Category Archives: Yegerlehner

The Book: Progress Report – August 16

This week in book land I feel like have accomplished a lot but I know I still have a small mountain to climb.

After reading some more of the tutorials on the book publishing site, I realized I needed to re-format my page size. I had been using a page size of 8 ½ x 11 (in Word), but the actual book pages are going to be 6 x 9. Once I adjusted the page size, my page count jumped from just over 400 pages to almost 800. Yikes! And I hadn’t even finished adding the letters for December or any of the appendixes. At that point, I decreased the font size from 13 point to 12 and the book still was over 700 pages. I went back to the CreateSpace website to try and find any information on suggested font sizes. Most books don’t inform the reader about font type or style so it was really hard for me to judge what size fonts are in a typical book. I finally found a “book template” on CreateSpace which used an 11 point font. I went back through my manuscript again and changed everything to 11 point. The book is now just over 600 pages, and will probably have a finished length of around 650.

I finished adding all the letters to the manuscript this week. Yay! I am now in the process of my “first edit.” I am going back through all the letters, checking typos, adding more footnotes, and deciding illustrations (photographs and documents). I am reformatting the letters back to their original indents and removing the page notations, for example “[page 1],” that I had on the blog. I feel that while they may have worked on the blog, in the book they didn’t. The letters flow better. My current plan is to go through this first edit stage and then print off a copy of the whole manuscript. From this copy I will do another round of editing as well as begin to build my index. Although I will have an opportunity to purchase a “proof” copy of the book before it goes on sale, I want to make sure that the book is ready before I upload it. I see a lot of editing in my future.

This week, I was back at my regular school site and I twisted the arm of one of my colleagues to be an editor for me. I gave her my first two chapters, the Introduction and Who Were Roscoe and Gladys?. Because she is not overly familiar with the ins and outs of my family, she is a great one for asking questions about things that don’t make sense in my narrative regarding my grandparents. Because I know the story so well, it is sometimes hard to remember that not everyone knows all the details. I’ve also started thinking about who I might want to include in my Acknowledgements page. Many people have encouraged me and supported me over the last (almost) two years.

Another major victory for myself this week…I FINALLY got Word to format two different page headers. The left page header has the book title Dear Mother, Love Daddy, while the right page header has the current chapter. I manged to do this while keeping the page numbering intact (at the page bottom) and having no page heading on the first page of the chapter. Of course, I have now probably cursed myself…..

This to do this week:

Continue first edit
Begin mini bios

Deborah Sweeney, © 2014.
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/16/the-book-progress-report-august-16/

Allotments (Roscoe)

1 Reply

: June 17, 1943 envelope

: June 17, 1943, p. 1

: June 17, 1943, p. 2

: June 17, 1943, p. 3

: June 17, 1943, p. 4

Letter transcription:

June 17, 1943
Lieut R. S. Yegerlehner USNR
Navy 60 F.P.O. S.F.C.

Dear Mother,

I was correct yesterday when I anticipated no mail would come and it didn’t, but we have had lots of mail-less days so we can’t feel too badly.

Day before yesterday I did all the big gardening and this A.M. I noticed the various seeds were peeping up thru the soil. They sure start fast and I’m afraid just keep growing to tops. Even at that the lettuce should be OK. I’ll report on that in a week or so.

A day or two ago I wrote

[page 2] that I thought I would change the allotment but I’ve “changed up” my mind for this reason. When I get back I’d probably have to change it again because of living conditions and I would have to have these stopped and that might mean a month for you without funds. So when I get paid and have any excess I’ll just send it to you and keep out of the red tape of having the allotment changed. You see two allotments are all that is allowed to any one person s I can’t add another without dropping one

[page 3] that is already in affect. Of course I can do nothing at all until I can get paid and I don’t see any progress in that line as yet. I do hope you have enough funds to go on and from the last word you gave me it seemed you were getting on OK, but with not much of a surpluss. I’m not scolding I’m worrying whether you can get along OK.

