I sometimes buy letters on eBay. I love having these collections of letters and sometimes sift through them for little glimpses of the past.
Every now and then I will run across one that is very dramatic, sad, sometimes alarming. But for the most part they are quite ordinary. But don’t confuse ordinary with uninteresting. Quite the opposite. These are lovely, charming letters that are small windows we can peer through, flashbacks to another time and place.
I read one recently that I wanted to share with you. I want you to see this one because it shows how, over time, what you might consider boring or plain becomes something completely different. This letter, while quite ordinary, is full of delightful moments — a description of an old train ride complete with confused porters, the first moment of trying Chinese tea, images of boats on the Hudson River and all the while a description of the man himself seated on a bouncing train, malfunctioning pen in hand, struggling to get to the end of the letter before the train pulled into the station.
When faced with the challenge of a blank piece of paper, fear it not. Take your pen in hand and strike at the great expanse of whiteness until it is filled with written images of you and where you are.
And now peek through this window to 1947 and see John sitting on a train. The shade is up on the window and as he begins to write you see him consternated because his pen has run out of ink…
Somewhere on the way…
Sept. 22, 1947
Dear Mom & Dad,
This is the first chance I have had to write to you. I hope you are all fine. The change in ink is because my pen just ran out of ink and I am writing with Junie’s. Please excuse the writing as the train vibrates quite frequently.
We have had a marvelous trip so far. The train from Springfield was good, but it was pretty late. I saw the Hudson River on my way to Chicago. I expected a much wider river, but it must have been pretty deep as tugboats and barges were moving up and down it. The rest of the way to Chicago was uneventful.
We made Chicago around one o’clock and it looked like rain. So we found a hotel and went to sleep. After sleeping about eleven hours we checked out. It must have rained for quite a while because the streets were flowing with water. It was still raining then, as we had about twelve hours left we went to this famous sea food house for dinner. Boy were we hungry, and they did serve up enough and more to gorge us. After that we decided to see the Lincoln Park Zoo as it was enclosed. While at the zoo it stopped raining finally. When I have more time and a smoother desk, I shall write about the animals we saw.
After leaving the zoo we went to the theatre district and saw a show. Then we had another meal as we were quite hungry. We ate in a Chinese restaurant. We had a Chinese family meal for three, and I doubt if five could have eaten everything. And for the first time in my life I drank tea as that was all they served. It was pretty good, too. They do not serve milk with their tea, just sugar. Well, anyhow it was a delicious meal.
We arrived at the railroad station a half hour early. They told where our train was, so we walked out to it. The porter told us it was our train so we piled on. After we pulled out the conductor tells us we are on the wrong train, but that it still goes to St. Paul. What a break! You see we got on the Great Northern train instead of the Northern Pacific train. It was really the porter’s fault as there were seven of us on it. So they held the train in St. Paul for us. Boy Lady Luck was riding with us.
Well we just pulled into Fargo, North Dakota. I can’t mail this now, but I will as soon as possible.
See you at Christmas, I hope!
Your son
John
Photo credit: Andy Beal
Tags: ordinary letter, writing
