Tag Archives: Shirley (Ward) Yegerlehner

Far Behind Schedule

Letter transcription:

[513 Wright – handwritten by David]
Kentland, Indiana
January 12, 1961

Dear David:

I haven’t ordered the Bible for Gary yet, because I want to know if he wants his name on the cover. Let me know and if he does, just how he spells his name, etc. It won’t take long to get it and you can take it back with you after semester vacation. The Commentary is $8.75 from Cincinnatti. I think there will be a handling charge in addition.

Mark and Shirley won’t be down the 20^th or 21^st. That is the Saturday Mark has to work. Maybe we can go to Chicago and see Becky while you are home if they can’t come down. All depends on the weather, etc.

We received a letter from John this week. He said he didn’t get my letter suggesting he call home for Christmas until after Christmas and since the last time was so unsatisfactory he didn’t think too much of the idea. He said when it was Christmas morning there, he got to thinking that we were having our Christmas Eve, well this is what he wrote, “As I woke up on Christmas morning here, the thought came to me that it was now Christmas Eve back home, that you all would have finished stuffing yourselves and that you would be sitting around watching television or something, waiting to open the presents. I suppose you had the usual potlatch?” Let’s just hope he can be with us Christmas Eve 1961.

This has been a busy week for me. I had to work for Arvella yesterday. She had to go to a funeral out of town. Daddy has been so busy in the hospital, he has had to miss some office hours. I am going to the office again this AM to help out a little since they are going to be so busy. I didn’t get the shirts to Mrs. Shoaf as usual on Tuesday, so I am going to take them today. That is how far behind schedule I am this week.

If I get time will send you some vitamins today. There are some here at home, but Dad said last night there were some he thought would be better for you at the office, so will send them out this morning.

Let me know if you want me to meet you at Rensselaer.
Love Mother

©2016 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2016/09/14/far-behind-schedule/

Christmas Presents

1 Reply

Letter transcription:

[to Wright Quad 513 – in David’s handwriting]
Kentland, Indiana
December 12, 1960

Dear David:

Your GM dividend came today, so I banked it for you – – add $2.00 to your account.

I suppose it is cold in Bloomington. The temperature was down to 10 when I first looked at the thermometer, but now has climbed to 20. It seems awfully cold. We had a little snow, but nothing like the areas where storms stuck.

My S.S. class party was held at the parsonage last night. There were 33 present (counting 7 children). We are going to decorate the church Saturday night, then come out here for pie and coffee.

Mark and Shirley came Saturday afternoon and stayed for supper. They went back to Chicago Sat. night, but we had a nice little visit and had a chance to play with Becky. We could see a difference in her since the last time we saw her. I am sending in the roll of film that was still in the camera – we finished the roll after they came Saturday. I dare say Becky is a most photographed baby. Maybe not the most, but she is getting more pictures taken of her than most babies. I was going some Christmas shopping this morning – bought a very pretty pink sweater to give Mrs. Myers – and ear rings to match – and I saw a cute little dress that I just had to buy for Becky. When Mark and Shirley were here they were surprised I think, at the packages that I had wrapped. I have turned your room into Santa’s work shop. Shirley took Becky to your bedroom and when she came back into the kitchen, she said Santa had already been here. Mark went in and started snooping. He wanted to know what was in the big boxes. I bought two end tables and just had Jack leave them in boxes and a high chair for Becky – and it was in a box. I have all those things wrapped in holiday paper. There are several other packages stacked on the larger boxes – to disguise them if possible. Mark said he could remember when he used to snoop around the tree when he was a little boy – he said he didn’t do any of that snooping when I was around.

Three stores had grand openings this past weekend – Murphy’s, Stevens Pharmacy and the new TV story Mailloux.

I tried to buy some record albums from Sears, but Janssen said they didn’t have them in stock – Magic Flute and Madame Butterfly. I think if we could find Butterfly that would be enough – a gift from you to Mark & Shirley. I didn’t think about how expensive they are – about $12.00 each when I started looking for them.

Love Mother

(over)

I will try to find something for them they will like – if not Butterfly. If you have anything else you would rather get for them let me know.

