(This is an entry from the journal entitled Mexico Summer written by Elizabeth Lancaster Carsey 80-years-ago. Click here to read more)
Big fat letter from Carsey* – Started me to wanting to go to the opera again – I must silence him on that. Went to 2 shows “Six of a Kind” and “Babes in Toyland” with Bernard
*This is not THE letter, but amazingly enough this envelope containing a pile of letters was found recently. Below is a letter dated Dec. 8, 1934 from Carsey to Elizabeth.Enjoy! I also did not realize he was living in the same town as her parents?
Dear Elizabeth,
How have you gotten over the effects of Thanksgiving? Van Horn reverted to its customary torpidity after the holidays — not even a good show in the offing at the show. Above all your thanksgiving you should no forget Mahatma Ghandi, Sanskrit, Catherine Smith and how to make noise like a loaf of bread and other sparks of profundity.
Van Horn’s topics of the day are barren of interest or importance. Had a wreck here that killed two the other day. Your folks are putting on a pageant at the church Friday before Christmas. Jaime and Terrell are to be wise men. That ought to be enough to add zest to the performance.
Maxine Smith asked me to drive in the Doctor’s car with her and Mary Beth Clark to El Paso today. But cold weather caused Mrs. Smith to call it off (whose original idea it was); result- Maxine and her mother had a fracas that reverberated all over town because Maxine wanted to see Claudet Colbert. No ill feelings came my way, tho.
I am sending you La Mendicidad en Mexico so that you can develop a speaking acquaintance with the republic’s outstanding pordioseros. It will brighten your conversation with Jaime Catherine Smith and me for we speak of them as old pals.
Incidentally, if you are interested in Mexico’s present political situation you should read last weeks issue of Time, It’s ‘Foreign’ section contains a very brief but complete article on PNR and the new President and 6 year plan.
Are you still playing the pipe organ? What type of material do you play? I would like to hear you play. At the present moment I can hear Smith play ‘Rapsody in Blue’ (Sp?) for she came with me to the schoolhouse so she could play the piano.
Jaime and I have a tentative trip to El Paso planned towards the end of the holidays. Be sure to escribeme una carta. (write me a letter)
Must close- saw your Mistol the other day – will return it probably next summer. Pardon errors – cold in here a little.
YH&O’bS
Carsey
PS-Some new humor: A piece of literature entitled “Ode to and Innertube.” An epithet – “You old windshield viper”
Here’s what else was happening 80-years-ago today:
A new Time Magazine is out, The Franco-Italian Agreement of 7 January 1935 was signed in Rome by the French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. New swimming records are set by to-be Olympians Ralph Flanagan. Elenor Holm Jarrett , Leonore Knight, Alice Bridges, and Kathrine Rawis .
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