Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Dad meets the Edwardses

I haven't posted here in quite awhile. I got together with my Edwards cousins in May and thought I would like to share Dad's record of meeting the Edwardses. It is short. Some from one of his letters and some from a small journal he kept from Nov 1945 to March 1946.

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Dad’s adventures meeting the Edwardses in 1945 – Thanksgiving. Note: he was working in Chicago at the AFSC office and Dorothy was working there as a secretary.
From a letter to his folks (11-29-45):
            I had a very nice and interesting Thanksgiving. One of the girls that work in the office invited George and I out to her home for dinner. George had already accepted an invitation but I snapped it up. They live out in one of the suburbs, about 30 miles. Train runs about every hour. I was to get on one at 12:30 and arrive at 1:14. I asked a guy I know how to get to the Union Station the easiest and quickest. He said take the “L” and you will go right by it. So I did. But he forgot to tell me that I should change trains or I would not go right by it. I missed my train and had to take the next one which got me out there about 3:00. I would have called them and told them I wasn’t coming except for the telephone strike. I figured they would be meeting the next couple of trains looking for me so I’d better go. When I got there I found that they had gone ahead and eaten but there was lots left and everything turned out fine.
From his journal:
11-23-45 Fri 7:05
Got up at 9:00 ate a pork chop and dashed off to catch a train out to Hinsdale where the parents of Dorothy Edwards live, to a Thanksgiving dinner. Missed the train & arrived late on the next train.
The Edwardses are very nice people. Mrs. E is a bit hecktic. A little like Billie Burke. They are quite a pair. Dorothy seems a little quieter at home, a bit overshadowed. I got a kick out of the whole deal. They are swell people & must have a lot of sense somewhere, 2 boys that are C.O.s (conscientious objectors). One of them went to prison a while & is paroled now. Mr. E refused to buy bonds & caused a nice little stink. Sout fella!
The bet part of this job is the people I meet.