And so the promise of a visit is fulfilled!

Sid’s next letter is written after what seems to have been a lovely visit to Buffalo, and much time spent with Elsie. Regardless of their budding relationship, Sid would most likely have been heading northwest anyways to spend Easter with his father, a minister in North Tonawanda, N.Y. But luckily for Sid and Elsie, North Tonawanda is only about a half hour north of Buffalo.  It was an easy drive down to 887 West Ferry Street, and Sid seems to have made the trip quite frequently during the visit, despite the less than ideal weather. But two weeks later, when he finally gets back to picking up his pen, his letter is frustratingly shy on details of his visits.

I suppose it makes sense – they were both there, no need to rehash the details of time spent together – but I long to hear about what exactly they did together. Did they spend time alone or were they just with her family? Did they go to the movies? Hold hands? Shyly try out a first kiss? This letter gives no hint! What there is is a whole lot more talk of bridge. I understand that, throughout  history, card games have provided a way for men and women to interact with more freedom than society might have otherwise have allowed, but really, talk of bridge, contract or auction, is not fulfilling my curiosity about their time together.

Luckily my overactive curiosity can be appeased in other directions, thanks to the very modern times in which I read this correspondence. The letters may be my only direct avenue into the minds of my grandparents, but Siri and Chrome are happy to help me quickly enter the era.

“Siri, when was Easter in 1932?” Sunday, March 27^th.  

“Chrome, what was the weather in Buffalo the week of March 27^th, 1932?” Cold and damp, surprise, surprise. 

As for current events, I know about the Lindburg case that was the hot news of the day – it was still great fodder for tv mystery programs in the 1970’s when I was growing up – but what was the Honolulu Affair?? Again, one quick search and I was sucked into a lurid tale of rape and murder, race and justice on the island of Hawaii.* With a bit more digging I could probably have seen the very front page of the Buffalo paper to which Sid referred. And it is pretty amazing to really think about this. We may, as a society, be focused (or perhaps obsessed) with the future and what’s next, but our technological advances have made it amazingly easy to look back. I bet Sid and Elsie would be pretty surprised at all the details of their 1930’s world I can find without even leaving my desk.**

And while we may talk about how small the 21^st century world has become with the help of technology, how we have such access to news and information, I am struck by how well informed Sid and Elsie were on matters local, national and international. Their current affairs may have come from newspapers instead of digital feeds, but they don’t seem to have been isolated or at all provincial in their news. Now, I do realize that I am reading the letters of a college professor, not a guy out on the prairie tilling his fields, yet, I’m also reading the views of a single woman of a certain age living with her parents in the early 1930’s. I’m not sure we necessarily picture the Elsies of the day reading up on international affairs. I’d think Ladies Home Journal or True Romance might be closer to our stereotypes. But here in this letter, and in almost every letter to come, local events, the state of the nation, stories of world, all figure large. Even as they get to know each other better and the letters become a bit more passionate (And I promise they do…well, at least a little.) they always rest on a foundation of discussing the big world around them.

So I got some satisfaction from all the mentions of current events that I could use to put their lives in context, but I wonder how satisfied Elsie was with this letter. Sid certainly let her know that he had had a wonderful time during their visit, which must have felt very good, even if it was two weeks before he wrote. She was hooked enough to keep the letter, but still I wonder how she read the closing paragraph. It certainly is a long way from New Brunswick, NJ to Buffalo NY, but I don’t think anyone likes to hear they are inconvenient. No, Sid, I think you could have closed your letter a bit better.

So maybe this is why there isn’t another letter in the box from Sid until June.

* Want to read more about the Honolulu Affair? Check out this link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/hawaiis-scandalous-thalia-massie-trial-a7921741.html

** If he were alive today, Sid would be embracing all our technology and be intrigued by its implications. He was the one who splurged on an early hand held calculator for my mother’s birthday way back when calculators cost over a hundred dollars. He made our first IBM home computer in the early 1980’s possible, a fact which makes me smile even more now that I understand that it was his modest but prudent midcentury investments in companies including IBM, long before personal computing was even thought of, that made possible our family’s leap into the digital age.

April 15, 1932
Dear Elsie,
You must think I either took a long time to return to N.B. [New Brunswick, NJ] or had such an exciting trip that the account was not yet finished. After two weeks I should scarcely dare mention it except for the fact that we are again in the midst of winter weather (for us) like that of Easter. It seems that I selected almost the best day to return by bus, earlier in the week I should have run into heavy snows around Mansfield and a day later more snow. One of our men, a Canadian, returned from Toronto on Thurs. the same day I did. Of course he was three or four hours back of me. I had rain all the way, but in Buffalo he found snow which in Olean was so thick that driving was difficult. And at Mansfield in the evening there were 28 buses at one stand! However, I should not complain too much of Buffalo weather for here they had cool days and lots of rain. I skipped away for the last two week ends as a result the work piled up.
Really I didn’t mean to let any time elapse before writing you to tell you what a pleasure it was to be able to see so much of you during the short time I was in Buffalo. It made the trip more enjoyable and I didn’t care about the weather at all as long as it did not threaten to block the road into Buffalo. Unfortunately your efforts to improve my bridge have not availed much. Since coming home I have played a few times but twice it had to be auction because of other people, and the other times it was with people who just “played at”contract. Auction seems so very stupid after contract; in the latter no matter how poor the cards there is usually a fight and some interest. But I have finally located the L.H.J. And the Bid-o-Meter which I shall have to study assiduously. After that I may take to the books.
How did Herman find the island? I am curious about the ice. Didn’t your father give that contract to two men? I suppose H. found the whole island covered with ice, enough to last you for many seasons. About this time the Macs…? (only McCormick comes to mind as he is our college repair man) rub their hands together in anticipation of the summer business.
We continue to have a little local excitement here in connection with the Lindburgh case. That double-crossing was an unheard of thing, even among kidnappers. It looks as though some pretty tough customers have the child, or else some “nut” took him and others are taking advantage of L. Isn’t it funny how the Sino-Japanese war disappeared for good when L. became news? And I can picture the B. [Buffalo] papers spreading that Honolulu case over the front page now!
We are waiting for the N.J. Legislature to pass the appropriation bill that unless radical changes are made we shall continue the same as this year. Unusual perhaps, as right and left colleges are cutting staff or salaries. Last night we opened the pool in the new gym, but unfortunately most of the famous swimming stars failed to appear. This is the gym that was supposed to have been opened last fall.
I should like to be able to drop in to see you the week-end, Elsie, but I find that B. [Buffalo] is a little less convenient than Phila. Or N.Y. So thinking of you, I say good-night.
Sincerely, 
Sid