October 24, 1932 - Monday

After my one o’clock I went to Condon and studied Psych. Then came home and napped until dinner. In the evening George came over and we studied our Psych but we haven’t it cold!

George's letter home:

Dear Family,

The dance is over now, and it certainly was a success. First we went all over the campus in this big hayrick drawn by horses and picked up the girls. We all sang songs and laughed and shouted until the whole campus must have thought us crazy. Everyone was all dressed up in the silliest clothes they could find; some of the girls even came in shorts. Ann had her hair done up in two tight braids with a hair ribbon on each, and she wore a funny little smock and half socks. I had a big red wig, red whiskers, and a big red straw hat on my head, and then I had my face all grotesquely painted with red and black grease paint. I even put some black on one of my teeth to make it look absent. For the rest of my apparel, I had that old turtle neck sweater and a pair of ragged dairy overalls. Incidentally, I won the men’s prize for the best costume, which was a flannel NIGHT SHIRT made for A WOMAN.

Arrived at the Lodge, we all filed around to the cellar door and went into the cellar. It was just pitch dark there and we had to go through a tunnel and crawl over a lot of bails of hay. Finally we reached the basement stairs, and we climbed them and from there proceeded on up to the second floor by way of the back stairs (this all took place in the old Lodge). On the second floor, they had constructed a big steep slide on top of the stairway leading down to the main floor. Well amidst all the screaming of the gals, we all managed to get down that obstacle. It certainly was funny; the girls would come sailing down it and all the time the drummer would be making this funny grinding noise on his drum. The poor girls would hit the floor with a scream and a corresponding thump from the big base drum. Once inside, there were all kinds of things to greet us. Bails of hay all over, hay on the floor, pumpkins and cornstalks, old barrels and funny cartoons all over the wall paper. In the kitchen there was a baby calf tied on a rope in one corner, and maybe you think that he wasn’t in a terrible predicament with all the gals fussing around him. In the living room there was an old window seat by the fireplace, if you will remember. Well they had cut three holes in this and hung a sliding curtain front of it. Every time anyone pulled back the curtain to see what was behind it, lights would go on under the three holes and a big siren would start to roar. Well, the poor fems were just embarrassed to death. Ann wouldn’t even let me dance in there, because it made her blush – my, my. That is just about all for the dance, and I think that you will agree that it is enough.

As far as my agreement with Dad is concerned, I am having a tough time. I will not say that I haven’t smoked, because I have. That is probably the hardest place in the world to stop; all the boys around you smoke, all the girls that come over for dinner smoke, and when you have the habit, it is just darn hard to stop.  But I hope that you will forgive my apparent weakness, for I am really having a terrible struggle. I have only smoked about four and then I haven’t smoked them all. Just have faith in me, and I will come out on top of the situation yet. However, I would like the agreement removed, for it makes me feel like a criminal for the times that I have smoked. Thank you for the dollar, Dad, I certainly appreciate it.

This is the week for mid-term exams, and I have one for every day this week. That means that I will be pounding the books for sometime and nothing else. Tomorrow I have my Psychology quiz, and as Ann and I take it together, I am going down there to study it. I hope that I will have some good mid-term grades to send home to you.

I received my laundry and the shoe polish, and I thank you kindly for them. I am not sending the laundry home this week, because it did not come until Saturday afternoon. It would make it too late if I sent it now. Now here is something else that I need; some kind of good shampoo. No fooling, the condition of my scalp is getting serious. It itches all the time, and the dandruff just rolls off it.

Dad, here is all the information regarding Dad’s day. I have checked the kind of tickets for the game you will wish, and you will only have to get one – my student body ticket admits me free. Then we will want a ticket a piece for the banquet, too. I have also enclosed a program. I hope you can come, Dad; it would certainly please me to have you.

That is all for this time. Please excuse this typing and all that of the letters preceding it. My roommate’s typewriter is just about the most lousy on earth. I have to work like a demon to get the keys down. If he thinks that any roommate of mine can get away with that, he is mistaken. My roommate must have a good typewriter for me to use, that is all. My, My, such a tough guy, I have turned out to be.

Love, Brother

P.S. If you can’t decide what to get me for Christmas, I would like nothing better than a real nice photograph of both of my mother and my father – something that I have never had.

Jane’s Note: Dad continued to smoke. I remember his smoking in the car and then tossing the butt out of the window. I’d scold him because there were signs along the highway that said “Don’t throw out burning rubbish”.  Mom remembered when he was trying to stop he was always bumming cigarettes from his partners and when she’d call him on the phone she could here him exhaling the smoke so she knew he hadn’t quit, although he would not smoke at home. At one point he had a mild heart attack, probably because of his smoking. He told me that he finally was able to quit because it made him so mad that something like that could control him and he never liked to be out of control.