April 8, 2006    Chicago 1935

Edna Eubanks, late of Lums Chapel, Texas, presently of Chicago, Illinois. 

I should be married to a tall lanky farmer, with my apron strings tied to four little ones. I almost managed to get myself tangled up in all that mess, but the West, Texas winds blew me up here. Now I'm living amongst the Yankees in Chicago. Can you believe it!?
 

I almost have to pinch myself every morning. I can't hardly believe I'm here. Instead of working long hours in the cotton fields, I am working long hours in the radio field.  For the last year and a half, I have been steadily typing my fingers to the bone.  You see, I am a typist at WZZ Radio.

After much toil, I have finally worked my way up to chief typist of the daytime serial, "A Chance for Love".  In what spare time I manage to save for myself, I dream of writing my own serial.  If Irna can do it, I can do it!

Whenever possible, I like to squeeze in some time with my "sweetie". It wasn't too long after I moved up here, that I met J.Z., "Jazz" Mchenry. Getting together doesn't happen as often as we would like it to!  We enjoy dancing, but due to time constraints, we mostly manage some window shopping downtown. We do have a favorite diner where we stop for coffee and doughnuts.

Jazz and I both have the writer's bug. His job is slightly more lucrative. He writes for that great agricultural journal, "The Midwest Agrarian". This means he's gone a lot. He spends summers at various county and state fairs. He can't count all the pickles and pies he has tasted as a judge. Funny thing is, I moved here to get away from the cotton fields, and his job increasingly takes him down to them.

June 20, 2006 

I am presently reading "Bagpiper @ Ate" by Abigail Thorp.  Kalliopie Wheatley, and her husband buy a summer cottage in the small town of Leastwhyle. She gets involved in the local music society.  At one of the gatherings, something very mysterious happens. Kalliopie sets out to solve the mystery.  Although, Leastwhyle is near the sea; there are enough similarities to Lums Chapel, that I get homesick reading about it.  I was reading the other day about the music society ball.  It so reminded me of the Summer Cotillion at the Lums Chapel country club. 

Moving to Chicago took some doing.  Momma and Daddy didn't really want me moving so far away.  AND, I had almost gotten myself married to Claude Harper.  He is a dear sweet man.  I loved him to death.  It was so difficult breaking it off with him.  I just felt like something inside would die if I stayed in Lums Chapel.  I knew I couldn't be the wife Claude wanted.  Claude must have found the woman of his dreams.  He is married and they have three children.  I heard the oldest one is in the second grade.  My! How time flies.

September 16, 2006  A Tall Glass of Iced Tea Please

I don't know how I made it the first few weeks in Chicago.  I absolutely knew nobody.  I had no job. Daddy had managed to scrape a few dollars together so I could take a secretarial course.  I won a typing contest.  The first prize was a portable typewriter and $200.00.  While I was in school, I worked as a filing clerk at a local insurance company.  I saved almost every penny I made.  That and the prize money kept me afloat the first few weeks I was here.  I think I stayed in the cheapest hotel in Chicago.  I was surprised that I didn't find any bed bugs in the bed.  I never let on to Momma that I was living in such a place.  Had they known, Daddy would have come up here so fast to drag me home.  During my third week here, I landed this job at WZZ.  They were hurting for good typists.

It wasn't long before I struck up a friendship with some fellow girls from the typing pool.  They needed help paying rent so, we pitch in together on a small apartment.  One of the girls is dating a short-order cook in a cafe down the street from the WZZ building.  Many a lunch hour is spent down at the Jupiter Coffee Shop.  During one of our lunch time "gab fests", I happened to run across this tall drink of water who called himself, Jazz Mchenry.  We've sort of made the Jupiter Coffee Shop "our place" now.  Everybody thinks I'm "odd" since I order iced tea, even in the winter.  Most people round here, drink coffee.  Like I always say, "You can take the girl from West Texas, but you can't take West Texas from the girl".

For myself, see the "notes" page.