out of the door & jump in Gob & away we would go” (You Were Made for Me).
