Boxes of Letters

January 21, 1942

I feel compelled to transcribe this letter since if you are viewing it on a computer it may be difficult.

Dear Leona,

I am writing you a square turn letter as you can see. This letter is wrote in military style. I hope you have no trouble reading this if you stand on your head. Well we are going air raid crazy in this town up at Keith we had to go to the cellar and lay down on the floor in Williamsburg the kids had to do this and Homer said many of them caught bad colds. This week and three days of next week we have to take junior Red Cross from 2 o’clock to 4 this does not agree with my work very well but I have to take this course as everybody does. I guess you know that Bud Broke his leg. I went up last night and stayed with him until 9:30 I left home at 8:00. Hi aunt Laura, that is Loyd’s mother, is very sick with pneumonia and is expected to die that is where Mr and Mrs Hornish were while I was with Bud they were glad that you got to go. Well I mailed your two packages to Pittsburg, I went down town on the bus I had four packages all together to mail, one to Al, one to Hites and the other two to you. Mr and Mrs Mangus are going to Florida Bill says about the last of the month. On Sunday we went to Grandma’s and Grandmoter’s on the way home we went to Charles his boys were very lucky, Leo is in Fort Wayne, Indiana and he sent the boys his bike home for Christmas. It is in good shape.

From Flicker

Two different stories. These guys had signed up for the military and we weren’t officially at war yet.

The stamp was likely torn for whomever was stamp collecting. Mom worked as a nanny for a year or so after high school. She worked for the Leighton family in Long Island, New York. From the contents my best guess is middle of 1941. (no mention of war).

The first on reads: Dear Leona and all, Well Al don’t have anything on me now. Here at Moffett Field I share a tent with 5 other fellows and eat at the mess hall. We got two more shots today. We got an 8 hour pass so I came to San Francisco. Love, Clyde.

By Elva Leona Schadle 1935

Thought it best to insert this here since I’m not sure when it was written, but I’m sure this is the era it was about.

Leona graduated High school in 1939 from Altoona High School in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Their class of 1939 had 1,157 graduates.

It’s quite likely she hated this photo. I have never seen it before. She’s the first on the left.

The draft was a way of life back then. Our younger generations of the last 50 years have lost the significance of knowing that unless you were a girl or physically challenged, it was likely you’d be drafted.

Good day. For 25 years I have been the keeper of the boxes of letters my mother held onto throughout her life. Realizing we are at a crossroads and rapid declining use of personal United States Postal Service letters and postcards, I appreciate the significance of this rich family history and the quality and substance that these letters wove to tell the story I am excited to reveal. I hope you find these forthcoming pages interesting. Thank you for visiting.

My mother, Elva Leona Schadle was born in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania on November 30, 1920.

Last year during our lockdown, I began to catalog and file the letters chronologically by year. Some years have very fat files. As I open each year, I will then sort and file the months and days of each file in turn. I will be documenting each letter and uploading to this website as I scan and comment.