Dearest Ann,
Your grand letter of April 26th came in the mail
yesterday via Los Angeles. In reading it and receiving your thanks in advance
for the diploma you are about to receive, I was reminded that I have sent you
no graduation present or even a proper letter of congratulations and best
wishes. I did, about a month ago, write you a sort of pre graduation letter
conveying to you our joy and pleasure in your college career and wishing you a
very satisfying and happy commencement.
No for your graduation present from me you will have to
accept the presence of Mama and June in Eugene for the grand event and I am
sure they will select something material that is appropriate and that you can
accept a coming from all of us.
Your tears during your last initiation were proof of the
grand time you have had in college and your reall appreciation of the life you
have lived during the last four years. Reading your letter brought to mind
those years in nineties at Emporia Kansas when the days were filled with glory
and the nights with joyous adventure, the town was full of wonderful young
friends and companions, each meal at the old students mess was a banquet graced
by the presence of the most wonderful young men and women in the world and I
would not have exchanged my lot with anyone in this big, wide, wonderful world.
Toward the end of my senior year the exquisite joy of life was so blended with
the sadness of contemplating the end of it all that I lived in a haze of
alternating exaltation and depression. I was sustained however through this
period of emotional crisis by the thrilling adventure awaiting my graduation, a
trip across the Rockies to the fabled wonderland of California, then across the
mighty Pacific, discovered by Balboa and conquered by Magellan, to the romance
of old Manila, the tropics and the orient.
Having traveled the shining highway myself I know and
appreciate the life you are living now as I write these lines to you. Your
capacity to enjoy every moment of the passing days has reached a climax and the
glory of that climax is reflected in my heart half way around the world.
Your diploma, Ann darling, is a grand thing to achieve but
the associations you have found, the friends you have made, the character you
have molded, the life you have lived during the last four years are exceedingly
grander things. For the rest of your life you will find that they are among
your principal assets and the memory of these years will ever be one of your
keenest pleasures.
Of course, my dear, I know that I am “telling you” what you
already know and understand but I am sure you don’t mind my telling you. As
Mama has taught me, what is the use of having fine thoughts about you if I don’t
share them with you.
I love you!
Pop
George's letter home:
Dear Family,
My last examination will be at ten o’clock, Friday morning, June 9, 1933. Anytime after that is alright for me to come home. Ann does not graduate until Monday, June 12, 1933. I am not going to stay over for her little affair, however for the Chi Psi picnic will come off on that day. I should be at the picnic and then too, the little soldier boy must be in Vancouver the very next day (June 13, 1922).
As far as present for Ann is concerned, I have not thought that far ahead yet. Presents don’t seem to come into my life very enthusiastically when it is my turn to buy them. It is not that I do not like to give, but that I have not the gold with which to do it with. I have a Chi Psi sweetheart badge on its way, and that can very well serve for a graduation present and more too. I will pick out some nice romantic evening in a canoe and present it to her. That stuff is all poppy cock to me, but the feminine heart seems to revel in such things.
This evening we were going to the inter fraternity council dance, tomorrow I shall study most of the day, and Sunday, we shall go to the Scabbard and Blade picnic.
Ann and I opened the hope chest that her mother brought back to us (she says us now), and it is the most beautiful thing imaginable. It is made of camphor wood, and it is all hand carved. The carving depicts some scene from oriental religion. It is really a magnificent thing. I watched them unwrap going away presents one whole evening, and they certainly fared well. I guess it was very hard to pull away from friends of a lifetime.
Today is the first nice one that we have had for a long time. The sun is shining for all it is worth, and the old rain seems to be lost forever. I hope it is. I should certainly like to have a little fun out of doors this term before leaving.
Just keep the yard going a little longer and I will be home to take care of it.
Love,
Brother
Note to reader: The chest George describes is the chest I have inherited containing all these letters and diaries.
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