©2016 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2016/09/12/christmas-presents/

John is OK

2 Replies

Letter transcription:

[to Wright Quad 513 – in David’s handwriting]
12-8-60

Dear David –

Just read your letter. Do you want me to send your jacket? You didn’t specify. I just called the bank and your balance is $0.33. Maybe I had better put some in for you. I will deposit $30.00 this morning. When we ate dinner at the Nu-Joy Sunday Cele gave me a menu they had made the day after election. I was going to send it to you but I am writing this at the office and the menu is out at the house. There were such items as roast rump of elephant, etc. The bags (3) were stolen out of Dad’s car, right by the office last Sat. afternoon. We did not have the kind of insurance to cover the theft. We estimate the loss at around $500.00.

I haven’t finished taking the pictures in the camera but Mark & Shirley are coming Sat. so I will finish the roll. I am as anxious to see Becky as you are. I finished the cap and sent

[page 2] it to her. I have knitted another and also have a sweater started. I dress the doll. I am wrapping Christmas gifts and will wrap the teddy bear if I can find a box to put it in.

I am having the neighbors in for coffee next Thurs. afternoon. Mrs. Fields is having a cookie party this afternoon. She & Rev. Fields are going to entertain my S.S. class Sunday nite at the parsonage.

We received a letter from John. He is OK. I think he just gets too busy to write – or maybe he feels like he doesn’t have anything to write about.

I also clipped an ad from the paper – “an abacus” – I thought if we can find one we would give it with the ad to Mark for Christmas.

Love Mother

©2016 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2016/09/11/john-is-ok/

Election Day

1 Reply

Letter transcription:

[Kentland Wright 521 – in David’s handwriting]
November 14, 1960

Dear David:

I have been intending to write since Election day, but somehow I didn’t get around to it. Mark and Shirley and Becky came Thursday evening and the rest of the week I was pretty busy. Had to attend Myra’s wedding Saturday and the reception in the afternoon. Mark and Shirley went home (also Becky) yesterday afternoon. Becky is certainly a well trained baby. About the only time she is taken up is when she has to be fed. She has gained and weighs 10 lbs. 15 ounces – with her clothes on – which would be about 10-8 without. We measured her and she is 23” long, which indicates she may grow up to be tall like her uncle David. I suppose you are a little unhappy over the election. Now they are talking about doing away with the electoral college. I think it is about time. I hope now that the election is over that you can get down to some very serious studying. Lucile and Ed came out to see the baby Saturday evening. They said Jim was home. He comes almost every weekend, but since it is so close I can’t blame him. Mark invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them, so you will get a chance to see the baby. We took several pictures of her. She has grown so much she has changed since the last pictures we took of her. The baby bed Phyllis gave us fits in the NW corner of your room. Of course, when they move into a house they will take the large (it is much larger bed than the one they have now) bed with them. Please excuse this letter, but I am so used to writing to John in this fashion, it seems to come naturally. – Just an afterthought- even though the Democrats had a full slate in Newton County, none of them won anything. Everything in the county still in the hands of the Republicans. I am going to make a trip out to the hospital this afternoon. I have taken over the job of seeing that the gift cart is supplied and I have to go out and check merchandise. I plan to take Mrs. Myers along. I haven’t talked to her since the election. I know she feels the same way we feel about things. Mrs. Fields came out to see Shirley and the baby Saturday and when Mrs. F. saw Shirley, she said “I know you.” They were at I.U. and worked in the dining hall at the same time. Mark said he could remember her also, since she was on campus when he was. Small world. Mark Fields is walking now, but he still would rather crawl. He had a ball crawling around in our living room.

Love Mother

©2016 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2016/09/09/election-day/

Transplanting Plants Around the House

1 Reply

September 19, 1960

Letter transcription:

Kentland Indiana
September 19, 1960

Dear David:

Yours received this morning. You didn’t mention it, but I presume you have received the letter I sent with the plastic bag enclosed.

I saw Mrs. Fields in church yesterday and she said to tell you she misses you. Mark had evidently recovered from his cold and sore throat. He was as peppy as ever. There were several large bouquets of flowers at church – from the open house at the bank Saturday. The bank looked more like a flower show Saturday than a bank. We attended the open house and had a tour of the building.