By the time you get this it will probably be 4^th of July. Just doesn’t seem possible but my calendar surely doesn’t tell “fibs.” Having had all this

[page 4] summer weather it gets one all twisted regarding time.

Just paused to remove my shirt. The hot sweaty feeling is relieved somewhat by being bare and also helps the heat rash I have on my left arm. That stuff really is a nuisance around here but never is serious.

I often see in the paper where Ed Barce was home of the week end. That must be tough duty and I suppose he hits the bottle as much as ever. Another thing that surprised me was Hilda and Amelia working – bet it doesn’t last.

Well, guess I’ve gossiped enough.

Love Daddy

Russell Islands
Image by Kelisi at Wikipedia.com (Wikipedia Commons license)

©2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/16//allotments-roscoe/

Gardening (Gladys)

1 Reply

: June 17, 1943 envelope

: June 17, 1943, p. 1

: June 17, 1943, p. 2

Letter transcription:

Kentland Ind
June 17 – 1943

Dear Daddy –

No letters today but rec’d 8 Mon. and two yesterday. The latest date was June 5. The 100⁰⁰ ck. finally came. The letter you mentioned of May 16 hasn’t come yet. It was supposed to get here in a hurry. I got a permanent this morning – and not before I needed it. I went to the shop where the Kent. Const. Co. used to be. The operator takes only one person at a time and is very good in her work. Quite a relief to get work done in a place like that after the waiting one usually has to do elsewhere. I think several people around town have changed shops for that reason.

This being Thurs. afternoon the stores are closed. That doesn’t make much difference to me because I never have time to go to town every day. I like to work in the yard after the sun isn’t so hot – I worked one side of the shrubbery in

[page 2] front of the house yesterday but the east side was still too wet – It has rained so much this week I couldn’t do much hoeing. Mark is with Mr. Zell planting potatoes this afternoon. When it gets a little cooler I am going out & cut off the spinach & plant something else – maybe sow carrots. Also pull the rest of the radishes for something else. The radishes are all going to seed.

I scanned the Democrat for news items but didn’t see anything I thought would interest you. John is out with the lawn mower doing some edges he missed yesterday. David is out in his buggy – should be going to sleep but isn’t. Mother is with him. Mother has been under the weather since the heat wave last week-end and I am having her take Bepron – in case you haven’t forgotten – it’s Beef liver & iron – I am taking it myself. I feel good but think it well to take something once in a while to keep in shape.

Had a letter from your Mother – The boys down there are about thru planting corn. I think they are up here now.

I must go out and see about David.

Love – Mother

© 2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/14/gardening-gladys/

Yen For Gardening (Roscoe)

1 Reply

: June 16, 1943 envelope

: June 16, 1943, p. 1

: June 16, 1943, p. 2

: June 16, 1943, p. 3

: June 16, 1943, p. 4

Letter transcription:

June 16, 1943
Lieut. R. S. Yegerlehner USNR
Navy 60 F.P.O. S.F.C.

Dear Mother,

Yesterday was the 5^th successive day that mail came from you, however, yesterday’s letter was dated May 10 – old but nevertheless still appreciated. I’m really afraid the mail has been so good that it is spoiling us very much and a week’s delay would seem years, but I guess there is no need anticipating delays.

I’d gotten so many seed and after the first experience my yen for gardening waned.

[page 2] but my conscience bothered me so yesterday I selected another spot – got some lime out of the supply for the lead and some sandy soil and went at the gardening with renewed zest. So at present I have lettuce, carrots, onion seeds and radishes sewed. If my present ambition holds I may do a little more this P.M. The soil here just isn’t like back in Indiana.

