The people Joe mentions in his letters who were not family: his boss, the food brokers he sold to, a woman he suspected of reporting on him, someone at home who talked too much, and his cat. For Joe’s relatives, see People.
Work
J.S.B. Joe’s boss. Joe sent “the office” regular reports from the road, wired him, called him at home, and expected him to grumble about expenses; J.S.B. wrote back that he was “very well pleased” with the trip. Joe had Ruby write to him care of the food brokers’ offices, where “they think it is from the plant,” so J.S.B. most likely ran, or ran the sales for, the cannery or packing plant whose fruit Joe was selling in the East. The family believes he was a supervisor with the fruit growers’ association in California. His full name has not been found.
Letters: Beautiful as the Morning · Snow, Sleet, Smoke and Coal Dust · Burn Them Up · Your Special, Mailed New Year’s Eve · The M.L. Is “My Lover” · Here I Am in the Big City
“The Head.” A woman whom Joe suspected of reporting on him to J.S.B.: “she would break her neck to squeal to J.S.B.” Probably a real Miss Head: on the train Joe asked Ruby to have Haywood feed Cannery “or else Miss Head.” Not yet identified.
Letters: Burn Them Up · Fighting Those Subways · Every Click of the Wheels · Here I Am in the Big City
The brokers. Joe sold through local food brokers in each city and collected his mail at their offices. N. J. Janson was the broker in Cincinnati who “gave me a good send off” to J.S.B. (and probably the one who ordered 5,000 cases of sliced peaches); H.M.P. was the Pittsburgh broker Joe had no time for.
Letters: Five Degrees Above in Cincinnati · Beautiful as the Morning · From the Broad Street Station
Others in the letters
Aunt Vi. Someone in Ruby’s circle at home who “talks too much anyway”; Joe told Ruby to “just skip it all.” Not yet identified.
Letters: A Dead Ringer for Mama · A Light in Your Mother’s Window
Cannery. Joe’s cat, photographed in his arms among the fruit boxes about 1937. The family remembers Joe writing “Don’t worry about Cannery.” While Joe was away Cannery moved in with Ruby; Joe had told him that “½ of him belonged to you.”
Letters: A Dead Ringer for Mama · Convict Catcher · Every Click of the Wheels · A Card by Slow Freight
