On returning from the Great War, Walter resumed his previous job with the US Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Entomology. His salary was $1,800 per year, which is equal to $22,913 in today’s dollars. As before, his work consisted of investigating various insect problems in the Southwest and developing solutions for them. He continued to correspond with some of his old Army buddies, but otherwise focused entirely on his work.
March 21, 1919
Meanwhile, Ina finished an Associate’s degree at a local college, paying her way with a Spanish language scholarship. She then took a job in the tax collector’s office in Uvalde, TX, a small town west of San Antonio. She was a popular young lady, and by the age of twenty-five she had rejected twelve marriage proposals.
In an email, my uncle has provided some additional details about one of Ina’s other suitors:
Sometime Ina told me that she commuted with a man who wanted to marry her. He drove a Model T Ford and put a new word up on the visor each day to build up his vocabulary. I think that might have been when she learned how to drive. She sent in money but didn’t take a driver’s test. I believe she was eligible to get a new license every time they moved, so she did not take a driver’s test until she was 80 or so when Tom took her to get a driver’s exam in Maryland.