I take lots of ribbing about Indiana – mostly brought on by myself because of boasting

[page 3] for example one can always get an argument as to the quality of corn fed beef from Indiana vs. the grass fed, tough so called beef from Nevada. And in the end they generally remark – Just so much “corn” from Indiana. And also Kentland is a wide place between cornfields, all of which is in the spirit of fun.

I asked you once before about the last payment on my Hancock policy – Is it this June? That may have been in one of the letters that were still missing. And also about the amounts of Insurance loans

[page 4] on your policy as well as on mine. If we can cut out the 6% on those that will be a help. I don’t like to exclude bonds all together and if I can increase the allotment and also get some of my money out of hack, maybe we can do both, but that remains to be seen. I’ll repeat I’d like to get those things out of the way so it won’t be so hard when I do get back to practicing again –

Well that all for now

Lots of Love Daddy

Russell Islands
Image by Kelisi at Wikipedia.com (Wikipedia Commons license)

© 2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/14/yen-for-gardening-roscoe/

Dr. Matthews & Dr. Cole (Gladys)

1 Reply

: June 16, 1943 envelope

: June 16, 1943, p. 1

: June 16, 1943, p. 2

: June 16, 1943, p. 3

: June 16, 1943, p. 4

Letter transcription:

Kentland Ind
June 16 – 1943

Dear Daddy –

The 100⁰⁰ ck finally came – two letters May 12 & 13 came today. At that time you were not getting any mail but in the bunch of letters that came Mon. you had been getting some.

Mark and I went to Laf. with Arlene & Rosemary yesterday – I wanted to have Dr. C. look at Mark’s throat. He said it was in good shape – healed fine. I never saw Dr. C. look so haggard. He looked like he hadn’t had any sleep the night before. He always asks about you and usually talks some. Yesterday he did inquire about you but he didn’t say much else. He looked like he could

[page 2] hardly move.

Marie Steinbaugh is in the hospital for an operation on her breast. I suppose she had the same thing I had. However, it started paining very bad all at once and she went to see Dr. M. She said she wouldn’t go to any hospital but St. E. so Matthews sent her to Arnett. I think Dr. M. didn’t like it because I took Mark to Laf. for his tonsillectomy. I had been taking D. to Dr. M. for his shots. Its such a job to take a baby to Laf. and Dr. C. is so busy. However I went in & talked to Dr. M. about it and he said that it was perfectly alright for me to do that. I had to take D. in for his last shot last week and Dr. M. wasn’t very friendly – didn’t even ask about Mark – but this is the way I looked at the situation – I didn’t want to have it done in Matthews office because I would

[page 3] have to bring him home the first night and I didn’t want to do that. So if I offended I am sorry, because Dr. M. has been very nice to us. So much for that.

We had a session with the telephone co. this morning. The phone has been going blank while using it. So many times that has happened lately and this morning it wouldn’t even work. I sent John over to Zells to call in and it was supposed to be working. I made a call & while talking out it went – that time I went over to Zells and called in and asked them to please fix our phone. Then the service man got busy and at present it is in working order.

Now that the other check is here I will pay off the Ins. loan. I’ll have to write in and get the exact amount first, but that won’t take long.

Mark is building models this morning. We worked in the garden last nite and a good

[page 4] thing – It has rained so much the boys couldn’t do much weeding but yesterday evening it had dried off just enough so Mark and I got rid of a crop of weeds. Then last night it rained again so it’s too wet to do anything today. John should be mowing today, but he is waiting for the grass to dry some.

I saw Hilda Barce in Laf. yesterday. She said Ed isn’t in Kokomo now, but is on the move. Going from one recruiting station to another. Judge came Mon. and got the books you had, Ed had loaned you. He said he would bring them back.

Mother & David are out in the yard. He is getting sleepy. I just looked out and he is trying to climb over the side of the buggy.

