© 2021 Patricia Jean Patten Evans
All rights reserved
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Dutchie Darling . . . Love, Bob |
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| A Love Story © 2021 Patricia Jean Patten Evans All rights reserved |
| His spring semester at Tufts had ended and Bob had knew that he was going to be heading home to Trenton, NJ to volunteer for the ARMY. He decides he wants to go to Nova Scotia to visit his mother's family on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. His mother, Elsie, was born and brought up on Cape Sable Island. Every summer, when Bob was growing up, his parents would put him on the train to Boston, where his uncle would help him to change trains and he would go to Nova Scotia to stay with his grandmother, Eugenia. His summers on Cape Sable Island were some of his fondest memories.
In this series of letters, he describes life on Cape Sable Island, the lack of meat, but abundance of fish and lobster. He remarks on the cost of cigarettes. He was a smoker before age 19 and continued to his death from lung cancer in 1987. He preferred Camels, unfiltered Camels. He refers to his cousin, Reg, and the woman he is dating, Frances. Reg eventually married Frances and they had two children, Myrna and Paul. He also refers to his cousin, Dot, who is Reg's sister. Reg and Dot's father was Elsie's, (Bob’s mother's) brother. Jean's birthday was May 26th. In one of the letters, Bob tells her that he is having a present made for her hope chest. Then a few days later, he tells her what the gift is—a quilt made by his grandmother (actually, she was his step grandmother, but he loved her dearly), Eugenia. The quilt, green and white, is now in my guest room on the quilt rack. On his way back from Cape Sable Island, he stopped to see Jean in Boston and then took the train home to Trenton. While he was waiting to hear whether he would be accepted into the Armed Forces, he was working for his father at the Pattern, Machine and Foundry. |
| 05/18/1943 | 05/19/1943 | 05/20/1943 | 05/22/1943 | 05/23/1943 |