We did some transplanting last Thursday. You will be happy to find everything taken care of by the time you come home (I hope). We plan to transplant the roses sometime this week. Last Thurs. we took the redbud tree from the three that you and Dad planted on the south side of the east lawn, and reset it on the east side. The ground was so hard we were able to get it out with a ball of dirt and the roots intact. The leaves on the tree didn’t wilt from the transplanting. We had a hard rain, so the lawn will have to be mowed again this week.

Mark called yesterday. It seems Shirley isn’t getting along so well. We would have gone up to see them, but there are three baby cases due here, so Dad thought he shouldn’t leave. One of those cases went to the hospital this morning, but Dad was home for lunch, so no results so far. I hope we can go to Chicago Thursday afternoon, because I am getting anxious to see the baby and Shirley.

We are waging a war on crickets. I have never seen so many as are around here this fall. The front patio is practically covered with them. I have swept them off several times, but they keep coming back.

I decided to wash your bedroom window this afternoon and before I finished washing windows I had washed all the windows on the outside. I also carried in the wood you didn’t remember to carry in. It wasn’t such a big job. I loaded the wood into the garden cart and pushed the cart right up to the living room.

You didn’t say where you attended church, or how you liked it. Have you made any contact yet with the Wesley Foundation?

We received a letter from John last week. He said he had some film ready to mail home. It hasn’t arrived yet. Unless it comes air mail, I won’t get it before another month.

The Stonecipher twin who goes with Collins boy is getting married October 9^th. The Stonecipher twins and Carol have been coming into my S.S. class. We also had two new members this past Sunday. The Prudential Ins. man and his wife. They live in H. Schlatter’s house.

How is your money holding out. Let me know.
Love Mother

Wright Quadrangle, Indiana University (Image courtesy of the Indiana Digital Memory Collection)

©2016 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2016/09/04/transplanting-plants-around-the-house/

A New Chapter

4 Replies

Just about fifteen years after Gladys wrote her last letter to Roscoe in 1945, Gladys wrote one of her first letters to her youngest son, David, when he went away to college. The baby of the family, born in September 1942, was now almost 18 years old and attending Indiana University at Bloomington. Mark, the middle son, had married and his firstborn child, a daughter, had been born just four days prior to the following letter. Gladys and Roscoe’s oldest son John was living and working in Indonesia. Having earned a PhD in linguistics, John had worked on several projects related to Native American languages during the 1950s.

September 14, 1960

Letter transcription:

Kentland, Indiana
146 W. Graham Street
September 14, 1960

Dear David:

First to answer your questions

(my) Place of birth: Terre Haute, Indiana, November 1, 1905.
(Dad’s) (Roscoe Schiele Yegerlehner) Clay County, Indiana, November 25, 1904

Dad has: B.S. degree from Indiana State Teachers College
M.S. degree from Indiana University
M.D. degree from Indiana Univerity (9 years)

I had two years business college.

Mr. Floyd Yegerlehner (or Mrs.) 1603 Garfield, Lebanon, Indiana.
Mrs. Earl Mutchler, Wilmington, Illinois. (115 East Street)

Or you could give

Mr. Mark Yegerlehner, 6107 N. Kenmore, Chicago, Ill.
Or you could give Dr. John Yegerlehner, Malang, Indonesia. (just joking)

In case you look for your suit, I hung it at the north end of your closet on a hook, a little lover than the road. Why don’t you use that laundry case for your clothes hamper – well that might be a little unhandy. I will send you a plastic bag, since I have so many of them here, but won’t have time to make any cookies to send along.

Received a letter from John. I will quote you something from his letter. “Kate Garvey and I have been giving a five-week seminar (10 sessions of two hours each) for high school English teachers here: modern methods of teaching English. When I think of the lies I was told about the English language by that old crock Kitsmiller…well. (Really the teaching of English is in the stone age in America. It would be as if they taught alchemy instead of chemistry in high school) We should be able to do better here.” He had received my birthday card, but since you didn’t send yours it couldn’t get to him.

Mark called Monday evening to tell us not to try to come up this week. Because of the hospital rules, we couldn’t get in to see Shirley and the baby, so maybe we can plan to go next week. Mark is going to Traders Point Friday to get Mrs. Ward, so he will stop here on his way.

