October 20, 1945

**Click on the pages of the letter to get to another screen where the letter is larger.

Once you are there, you can click once more and the letter will enlarge a second time.**

October 19, 1945

**Click on the pages of the letter to get to another screen where the letter is larger.
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October 18, 1945

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October 15, 1945

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October 14, 1945

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October 13, 1945

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HUGE Thanks!

Before I start posting letters, I have to give a huge THANK YOU to Atelier Design and  Print of McPherson, Kansas.  They scanned all of the letters for me, and they did a fabulous job!  They were so careful with this family treasure and worked diligently to make this project perfect!  I will now be able to download the letters with little effort.

So, if you ever need anything printed, scanned, designed, etc., I would highly Atelier Design.

And now, for the letters . . .

There is Good News and Bad News

Okay, the good news first . . .
I am having the letters professionally scanned. They will be much easier for me to download to my blog and easier for you to read.

Now for the bad news . . .
I won't get the letters back until next week.

Until then . . .
My grandma told me many stories, but it wasn't until the last couple of years that I realized what a treasure these stories were and started to write them down. Read about my grandma's childhood in "Stories of Old".

Letter Update

Tomorrow I am taking the entire scrapbook of letters to a professional to find out about having them scanned.  There are approximately 125 letters and each one is 3-5 pages long.  The cost will probably take my breath away.  The first letter I posted took well over two hours from beginning to end . . .

1.  scanned on home computer
2.  wireless printer downloads to home computer, not my laptop
3.  find the letter on home computer
4.  attach to email and send it to my email
5.  internet goes down
**  SCREAM **
6.  fiddle with internet
7.  email goes through
8.  large portion of letters have been cut off
9.  repeat steps 1-4
**  SCREAM ** 
10.  attempt to attach letters to blog
11.  blog will not accept the format of the letters
12.  go onto a blog 'help' site to figure out how to change format of letters
**  SCREAM ** 
13.  attempt to download the required program to change the format
14.  email someone from school district to get the password for download
15.  person gives me another way to change format
16.  attempt to get letters on the blog, but the 'insert image' button won't work
**  SCREAM ** 
17.  go back to the help screen
18.  problem solve and proceed
19.  start putting letter pages on blog, but they are in wrong order
20.  try to shift order, but have no luck
**  SCREAM ** 
21.  delete post and try again
22.  letters in wrong order
23.  delete post and try again
24.  success
** SIGH **

My husband stuck by my side the entire time . . . bless his heart!

Technical Difficulties

I am having technical difficulties downloading the scanned letters to a format that blogspot will read. The scan quality isn't great, and I am sure taking photographs of the letters will be even worse. I am working on a solution, but if you have suggestions, please submit them!

Questions Answered

It's the eve before the first love letter will be posted on "Letters from the Past", and I would like to answer several questions that have been asked . . .

How did the letters remain a secret for all these years?

The scrapbook containing the letters was moved to six different homes during my grandparents' marriage. During their sixty-two years of wedlock, no one knew about the scrapbook, even though their children often helped pack and unpack boxes. My grandparents must have taken great care to move these letters, without the knowledge of those closest to them.

So, maybe they wouldn't want the letters discovered now?

I have thought about and struggled with this very question. And I believe that if they didn't want the letters read, they would have destroyed them. Both of my grandparents were free to share their faith in Jesus Christ and knew their time (and ours too) on earth would be brief. And yet, the letters remained tucked behind the dresser. After my grandpa died, my grandma may have struggled with letting go of the letters. However, I believe eventually she would have tossed them, with the help of her dear friend, if she didn't want her family to discover them.

Maybe the letters were a forgotten treasure?

My grandma became very frail, at the end of her life, as her health started to decline, but her mind remained sharp. And while she did start to forget some things, I do not believe that she would have forgotten about these letters. As a young woman, she took great care to put these letters into a scrapbook and carefully moved them as her family grew and they moved to a new home. I believe they were important and would not be easily forgotten.

Okay, maybe they weren't forgotten, but maybe they were 'out of sight, out of mind'?

The letters were not hidden, but instead they were tucked behind a dresser in a place that they were easily found as we started to moved furniture. She had other things tucked behind her dresser, in an attempt to keep her apartment neat and tidy. I believe she knew they were there. If the letters would have been stored behind a secret panel or a loose board in the floor, then it would make me wonder about the ethics in posting them.

Where have the letters been since their discovery?

The letters were discovered and soon after that my grandma passed away. Time passed and the scrapbook remained tucked inside a sack. I eventually asked for the scrapbook and struggled to know how to proceed. The scrapbook is obviously falling apart and each time a page is turned, more paper crumbles. So, instead of reading the letters, I researched options. After deciding to put together the blog, I started doing some research, but didn't stay up late reading letters.

And so . . .

More than likely, these letters were last read by Ruby upon receiving them, and then tucked away in a box that she kept hidden away from her younger brothers. As I post these letters, I (along with my entire family) am reading them for the first time.

Join me, as I peer into the window of the hearts of my grandparents during a year of their courtship (1946-1947)...

The Main Characters

Who was Ruby Rose Temple (Lamer)?
Ruby and her twin brother Robert were born on Sunday, December 7, 1924 in Beeler, Kansas. They were the second and third children in a family that would eventually grow to twelve.

Who was Dale Edward Lamer?
Dale was born January 17, 1927, in Salina Kansas. Dale's mother died in childbirth when he was two years old. Later, Harley (Dale's father) remarried. Rose had children and the family eventually grew to eight total children, with Dale as the oldest.

So, how does a girl from Western Kansas end up meeting a man from Central Kansas?
There are many scenarios. Ruby knew several people in Salina and could have visited one of them. Her sister had married a man who was stationed at Schilling Air Force Base. Maybe she had come to visit her? She also had two elderly aunts living in Salina, and she might have been visiting and helping them. The details are sketchy but the result remains. Sometime during her time in Salina, she met Dale Lamer.

Ruby's youngest brother, Lawrence, was born on February 2, 1946. Lawrence would be the last of the eleven children born to Margery and Floyd Temple. With Ruby being one of the oldest, she was needed back at home in Colorado to help with her eight younger brothers who were running underfoot after the birth of their baby brother.

It was during this year absence that the love letters between Ruby and Dale began. As I have flipped through the old scrapbook, there is a letter for almost everyday of their year apart.

Treasure Hunting

Grandma had been in the hospital and was moved to a nursing home for some much needed rest and rehabilitation. It quickly became apparent that she was not going to move home and live independently but would need some level of assistance. And so, during the afternoons, as Grandma rested, my mom, aunt, and myself would steal time away to her apartment. There we started to box up her things, preparing for a move to an unknown destination. As we packed, we uncovered a mass of items, many were things that a child of the Great Depression could just not throw away. Things that many of us would toss or recycle (ketchup packets, butter tubs, rubber bands, and neatly folded squares of foil). There was the family Bible, old family photographs, and books with various clippings tucked inside. We carefully wrapped the teacup and saucer collection. But it was moving the dresser when we stood back in awe and froze. There, carefully packed in a sack was a leather bound scrapbook. It was visibly old and after several moves, this was the first time any of us had ever laid eyes on it. The scrapbook was moved to the bed and we gasped as we turned the first page. Inside the pages were love letters, one for each day of the week, envelopes carefully secured to the pages. It was an unexpected treasure.