Tuesday Nite
Nov. 10, 1925.
My dearest Sweetheart:
No letter today, and I didn’t intend writing tonight until I realized that it was six months ago (just think, a half year) tonight that we became engaged.
November 10, 1925
I just wanted to let you know I remembered the day and that I am thinking of you, and, above all, that I love you.
Always, your
Ina.
Monday Night.
Aug. 10, 1925.
My dearest Walter:
I was sorry today when I read in your Thursday’s letter that another day had passed and you had not heard from me. The trouble must be in the office of Dr. K.S. as I have written you every day since you left with the exception of the Sunday we went to Hondo. It is true that I don’t always get it off on the first train, and I sometimes mail two letters in one, but I don’t see how you could miss two days in succession except through delay in the office. At any rate, when you don’t get a letter, just rest assured that there is at least one somewhere in transit that you will soon receive and that I still love you better than anyone and am thinking of you.
August 10, 1925 (Ina)
Tonight is our “anniversary night” – just three months since we became engaged, and it seems like you have been gone longer than that. My, but I have been happier these three months than I have ever been before – just to know that you love me and I love you and that each day brings the time nearer when we shall start out life together. Sweetheart, I would give so much if you could be here tonight and we could enjoy the evening as much as we did that memorable 10th of May evening. We could really enjoy it even more now because we know each other better and really love more deeply than we did then.
I spent the day with Thelma today and we enjoyed it so much. I asked Thelma Lee and Retha what message they would like to send to you and they both said to tell you to come to see us sometime. That is nearly always the message they want me to give you. Perhaps you will consider coming sometime?
Walter, I have just received a letter from Lionel Womack, a young man from Bisbee, Arizona who lived in Uvalde for about two years, but who left here about two years ago for his home in Arizona. I went with him for about six months during which time he fell in love, proposed and I refused. Shortly after we broke up was when he returned to Arizona. I hadn’t heard from him in almost a year until last December he wrote me a letter telling me that he was engaged. I answered only with a Christmas card across the face of which I wrote “Congratulations.” I suppose I have never mentioned him to you as I supposed he was already married. Imagine my surprise today when I received a long letter from him in which he told me that he and his fiancee had already broken up, as he found she was not the kind of girl he thought she was. Also, he said he was coming to Texas in about sixty days and was very anxious to come to see me. He writes as though he feels the same toward me as he did when we were going together, but, Sweetheart, don’t worry one moment about it. I am going to write him the exact situation as it is – our engagement etc. and I don’t think he will even want to come under those circumstances. And, even if you and I were not engaged, and if Lionel were to come and stay until “Doom’s Day,” I couldn’t love him. I made up my mind to that effect a long time ago. He is a good friend but not the kind I could love. Now, you won’t worry about it, will you? I am writing you this because if I were with you I would tell you and I am sure you would do the same by me if you had a similar occasion.
I love you worlds and worlds, Dear, and, as far as I am concerned, no one is going to come between us.
Always
Your
Ina.
Anniversary Nite
July 10, 1925.
My dearest Walter:
Just two months ago tonight! And I have been so happy ever since. I shall never forget what a queer feeling I had when I said “yes.” I didn’t realize then just why I said it except I just felt like I simply couldn’t help it. I felt like I couldn’t be happy without you, and sure enough I don’t believe I could. Life has been such wonderful happiness since then that I often wonder if I had been truly happy before. I always have enjoyed life but had never before enjoyed such true happiness and contentment. I do hope you feel that way some too. At any rate, the tenth of every month, especially May, is going to be a red letter day in my calendar of life.
July 10, 1925 (Ina)
I am sure this has been a busy day for you. I have thought of you so many many times and hoped that you were enjoying your work. I imagine Dr. K.S. has been unloading some of his surplus energy today. You mustn’t work off that flesh you gained while in Uvalde. I don’t want to look like your twin sister by the time you return this fall.
Have you had any refreshing showers since your arrival? Someone said that the thermometer registered 109ยบ yesterday here which sounds a little unreasonable to one who was not present, but if it was 109 yesterday, it must have been at least 112 today. About 6:30 this evening Mama, Papa, Claudelle and Lucile Johnson and I went to the Milow swimming hole about nine miles from town and enjoyed a most delightful swim. The water was deep and as clear as a crystal, so you can imagine how much refreshed we felt after a most melting day at home. To make it even more pleasant, a nice shower came up and cooled everything off so nicely that it seems perfectly reasonable that a blanket should be comfortable before morning. We got out of the river soon after the rain started for fear we would get wet. Lucile J. said to give you her regards.
Walter, I wish you could be here tonight. You have no idea how lonesome that poor porch swing looks out there in the cool breezes all by itself. I haven’t the courage to try entertaining it alone, but if you were here, I am sure you could make the evening much more pleasant for both the porch swing and myself. Or shall I go tell it to wait a few months? Perhaps that is the most reasonable thing to do.
The coyotes must realize the importance of the day because they are competing with the little screech owl in commemorating it. They first have a heated discussion as to what they shall sing, then they peal forth with a song well calculated to raise the dead.
It is getting late now, so I must lay my “weary”? head to rest.
I love you oh so much.
Always
Your devoted
Ina.
Saturday Nite
July 11, 1925
Dearest Walter:
This letter should have been mailed this afternoon but just as we began dressing to go down town it started to raining and it kept it up until dark – not much, but just enough to make us remember that way back in history on two or three occasions cars had been known to stick in the mud on the road between J.N. Lewis’s ranch and town. Perhaps you have a faint recollection of one or two such occasions. I am afraid tho that the romance would be lacking if just Claudelle and I happened to have such a misfortune. I enjoy thinking of yours and my Friday night experience with the rain, wind, hail and wrapping paper.
It gives me a lost feeling when I realize you can’t be with us tomorrow. Mama, Papa, Claudelle and all of us always enjoyed our Sundays with you so much. I am truly sorry you can’t be with us tomorrow and I am sure you will be too when I tell you that you wouldn’t have to eat pineapple cake this time. The truth of the business is that I am through with my pineapple cake stage in cooking and I have launched out on chocolate pie. I made two today and really would be glad if you could be here for the next few Sundays for the course in chocolate pies. However, your days are numbered and I am afraid you are going to have to endure my cakes, pies etc. for many many years to come, and, by the way, I surely do wish you could cultivate a taste for coffee because I really believe I can make a success of making it.
I wish you could be here to-morrow because the Willys-Knight is so nice and clean. I arose early this morning and gave it a bath (’tis Saturday you know) before breakfast. I think it would be nice to slip off after League and drive around during the church service. However, things being as they are, church time will find me piously seated up in the choir with my thoughts, in spite of the fact that I enjoy hearing Bro. Campbell preach, wandering across the country to a certain Bird in Jacksonville, Fla. in which I am especially interested.
I am very sorry that I couldn’t mail this letter today and am especially anxious to take a peep in Box 284 as I think I might have a letter there. It may be that it hasn’t had time to come, but I like to get it at the earliest possible moment after it arrives.
Goodnight and pleasant dreams.
I love you.
Ina.