Last heard from, Sid was planning his trip to spend the holidays with his family in Buffalo – and to spend time with Elsie. So I wasn’t surprised to find a festive Christmas card (shown above) in the next envelope in the box. What was a surprise was what was on the inside:

Who the heck was CMF “Pete”??? And why was his card put away in the box that contained all of Sid’s letters? At first I thought it might have been some private thing between Elsie and Sid, but when I checked the handwriting on the envelope, it was not Sid’s writing. Was someone else making a play for our girl Elsie? It was sent just before Christmas from Buffalo, so “Pete” was a local man. Clearly he meant something to Elsie since she kept the letter – the only letter so far from anyone else to be kept in this box. Could it be Elsie was tired of waiting for Sid’s letters? How did their visit over the holiday’s go?

With some trepidation I moved on to the next letter…

And nothing…nothing had changed. Sid hadn’t responded to Elsie’s letter in ages, and sent his apologies as usual. He wished he was sitting talking with her instead of writing. His conversation moves from family and the weather to the usual political analysis. And again his take on the world situation in 1933 rings eerily true to ours in 2020, worth a read if only for those parallels – “All we can say is we are living in most interesting times – critical days ahead…”

But what is Elsie thinking at this point? Is she up in Buffalo, heading to the movies with “Pete”? Or did she have a good time with Sid over the holidays and has she set her heart on him? If only we could read her letters, but so far Sid hasn’t seen fit to save them. (Or perhaps, we will give Sid the benefit of the doubt and say those letters simply didn’t make it through the years to tell their tales.) But there is one little clue in the closing of Sid’s letter that makes me think that perhaps the holidays were a success. In an odd little question, Sid reveals that perhaps the two had spent New Years Eve together, an evening that one usually chooses to spend with those they love…

“Did the herring work?”*

* The old-world tradition says eating herring at the stroke of midnight will bring prosperity in the new year.

February 6, 1933

Dear Elsie,
Again up to my old trick of not keeping on my toes when it comes to letter writing. Such a long interval! Here we are in the second term, the exams over, and forgotten by some, and I was not able to get to Buffalo for a visit that I thought might have been possible with a favorable arrangement of exams. An exam here and there is the 10 day period does spoil things, but I suppose it was just as well for I was able to get in some preparation for this term. But as a little punishment I got a mean cold which is about gone now. I would much prefer sitting with you, and telling you about things than writing, but as long as we are not near neighbors we shall have to do it this way.
I fear my brother in New York considers me a distant relation for I see him so seldom. Now, however, I can joke about it as I have just returned from a week-end with them. What a time I picked! When I went to bed on Fri. night the moon was out and the ground clean as it has been all of January; when I rose in the morning there was a foot of snow on the ground. But already it is melting and soon it will be gone. One storm I escaped going to Buffalo at Christmas so I haven’t had much of a winter. In an athletic store I visited they were doing a rushing business in skis. None have been sold before now. Have you ever tried this sport? Where I have lived there has never been enough snow so I have really never seen them used. In Ottawa this summer a young chap who showed us around the town said skiing was the most popular winter sport, thousands indulged in it. Letters from home say that even B[uffalo] has had no snow in January. What is the old town coming to? Saving it up for Easter, I guess, like last year?
Are you becoming reconciled to our friend Roosevelt? Certainly he is doing nothing to endear himself to Hoover supporters as he persistently refuses to indulge in the governmental work before the inauguration. He is going to be sure that the Democrats receive credit for everything they do. It is an absurd situation to really have no government for so many months. My L.S.D. Lectures feel sure that Roosevelt will lead us more and more toward Fascism, a dictoral system of government. If we are to retain the old capitalistic system, undoubtedly a capable dictator could do more than is done at the present by so many meddlers in the govt. But as things get worse and worse, and unemployment increases, the people may finally blow the lid off. Roosevelt will probably suggest some system of raising prices by decreasing production just when we are learning how to produce in quantity. To produce less food when people are starving sounds very illogical.
All we can say is we live in most interesting times – critical days are ahead, war threatens abroad and rages in the Far East. What will happen? It can always be said that everything will come out right in the end. Even the dark ages gave way to the enlightened days of the Renaissance, and then the prosperity of our own day – but at what cost and hardship and suffering to the generations involved in the change. Today we can go in that way, but the more intelligent manner is some sort of planning and cooperation to avoid wars & muddled economy etc. Let’s hope this administration can do something.
Quite different from all this is a delightful experience I had just recently in New York – an evening at the Piccolo, an Italian marionette company. I had never seen any & enjoyed them tremendously. We all marveled at the way these little wooden dolls mimicked the antics of humans. I should like to see how they are controlled; there must be at least 10 strings attached to each one. Perhaps you read about them in a recent number of the Literary Digest? But with you I can’t go to things like that in Buffalo when you have only movies when I am there.
Are you well? Did the herring work?
And so good night – with last thoughts of you Elsie.
Sid