Major News Stories of the day included Amelia Earhart, Hindenburg Disaster, Memorial Day Massacre, Joe Louis, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dust Bowl Storms and Mississippi River Flooding
… but in east central Iowa, the budding relationship of Ding and Dorothy was just beginning
This blog that is about that relationship, a specific past of two people. A past relationship, a romance spanning more than two years. The romance is preserved via letters. Letters from a man to a woman. In the late 1930s, in rural Iowa. Letters that reveal ups and downs, starts and stops, dances and parties. But we only have one side of the relationship – his side. His letters asking for dates, showing bravado, sharing everyday details.
So what to do with these details? I’m going to see what happens through this blog.
This is what I’m doing so far:
- Posting the letters with the punctuation, spelling and spacing as in the original letters. [category: Letter from Ding]
- Documenting get togethers that are pieced from comments in the letters [category: get togethers]
- Researching items and asking the online community for information [category: research]
- Discovering details of words and behaviors that I don’t know [category: details]
- Noting the happenings mentioned by Ding [category: event]
Read the style notes that inform the way the letters are shown.
So, engage with me. Would you like to write Dorothy’s response to the letters? I could start a Fan Fiction category. Would you like to see historical context? I could start a current events category.
Let me know in your comments what piques your curiosity.
I really like the way you opened this up with big historical events from 1937 before narrowing in on the letters. I think, if all the letters are dated, it could be interesting to somehow incorporate other historical events that occurred at the same time, or perhaps even write about those events as though they’re a response to the letters you have.
I like your idea about opening up the Dorothy story to fan-fiction. It could be fun to take different people’s responses to different letters and bring them together into a mosaic.