Katheryn Clary: Mar 23, 1922 Chicago

Dear Friends,
How was your weekend? Mine was good. I hung out with my youngest daughter looking at wedding dresses. She is getting married next year. She did find one she likes but wants to check out a few more before she makes her final choose.
Here is the next letter from Kathryn. The envelope was post marked Mar 23 1922 but on the letter she has written February 22, 1922. The question is, did she write the month on the letter or did it take her that long to get it in the mail?

 Being written in pencil it is very faded or it was written lightly to begin with. Here is what it says:

                    February 22, 1922
Dear Howard
             Received your
welcome letter & was very glad
to hear from you. So Elmer is a
bad boy eh? Well you tell him
that I am quite surprised, So you
get moonshine out there. Well
you know there is "No place
like home."???  He is going
back to his "Moonshine girl"
because he loves her "Still". Har!
Har! Tell Elmer that I will
 write to him but he should
not write such "mushy" letters
as I don't care about reading
                   2
that kind. I never see Theresa
that is we don't pal around
together any more, a slight
misunderstanding. Too bad we
drink ( but we don't). Some
people are so dumb they
think "South Bend (Ind) is an
exercise. Some" Jake" eh? How
is your mother, Tom & your Dad
oh & of course "yourself"? Give
them all my love. I had my
pictures taken Saturday but they
are not very good.Maybe I
will send you one. So you
don't associate with the wild
women in town well I
             III
I don't blame you as I
think they are rather dis-
gusting. When is Elmer coming
out here? Why he would get
lost. He might think he is
wild down there but wait
until he gets here. Is that
a wolf you have in the
picture? have you many
shows & places to dance down
there? Is is cold up there, it's
nice & warm here. I like the
winter because there are more
dances. Send me some of
the pictures of the girls
& Elmer & you.
Will you?

I would love to see some
of them. Well I guess I'd
better close now & get to
work. You know I'm
a switchboard operator
& I'm rather busy.
     Write real soon.
      Your friend
       Kathryn

Reading this letter it makes you wonder if she really liked Elmer. I wonder if they ever got a chance to really hang out.
As for the moonshine thing, well there is a good chance Grandpa did dabble in it, maybe.


This is just a picture I found on the internet not from anyone I know of.

She wanted pictures of girls that Grandpa and Elmer hung out with. I'm including one of the girls.

There should be letters from her later on, I think.

Now here are a couple of other random pictures I choose for you you to see.

I'm not sure who they are or even why they are all standing on the ladder.

This could be Grandpa out standing in his field.

I know corny joke. But she started it with her still joke and all of her silliness.

I guess it looks like her and Theresa's friendship might finally be over. To me they went in different directions as they got older. It happens. But it's history that I will never know what happened exactly. It has faded away forever.
Well I guess that's all I have time for now. I hope you enjoyed this brief look in to a fading history.
So till next time.
Your friend,
Sandy

Theresa Lambert; March 20, 1920 Chicago

Dear Friends,
 I hope you had a good weekend. It was actually kind of warmish around here. Still too much snow on the ground but it is slowly going down. I guess it's best to melt slow then too fast.
Anyway here is the next letter from Theresa.

 As always here is what it says. I do this even if it is easily read because it helps me get into  the letter more and I think I'm able to do some better research if there is any thing to look up.

Dear Howard;
I received your letter yesterday also
your money order. Thanks ever so much for
it I never expected it from either of you.
Adline and Katheryn gave me very nice presents
Did you know that my mother is Hayward now?
Well she is believe me I miss her. it's
no joke getting up at six and making your
fathers and your own breakfast when your
used to getting up at seven and running off
to work. I went to another dance Saturday
and had a glorious time. Charlotte and I
are going to a Mosonic dance this month.
Oh boy thats some crowd that goes up to
those dances. It was so nice and warm here
 a few days ago but of course it was to good

to last. I was thinking of casting aside
my fur coat and putting on all spring
clothes when all of a sudden it snowed.
Oh did I say some Sunday school words though.
Some of the girls were talking of swimming
and every thing. Can you swim? I swim
just like a rock. Ha Ha!. Did you read
about Ruth Randall a Chicago girl, killing
a married man and then herself? Well thats
all thats been in the papers for the last
week. She had a diary and the Herald and
Examiner, thats a Chicago paper, has been
publishing it. for the benefit of the Chicago
girls. Her mother is sueing the paper for
publishing it because it is private property
She is right in a way and again she is not.

Say tell Elmer that he can write to me
if he wants to. I hope your mother and
father are well and feeling fine. We
had such a big blizzard today that it
makes me feel all worn out. Well I
guess I will close now hoping you will
 answer soon. Thanks again for the very
nice present you sent me. Thank Tom for
me. Give my love to your mother and
father.
Your friend,
Theresa

It looks like Grandpa sent her something for her birthday. If it was a money order I wonder how much he sent to her.
I looked up Mosonic Dance. It's just a dance at I think at a Masonic hall or something like that. It could be a very happening kind of place to be, so to speak.

As for Ruth Randall,
 
She was a pretty divorcee and a former artist model who was found dead in bed with the body of Clifford Bleyer, a wealthy advertising man. She killed him, then herself.
Ruth was dissatisfied with her husband and with routine work in a department store. She found no romance in either of them. She took a series of lovers and fearing the last one would leave her, she killed him and then herself.
She didn't want children and had an abortion. She chafed at the traditional womanly role of submission expected by her husband. "Why cannot a woman do all a man does?" she complained. She drank, flirted and had sex freely with other men.
But her various lovers disappointed her as much as her husband by lack of companionship and tenderness. She often thought of suicide and in her disillusion noted, "I am miserable. I have the utmost contempt for myself. But the lake is near and soon it will be warm. Oh God, to rest in your arms. To rest and to have peace."
She sounded like she was very unhappy with the way things were for woman back then.
Clifford Bleyer had a wife and two children.

Both girls have mentioned an Elmer. I'm still not sure who he is but I did find a picture with him in it. One of a few picture that have writing on the back.

  The names on the back are; Gotfred Weberg and Elmer Johnson, in that order. Which tells me Elmer in on the right.

Now for some random pictures.

This is Clarence Lunstrom.

 No idea who any of these people are.

Same here. This was taken at Feiker's Studio, in Birnamwood, Wisconsin.

Well that's about all I have for now, so I will close for now.
Your friend,
Sandy