CUPID COMES CALLING -- LOVE LETTERS FROM NOTRE DAME

It was the 1950’s. The decade of poodle skirts, car hops, Elvis, and Rock and Roll. My dad played the tenor sax in a big band for local dances around Fort Worth. The leader of that band was my mother’s uncle, Jimmy.

In the summer of 1952, when my mother was 15, she used to go to the dances where her uncle’s band played. When the band had a break, my dad came to sit at the table with his pal, Jimmy, and Jimmy introduced them. Mom says Daddy barely spoke to her. He was handsome, well-dressed, and older,(17) while she was a girl his mother considered “from the wrong side of the tracks”. Her parents were divorced, she moved from rented house to rented house every time her step-father lost a job, or her mother got bored.
In reality, Daddy was smitten from the first moment he laid eyes on her. But he was really shy. An only child of older parents, he grew up sheltered and his parents had very high expectations for his prospects. That fall he went off to Notre Dame. A year and a half later, he was home for Christmas break and Uncle Jimmy needed a date for his pal, (my dad) so they could double date, and called my mom. Mom says she had a big crush on Daddy, though he hardly spoke to her at all, but he asked her out for the next 2 nights! In mid-January he left for the spring semester at Notre Dame. And, though he returned to Fort Worth during the summer and Christmas breaks, he wrote to her from the Indiana university several times every week.

My mom has kept those letters all these years. His correspondence was fairly tame, detailing his daily life, but the progression of his feelings is there, though mostly subtle. Here are a few snippets.



January 12th, 1954
Dear Luretta,
I received your letter this evening and was really glad to hear from you. After I read it I went to supper and then studied physics.
Be sure and write soon,
Chuck

April 8th, 1954
Dear Luretta,
There is a disc-jockey show that I have been listening to regularly for the past few weeks. They play real good records late in the evenings--Most of it is rhythm and blues and such stuff. What kind of music do you like?
Love ya,
Chuck

May 26th, 1954
Dear Luretta,
Well, I finished my last class of the year today. I’ll have a little extra time now with the exception of studying for and taking finals.
The folks will be leaving Sunday and we will be home the Monday after that. If you promise to be a good girl and behave yourself, I might phone you when I get home. (Though at first my feminist sensibilities were offended, my mom clarified two things here. 1. Daddy was jokingly referring to her dating other guys while he was away. 2. He most definitely was going to call her the second he got home)
Love and stuff,
Chuck

January 18, 1955
Dear Luretta,
…do take care of yourself. It’s gotten real cold. And speaking of, I suppose you realize that you’re going to have to hug me a whole lot this weekend just to keep me warm. No, on second thought, perhaps I’d better hug you.
Best of luck on your finals,
Love you,
Chuck

April 9th, 1955
Hi Honey,
…all morning, noon and afternoon, every time I looked at my watch I would imagine what you would probably be doing at that particular time, whether it was just getting up, or going to school, or eating lunch, or going to work. I can’t ever remember being so miserable. I can’t help missing you.
All my love,
Chuck

After that letter, there are no more because my dad convinced his parents to let him attend TCU in Fort Worth and he never returned to Notre Dame. Mom and dad dated for two more years and were married on April 26th, 1957. They were married 44 years until my dad passed away from cancer.

One side note. In the spring of ’54, my mother’s parents moved the family yet again, and my mother didn’t tell my dad, so when he got home that summer, he showed up at her NEW residence frantic. He said he’d gone to her old house and she wasn’t there and had called Jimmy to get her new address. She said she knew then that he cared more than he let on. So, I have my mother’s Uncle Jimmy to thank, three times!- for bringing my parents together.

Sometimes I think, with emails and texting, what a shame it is that we won’t have love letters written in our hand for our progeny to read. What do you think? Do you have any letters you’ve written that will someday be seen by future generations?

Leave a comment for a chance to win the $200 gift card. I'll also draw a winner from today’s commenters at midnight tonight for a copy of my latest Harlequin Blaze, RELENTLESS SEDUCTION. Be sure to include your email address with your comments! Good luck!