I talked to Mr. Molter this morning and he said you would not have to make a special trip home to register, but that you could take care of it when you come home for Thanksgiving vacation. You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to come home if you want to come, but he said you didn’t have to make a special trip just to register.

Mrs. Fields called this morning to talk to Dad about Mark. He is still have some difficulty and she was to take him to the office at 10:20.

John’s first dividend check from Standard Oil came today – $27.50. Also your dividend check from GM ($2.00) which I will deposit in your account. Put that down on your check book, to keep your balance correct.

It is about time for Dad to come for lunch, so must get things ready.
Love Mother

P.S. Decided to enclose sack.

[handwritten notation on back in David’s handwriting – Received Friday AM Sept 16]

Wright Quadrangle, Indiana University (Image courtesy of the Indiana Memory Digital Collection)

Thanksgiving 1966

1 Reply

November 24, 1966 envelope

Letter transcription:

November 24, 1966, p. 1

Thanksgiving Day 1966

David, My very Dear

The book which you so kindly purchased for me arrived, and can’t tell you how grateful I am for your getting it to me, and also, I hope you will forgive me for asking you to purchase your own Christmas gift, but you don’t know what it meant to me. I am enclosing check, and I had thought it would be more.

I have a gift for Bonnie, and your mother is going to include it for me in a mailing to you both before Christmas.

I am at home alone today, very disappointed because I wanted to see baby David, whom I have not yet met. Your Mom invited me for Thanksgiving dinner, and Mark and Shirley and the kids and Lea and her husband, and John. Last night about ten o’clock Gladys called me on the phone and said that both the little kids had broken out with chicken pox. Becky had had it a couple of weeks ago and they thought the two little children were not going to get it, and when they arrived in Kentland your Dad discovered they were in full bloom. So of course, my never having had it, they did not think it wise for me to come. Gladys brought me my dinner, which I am going to eat in a short while. Mark, Shirley and the children were returning to Indianapolis this evening because Mark must work tomorrow.

The day is very gloomy and overcast, but not cold. Looks as if it might do something. There are so many things I would love to discuss with you, but I do not have the strength to write what I would like to. I look forward every week to your letter, and you will never know how I appreciate it. I know your time is very precious to you, and it is wonderful thing for you to take part of it to write to me.

My very dear love to you and Bonnie, and I am sure she is thrilled to have her folks here.

Always your
Grandma

P.S. Gladys said she would write you about the Nizer book. Your Dad does not have it, but you will hear from her about it.

Thanksgiving

1 Reply

December 5, 1965 envelope

Letter transcription:

December 5, 1965, p. 1

Sunday, December 5, 1965
Kentland, Indiana

David and Bonnie
My Very Dear Ones

I hope you are not thinking that your Grammaw has become senile, but I really have been quite ill, and am just now beginning to feel stronger. My fingers are quite stiff, but will try.

David will never know how I have appreciated his wonderful letters, and how I have looked forward to them. I love the pictures and thank you so very very much for them. I also appreciate your Hebrew messages, and my wonder at your ability to do such, leaves me helpless to express myself. You two are so wonderful, working so hard and accomplishing so much it makes me proud to know you.

I was quite touched with your story of your visit to the museum, and it jolted me into realizing that I owe you some money, which at this time of year becomes something to think about. I am making the check for $8.00 which I hope will cover whatever tax you had to pay and maybe postage if you care to mail the album. If not just bring it, either way you wish.

Your mother tells me she is getting a new record player. She took the one she had to the office, as something went wrong with the radio. She invited me to have Thanksgiving dinner with then, and I had looked forward to it, but when the day came I was unable even to get dressed. I spent the day in bed. Mark & Shirley and the kids were there, also John and Lee and her husband, and your Aunt Ruth. She stayed several days. Gladys brought her to see me. She drove to get her and also took her home.

I hope you put some leftover turkey in your freezing section and you can have it for Easter dinner. Your mother has been doing some shopping for me and she is so good to me. I am not even attempting to mail cards this year. No David, I hardly every stay up to watch Johnnie anymore, I just get too tired.

Thank you again for your dear letters, and will be anxious to see you.
Much love
Grandma