Letter to Alma from her friend Margaret Laing: 8/26/1928
Full size image is below.
A letter to Alma, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, from her old friend Margaret, in Chicago, Illinois, with some fun details about Alma
1928-08-26: ~TOUR STOPS~---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
This page is not a currently a stop in any Tour. But it's still worth your attention!
1928-08-26: tour stops---~IMAGES~---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
Front of the envelopeImage #1 of four for this letterScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Back of the envelopeImage #2 of four for this letterScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Left:Page 2------Right:Page 1Image #3 of four for this letterScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 3Image #4 of four for this letterScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
1928-08-26: tour stops---images---~AUDIO~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
1928-08-26: tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Sunday, Chicago
Dear Alma -
Just a line to beg you not to get a divorce because we have not started yet. It's that beastly furniture but I'm sure it will be finished in a day or two.
I walked over by the University this morning and discovered it was convocation Sunday and the candidates were all wandering about in their gowns. It made me smile to think of the long dresses we were wearing on the campus in our day. Aren't the modern clothes wonderful? I can dress in two minutes and bathe and dress in - well, we'll have a race when I get there because you could always dress like lightning. I do hope you are feeling better since your tonsils were out. It's horrid to feel woozy and lazy. I did for a long time but now I can move mountains, only I can't seem to get started on a trip can? Forgive me and keep on loving me -
Affectionately
Margaret
Dear Alma -
Just a line to beg you not to get a divorce because we have not started yet. It's that beastly furniture but I'm sure it will be finished in a day or two.
I walked over by the University this morning and discovered it was convocation Sunday and the candidates were all wandering about in their gowns. It made me smile to think of the long dresses we were wearing on the campus in our day. Aren't the modern clothes wonderful? I can dress in two minutes and bathe and dress in - well, we'll have a race when I get there because you could always dress like lightning. I do hope you are feeling better since your tonsils were out. It's horrid to feel woozy and lazy. I did for a long time but now I can move mountains, only I can't seem to get started on a trip can? Forgive me and keep on loving me -
Affectionately
Margaret
1928-08-26: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
Margaret Laing was - obviously - a friend of Alma's, apparently from Alma's days at the University of Chicago. I haven't got her pigeonholed in any of the non-family pages on this website. She went to France in World War I and worked in a canteen, and from there sent lots of letters to Alma, which I am hopng to upload someday.
2.
Sunday, Chicago
The postmark is for August 27, 1928, which was a Monday, so I figure the letter was written on the 26th.
3.
Just a line to beg you not to get a divorce because we have not started yet.
No, I don't think that Alma was married to Margaret. Just a way of talking - assuming that I am reading Margaret's handwriting correctly. And who is the "we"?
4.
I walked over by the University this morning and discovered it was convocation Sunday and the candidates were all wandering about in their gowns. It made me smile to think of the long dresses we were wearing on the campus in our day.
Googling suggests to me that the University of Chicago's convocation Sunday is usually held in June, which makes more sense to me, so why would they have held it in August in 1928? Conceivably this letter is in the wrong envelope. But Margaret was apparently talking about visiting Alma at Fernbank, and I don't see her mentioned in either of the 1928 Fernbank Newses - July 1 and August 6 - so it seems likely that August 26th is the correct date for this letter...but I don't understand.
5.
I can dress in two minutes and bathe and dress in - well, we'll have a race when I get there because you could always dress like lightning.
It's always fun to get a detail like this, and doesn't it sound like Alma!
6.
I do hope you are feeling better since your tonsils were out.
Ooh, interesting. As usual, I'm hoping to find out more. I wonder if this was the reason that Alma went to stay with Ellen Hinsdale for a while - see:
Margaret Laing was - obviously - a friend of Alma's, apparently from Alma's days at the University of Chicago. I haven't got her pigeonholed in any of the non-family pages on this website. She went to France in World War I and worked in a canteen, and from there sent lots of letters to Alma, which I am hopng to upload someday.
2.
Sunday, Chicago
The postmark is for August 27, 1928, which was a Monday, so I figure the letter was written on the 26th.
3.
Just a line to beg you not to get a divorce because we have not started yet.
No, I don't think that Alma was married to Margaret. Just a way of talking - assuming that I am reading Margaret's handwriting correctly. And who is the "we"?
4.
I walked over by the University this morning and discovered it was convocation Sunday and the candidates were all wandering about in their gowns. It made me smile to think of the long dresses we were wearing on the campus in our day.
Googling suggests to me that the University of Chicago's convocation Sunday is usually held in June, which makes more sense to me, so why would they have held it in August in 1928? Conceivably this letter is in the wrong envelope. But Margaret was apparently talking about visiting Alma at Fernbank, and I don't see her mentioned in either of the 1928 Fernbank Newses - July 1 and August 6 - so it seems likely that August 26th is the correct date for this letter...but I don't understand.
5.
I can dress in two minutes and bathe and dress in - well, we'll have a race when I get there because you could always dress like lightning.
It's always fun to get a detail like this, and doesn't it sound like Alma!
6.
I do hope you are feeling better since your tonsils were out.
Ooh, interesting. As usual, I'm hoping to find out more. I wonder if this was the reason that Alma went to stay with Ellen Hinsdale for a while - see:
1928-08-26: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---~LINKS~---site navigation
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
OTHER DOCUMENT LISTS:
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- Illinois
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY SOURCE ----- Barbara
- AUDIO READINGS OF THE DOCUMENTS: 1920-1929
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
1928-08-26: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---~SITE NAVIGATION~-
WHERE AM I?
WHAT ARE THE PREVIOUS PAGE AND THE NEXT PAGE?