It’s our chow time so must go see what we can collect together. I think I’ll have to use some meat stamp today – but we have plenty –

Love Mother

© 2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/13/dr-matthews-dr-cole-gladys/

New Tent Mate (Roscoe)

1 Reply

: June 15, 1943 envelope

: June 15, 1943, p. 1

: June 15, 1943, p. 2

: June 15, 1943, p. 3

: June 15, 1943, p. 4

Letter transcription:

Lieut R. S. Yegerlehner USNR
Navy 60 F.P.O. San Fran Calif.
June 15, 1943

Dear Mother,

I did get a stamp for yesterday’s letter and was able to buy one dollars’ worth from a fellow so I’m pretty well set for a time.

The package of seeds came yesterday and the picture but the picture was pretty badly wrinkled. I thought you had sent the seeds in a regular air mail but coming as they did explains the delay. I’m going to make another try at gardening to see if something will grow in an

[page 2] eatable form.

My new tent mate – Dr. Thompson got several issues of Colliers, Sat. Eve Post and Esquire so our reading material has increased. All my old tent mates are scattered and now this Dr. and one of the dentists that used to be in Noumea are in the same tent. Funny how thinks keep changing from day to day. Geo is still in camp but his duties required that he live elsewhere and of course we have the medics off to themselves so that they can’t cause any harm.

[page 3] Several issues of the Newton Co. E. came also so I had to do some scanning to see if anything had been missed in the letters you and other people had written. I noticed in one issue that my address was now A.P.O. 43 and I also noted that this one and that one had been home on leave which sounds god and would be better if it would apply to other people I know. Patience will accomplish those things in time so why fret now.

I wonder if you listened

[page 4] to the radio news. We listened to KWID and heard ourselves mentioned. Sounds funny and also makes one feel he is going his duty by being a part of the thing. Wonder if the boys are still keeping newspaper headlines.

The moon is getting bright again and it sure does make things look pretty – shining on the ocean thru the palm trees but we like the dark nights better.

Well, hope we get some more mail today but I have a feeling 4 days in succession is the limit.

Love Daddy

Russell Islands
Image by Kelisi at Wikipedia.com (Wikipedia Commons license)

© 2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/12/new-tent-mate-roscoe/

Such A Climber (Gladys)

1 Reply

Letter transcription:

MRS. R.S. YEGERLEHNER
KENTLAND
INDIANA
6-15-43

Dear Daddy –

No mail today – but 8 letters came yesterday – The $100⁰⁰ ck hasn’t come yet. The 150 & 32⁶⁰ came some time ago. It is a warm humid day – we are still having so much rain – It hasn’t rained yet today but we had hard rains Sun. & Mon. Mother is out in the yard with David. After he has his bath & 10 – feeding if the weather permits he goes out in his buggy. He is such a climber – stands up in his buggy & hold to the top. Dorothy is going to get some film for their movie camera & take some pictures of D. Floyd has taken him at 3 & 6 months. John is taking a piano lesson this morning. Mark and I are going to Laf. this afternoon with Arlene & Rosemary. I think Dr. C. should see Mark after his tonsillectomy and this is almost two weeks after. John is going to stay home and help take care of David. John baked an angel food cake yesterday. He is getting to be quite a baker. He does a good job – He is very exacting. Had a note from Aunt J. They got your letter of May – June 12. Uncle W. isn’t very well – they haven’t gone north yet but intend to. Glad you got the seed from your Mother. I sent mine some time before she sent – Maybe you will get them some time. It is getting late so I must get ready to go.

Love Mother

Beg, Borrow, or Steal (Roscoe)

1 Reply

: June 14, 1943 envelope

: June 14, 1943, p. 1

: June 14, 1943, p. 2

Letter transcription:

Lieut. R. S. Yegerlehner USNR
Navy 60
F.P.O. San Fran Calif.
June 14

Dear Mother,

Mail again yesterday – Yours of May 31 and June 1, also one from the folks of May 27. Seems as if we must have the mail carrier on our side but I still have my fingers crossed because I don’t believe it can last that way.

