Category Archives: Things

Letter from Dad to his parents: September 1948

Things, , , , ,

In the box that probably belonged to my Uncle Don and Aunt Leila were some letters Dad wrote to his parents and to my aunt and uncle. Here is one to his parents. He was twenty and a half years old.

9-6-48
Great Lakes, Ill

Dear Folks,

Well, how is everybody? I’m feeling pretty good except for a slight cold which is getting better. Well our chow is a little better this week because a different company is feeding us. The company that is feeding us now has made an agreement with our C.O. that they feed us good and we feed them good when we get in chow hall. Our weekend is just about over, it’s Mon. night now and we have just finished swabbing the decks with sand, washed all the windows inside and out with Bon-ami and scrubbed every piece of wood in the building. I got all my clothes washed yesterday and left them out all day to bleach.

How is everybody at home? Is dad feeling pretty good, I hope so. I hope everybody else is pretty good too.

Say when you send my camera will you send back my toiletry kit and a good map of Illinois, Indiana or any other state you have. Send on of Chicago too if you can find one.

I’ll have to quit now because they are going to turn out the light.

Goodbye for now.

Love,
Al

P.S. Don’t forget to write

I still live at the same place, ha! ha!

Dad’s 9th Grade Report Card

Things, , ,

Among some of the more interesting items I found at Mom’s house last month was a Joseph Spiess box of photos, letters and documents that belonged to my Uncle Don and Aunt Leila. One of the items was my dad’s 9th grade report card from Plato Township High School.

For some reason I’d always thought dad quit school before 9th grade, but I was mistaken. Maybe it was just after 9th grade. It was not something he was proud of. I think he actually might have liked school — or at least respected the teachers because he always wanted me to be a teacher and was proud that I became one.

Despite dropping out of high school, this report card doesn’t look too bad — It looks like science was his best subject (after PE). His English scores were good the first semester, but not so good the second. I don’t understand the “incompletes” in Agriculture though. His dad was a farmer.

His English teacher, Miss Muirhead, must be a relative of our alpaca farm friends.

Mess

Things

If you could look through your screen and see what is behind me, and over to my left (your right) you’d be shocked that I am such an untidy person. You’d be right. We cleaned out our kneewall over a month ago and I still have boxes that I need to go through before deciding what to do with the items within. I also recently returned from my mom’s house and brought boxes, suitcases, bags and briefcases full of stuff. I don’t think I have time to even go through everything, much less blog about the more interesting items.

Okay, I will let you see part of the mess. Just don’t judge me too harshly…

20140309_122948

The big suitcase is filled with correspondence from Jeremy and other memories of my teenage years. The two bags hold childhood books, photographs, letters and other bits of nostalgia (oh, yeah and one or two toothbrushes — mom had about 50 extra toothbrushes).