Sunday Night
My dear Sweetheart,
I am at the PO now. Received some wonderful news and I managed to get this stationery to tell you about it. Bish sent a blank along which is to accompany his recommendation for me for the grade of Senior Entomologist at $4600 per annum. Can you feature such a jump. I expected a pretty good one but I did not anticipate this much. I am jumping the whole grade of Entomologist $3800 to $4500. This is an increase of $75 per month – Whoopee! I’ve pinched myself to see if I am awake. I’ve tried to figure if there are any loop holes. I guess not for he undoubtedly knows that he can get it through as he would not try in writing without this assurance. Bish is all right.
May 25, 1930 (PM)
With love and lots of it,
Walter.
Please be careful about mentioning it. You know how such news reacts on others in the service & even those out of the service. Tell the immediate family if you like but ask them to not mention it outside. I don’t believe I’d tell the figures to any except Daddy & Mother Lewis & Claudelle. Don’t tell Walter White even.
$4,600 in 1930 equals a little over $63,000 in 2012. Walter White is their first son, who was less than a year old at this point.
I Googled the address on the envelope just to see where Ina was living (237 West Calera Street, Uvalde, TX) at the time. There’s a large tree, perhaps a live oak, squarely in the middle of the street. I remember that spot from a visit to relatives many years ago. My cousin Judy explained the oddity with, “When you get a tree to grow anywhere down here, you don’t cut it down for anything.”