I’m completely out of stamps and unless I’ll be able to borrow one will have to send this free but I believe I can get one some how. It seems we were promised stamps but they just never arrived. I believe however in the next few days some will come thru.

Just stopped to re read the letters that came yesterday and I find there are no important questions to answer. From the pictures – as I remember I believe Mark was a little better looking than D. Don’t tell D. that, but of course pictures are not as reliable as the real thing.

Heard Jack Benny last night – came in about the same time it does at home on Sun. Eve. Of course it was a recording and Judy Garland was on and I believe it was Lawrence T. sang. It sounded like him but I didn’t hear the name mentioned.

Sent my laundry out early this A.M. and it should be coming back almost any time now and it looks as if it should be a pretty good day for drying. Didn’t send any sheets this week because

[page 2] the burden on the laundry seems to be pretty heavy and we were asked to cut down. One fellow had 7 shirts and 5 pair of pants last week. He must think he is some place where he ‘aint.’ Either very dirty or very clean I’d say.

The second uniform check should be drifting in before long I think it was May 13 when it was mailed and the other was a few days later.

I answered the Rotarian letter yesterday – Just another letter I couldn’t think of anything of interest to write so just put a few word together to show them I appreciated their letters. I suppose they will read it at their next meeting after receiving it.

A letter came from Barry the Mass. Salesman and that was the second but I didn’t answer the first because it came just at our moving time. I don’t like to use too much stationary etc in writing to people like that and after all it is a burden to write so many with so little which is writable.

Well I must get out and try to beg, borrow or steal some stamps –

Lots of Love Daddy

Russell Islands
Image by Kelisi at Wikipedia.com (Wikipedia Commons license)

The Book: Progress Report – August 9, 2014

10 Replies

Since last week I feel like I have done a huge amount of work on the book. I had already been thinking of using CreateSpace, Amazon’s printing company, to publish the book. This is a print on demand service, with sales through Amazon. Eventually, I can format the book for the eBook format. I finished setting up my account last weekend, downloaded the instructional booklet, and started studying. My book is now registered and officially has an ISBN number assigned to it. Things are beginning to feel very real! At this point, it would be great if I could have everything ready for the end of Thanksgiving when the blog celebrates its second anniversary. However, I have to be realistic and look at my heavy work schedule for the next few months. Best case scenario, the book will be ready by Thanksgiving; if not, probably early in 2015.

I finally finished organizing the chapter of November letters, and am more than halfway through December’s chapter. After reading the preparing your manuscript guide from CreateSpace, I know that my pictures should already be in the manuscript when I upload it. I have added 12 photographs/documents at this point with many more to go. Any images I use have to be a minimum of 300 dpi. While most of the photographs I have already scanned are at a higher dpi, some of the documents I want to use were scanned at a lower resolution. I am not using any color images so everything also has to be in black/white or grayscale.

I ordered a sample book from CreateSpace so I can see and feel what the paper I plan on using is like. It currently has not arrived, but I am anxiously waiting! For size, I have chosen on a 6 x 9 paperbook. This is one of the standard publishing sizes so it gives me more options for advertising the book in outlets besides Amazon. I believe my book will be about the same size and shape as my large paperback editions of the Game of Thrones. I have a feeling that the book is going to be about as thick at this point, too. As of last night, the manuscript numbered 426 pages. I think it might hit 500 before I am done.

While doing some preparation of my title page and the reverse side, I did some research on CIP, or Catalogue-in-Publishing information. This data is found on the reverse side of a book’s title page. The data is generated by the Library of Congress and it helps libraries to catalogue their books. It also aids in purchasing so libraries have a general idea of what a book is about before they buy it for their collections. Unfortunately for me, this service is only available for books that are printed by publishing houses. Print on demand and self-publishers are considered too small to warrant inclusion at this time. I had hoped to classify my book under World War II Letters, or Indiana correspondence, which would have aided in my sales marketing.

