Thursday Evening Letter

If we look at Martha's dates in the blog we see that she and Royal meet in July 1936 in Colorado. In August 1936 (only two or three weeks after they met) she left Colorado to return to Illinois and her teaching job. I am not sure when the plans were made but they decided to get married after the end of the school year and live in southern Colorado. So there was a year of letters with a brief visit of Royal to Illinois at Christmas time. This letter was written sometime before that Christmas trip.

Anyone who has ever has a long distance romance via letters may identify with this. There is a need to write as often as you can and many times during the day you think about how to tell the other about what is going on around you. You can only say I love you and want you so many times so you must begin to find different ways to get the message across. This is certainly a different view of a man we all knew and loved. I have tried to reproduce this letter as close as I can to the original. It is in italics to be similar to the original hand writhing.
RLR

Thursday Evening
(your Sunday Letter)

Dearest,
May you enjoy teaching your Sunday School Class, I bet they will think a lot of the love of the Lord is being showered down when you give them one of those big smiles. I know I should if I could just enjoy such.

A poem Midmorning by Edgar Ward

Know that the dawn has found me
Eager and earnest and Strong
My feet on the way set soundly,
My throat sounding a song.

Know that the dusk shall find me
Glad of the way I trod
The day of my grief behind me
And lifted unto God.

I am now in the office. The lady teachers are having a big Ping-Pong game. I just had to run a group of high school people away to keep them from taking the table. Mr. Lewis and I are both working. He in his office and I in mine. We just ordered some aquarium plants to get the aquariums started again. We shall order some fish later. He wants some guppies and a pair of angel fish. I am not spending much money: however, as I realize there are very important things for all the money I can save.

Mr. Lewis just came down he is going to challenge a pair of the lady teachers for a Ping-Pong game and we are going to show them how it is done.

I might have an automobile after tomorrow. It all depends on whither the man trades or not. We play Lamar a game tomorrow night; I might drive home from it in a new gunmetal, Tudor V-8 built in trunk, exhaust heater, 97 Carburetor, and six ply tires. Don't you think I'd make a good salesman.

Well, dear it would be grand to see you tonight. Every night since I saw you in Denver has been wasted as far as my romance goes. I have maybe put in some light licks on this putrid gray paper (What Judge you by your heart!) Does this paper make you sad when I write thereon? If so, thee must let me know at an early date so that thou needst not be so provoked. Willst thou do so me love? Please, me love do let me know about this matter the next time thou dost take thy pen in hand. Well just remember some artist can make a person cry by one stroke of the brush, my mother always could with one stroke of the hair brush. But when one becomes a man he must put away childish things. Yea, put them far away.

I am rambling on at great length in this letter and saying nothing which means that in my memoirs these letters maybe published as Great letters of a Great Man or the man that we all knew. Perchance they may be taken for a modern Novel if anything I wrote was of Importance. Of course, dear I naturally expect you to be interested since I love you truly, and intend to drag you off to my den in the "Dust Bowl". Does that not make chills go up and down your spine? I was afraid so. But the early days of June must find the knot tied and the pair ready to travel to Northern Colo. I say must of course I mean, with the willingness and consent of the governed. We'll settle all that in the shant Christmas vacation. Time can't go too fast.

This is the goofiest letter I have written, but I feel that way.
Love Royal