Prelude: This letter was written on September 4, 1925 by a woman named Ida to her Grandmother & all. Ida is from Kingston, PA, but I have no envelope and so I know not where grandma and all live.

THE LETTER:

Dear Grandma & all,

Just a few lines this morning, it looks very much like rain and is so close can hardly breath. Jesse’s mother is here now, has been here two weeks. Everyone is feeling pretty good, only me, I have a dreadful cold.

What was the matter with Juddy when he died? I was certainly surprised when I heard it.

Mother has quite a nice place where she is but not a very good business place, I don’t think. She said she thought maybe we would bring you up there with us when we were up there.

Tell Aunt Rose I will write to her later as I can’t think of anything to write and really don’t feel like writing and have my sweeping to do.

Well, I will close for this time. Hoping to hear from you soon.

From Ida

COMMENTARY:

Well, Ida gets right to the point, doesn’t she! She writes this letter dutifully and gets all the important information in without skipping a beat. It makes me wonder a little about the time period and what kind of communication most people had. Writing was the main thing…not everyone had a telephone in the rural areas and only 50% of people in the US had electricity in 1925. So, what did they do? They wrote letters and tried to keep in touch. Then like Ida, they went back to their sweeping.

One last thought about this letter, the way she signs it at the end with only a “From Ida,” It’s very strange and not very affectionate. I wonder if she was just in a hurry to get it done, or just wanted to be precise, or what?

HISTORY:

Here is a link about the progress of technology through the years: https://pietistschoolman.com/2012/07/30/the-spread-of-technology-since-1900/