I learned some new formatting tricks this week with Microsoft Word as well. I figured out how to put title headings on every page, but have the first page of the Chapters be different (without a header). I played around with different styles of page numbering so now my title pages and the beginning pages of the book aren’t numbered. The numbering starts at the beginning of the first chapter. If you have never done this before, let me tell you, it was very frustrating to figure out! And of course, rather easy once the trick is mastered.

Goals for this week:

Finish assembling December’s letters
Begin writing Biographies
Continue to add photographs
Work on re-writing and expanding the chapter titled Who Were Roscoe and Gladys?

Question for readers: Do you think I should spell out words that were abbreviated, specifically if they improve comprehension and readability? Bear in mind I already have a ton of footnotes, so I really don’t want to make the reader look around and lose concentration to find what the word means/is.

Deborah Sweeney, © 2014.
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/08/09/the-book-progress-report-august-9-2014/

Jack Pot (Gladys)

1 Reply

: June 14, 1943 envelope

: June 14, 1943, p. 1

: June 14, 1943, p. 2

: June 14, 1943, p. 3

: June 14, 1943, p. 4

Letter transcription:

Kentland Ind
June 14 – 1943

Dear Daddy –

I hit the jack pot this morning – 8 letters – May 23 to June 5 – Still some missing – and the one with the 100⁰⁰ ck among those – the 150⁰⁰ & 32⁶⁰ came in good time. I suppose the 100⁰⁰ will come if not you should notify the correct Dept. so in case it fell into other hands it can’t be cashed. Glad you got the seeds your Mother sent – I sent some Apr. 13. You should have rec’d them long ago. I hardly think I will send any canned chicken – I wouldn’t know where to find such. Unless we could get Marie to can some with their canner – if they still have it – You know they used

[page 2] to can ducks when they would go duck hunting in Ark. I sent several cans of sardines in that last box I sent. Jack Byrnes said he had some things he wants to send you, so will try to get another box ready this week. I don’t know whether I can get sardines. We can get Salmon again but it takes points and is very expensive – Some brands are as high as .50¢ for what we used to get for 25. The limit on boxes is 5 lbs. so can’t put many cans in one box.

It was so hot & sultry yesterday – then in the afternoon it rained and cooled things off, but it is the same way today and is thundering now and looks like we will have a shower any time.

We have 6 qts. of strawberries to can – or make into preserves. I am going to use half rhubarb to stretch the berries. They are so high this year.

[page 3] Judge Barce called about some books Ed had loaned you. I didn’t think they were here, but looked & found them. He is coming this afternoon to get one. I got out all four volumes. He said there was just one he wanted. I told you before Hilda moved back to Fowler. She & Mary were working at the factory. Irene said both were making a total of 40⁰⁰ a week – Hilda said they couldn’t get along. They moved in with her mother. I heard that she & Ed were separated – He gets home quite often – is still stationed at Kokomo. I don’t care to write such things – I would rather write about more pleasant things.

I haven’t paid the ins. loan yet – I was waiting for the 100⁰⁰ ck. to come thru – I am afraid it would run our balance too low to pay it now – the loan is some over 200⁰⁰ because the int. is 14⁰⁰ or more.

[page 4] The rain came and what a soaker. I was going to cut off the spinach & lettuce and have the boys plant more corn & beans, but with the rain yesterday & now today again it will be a day or two before more planting can be done. I did want to get more tomatoe plants put out – The points on tomatoes are as high as peaches. However I am getting a little reserve on canned goods. I buy all our point will allow every month and find we still have enough to save back. Canned milk now takes a pt. a can but David has a ration book so we have plenty of points. I want to keep him on canned milk this summer yet. He turns around in his buggy & pulls up to his feet, holding on to the top. He pops up to his feet now when we put him down in the pen, like a jack in-the-box. Hope you get the pictures I mailed June 13 – They were good of all three boys.

Love Mother