Dear Louzine
Hope you are feeling well. Guess I am o.k. This fine wether is just about to give me spring fever. Seems every one gets a little lazy this time of year.
Louzine they put me on the second shift at work. I knew it was comming but I thought it would be another week or so. I have to go to work at 3 oclock and off at 11 oclock. I have to work sat. night. Looks like Sunday night is the only chance I will have to see you. If it is o.k. with you, and unless you send me word different I will be there about 4:30 Sunday evening. Then maybe we won’t be out so late.
Darling I miss you lots. Sending this by Wayne, hope he gets it to you. Hope you can read this I am not much at spelling and writing. Don’t eat supper before I come Sunday. We will eat out somewhere.
Love Jerry
—————
Pap sent the letter above to Granny way back when they were first courting. Pap lived in the southern portion of Cherokee County-and Granny lived in the western portion. With today’s modern cars and roads-that only equals about 25 minutes driving time-but in Pap and Granny’s courting days the distance was farther in more ways than one.
Pap’s Uncle Wayne and his wife Violet lived across the way from Granny’s family. As often happens in large families, Pap and Wayne were closer in age than most uncles and nephews. They grew up together-driving wagons from the Harshaw Farm to Murphy-working in the fields-swimming or fishing in the Hiwassee River-slipping off to play when they knew better. And after they were grown, Wayne introduced Pap to Granny.
These days, Wayne spends his time in a nursing home in Asheville-he calls Pap often-and Granny and Pap well they still love each other just like they did back then.
Happy Valentines Day!!
Tipper
Portions of this post were originaly published here on the Blind Pig in February 2009.
Thanks, once again, enjoyed every word.
So beautiful! The love there was very evident, and that letter must have a thrill to get!
What a lovely story!
God bless.
RB
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Tipper,
I think that is the sweetest thing to have letters our parents wrote to one another. I love the fact that the letters are hand written now a-days everything is done in emails or texting. There is just something more personal to me when someone takes the time to put pen and paper and captures their thoughts. I guess I am maybe to sentimental but I found letters my dad had written to his parents before he married when he was probably 16-17 years old in the army way off from his family and friends it almost makes you feel when you read them that you were present during that time.
Thanks for sharing that very sweet letter between your mom and dad during their courting days call me old fashioned but it is the most romantic thing.
Deb
“Happy Valentine Day” to Tipper and the young and old on this blog.
My “Valentine” went to the “Eye Doctor” today.
It was like the blind leading the blind. He has glaucoma very bad in both eyes. We will have to put drops in his eyes the rest of his life or go blind.
Me, I found out that I have a cataract in each eye and will have surgury in April.
We have loved each other so long it will be just another thing we will have to share. He has already had his new lens surgery. We have been married 60 years, going on 61. Been blessed by all those years with two daus., one son. 8 grandchildren, 5 great-grand-children.
Peggy L.
This is so sweet and touching Tipper.. You are so right about how hard it was for them to travel from one place to another..Times sure have changed but it’s so good to know how far and how long love does go.
Such a beautiful love story! It was a good one to share. Happy Valentine’s Day to you!
Happy Valentines Day Tipper
I remember Grandpa talking about his courtship of Granny. She was allowed to walk to the edge of the porch with him when he left & he said he just longed to be able to just put his arm around her waist. They were together until his death parted them & they had 19 children.
Tipper,
Pap’s valentine letter is just so
nice. I wore out many a pencil
in my teenage years writing to my
girlfriend. It was always easier
to put it down on paper first…Ken
Happy Valentine’s Day, and thank you so much for sharing this ‘treasure’.
Oh my,Tipper! I have already called a dear lady over in Knoxville to tell her how wonderful the article in Sam Venerabel’s column of the “News Sentinel” was today – about her dear husband sending her roses on a special Valentine Day. In fact her story was so touching that I cried when I called her. But she understood totally what I was trying to say.
And for Bradley’s post today, he could not have chosen a more perfect poet to quote on this day!
LOVE,
Eva Nell
What a sweet letter and love story! Happy Valentines Day:)
Sweet story. They’re blessed to have their love to last all these years. Happy valentines day.
My ex-father-in-law used to call me his Valentine. That’s how I signed the flower arrangement I sent to the funeral home when he passed. I’m sure his wife had to do some explaining about her Christian husband’s Valentine.
What a beautiful letter Pap wrote Granny! I hope the girls will share the love letters The Deer Hunter wrote you when they take over this site 20-30 years from now.
Today is bittersweet to me – I’m missing my beloved husband, but “his” orchid has bloomed again, profusely in fact, so that’s my Valentine sign. It’s also my daughter’s birthday and that’s a joy.
Happy Valentine’s Day (especially to those sweethearts Granny & Pap)
Good story Tipper, Happy Valentines Day to you and yours!
I was looking at poems this morning for my valentine and found one that I will share:
“Not the bee upon the blossom,
In the pride o’ sunny noon;
Not the little sporting fairy,
All beneath the simmer moon;
Not the poet, in the moment
Fancy lightens in his e’e,
Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,
That thy presence gi’es to me.”
― Robert Burns
Happy Valentine’s Day to all the Blind Pig and Acorn Gang! We know there is lots of love floating around in that family. In turn, we love you all and enjoy this site with all the interesting topics and certainly the music.Enjoy a litle chocolate today along with a few hugs and kisses. My Valentine is taking me out to lunch today to a community named Hartland,N.B.-home of the longest covered bridge in the world. Inez Jones
It is so good to hear of long term couples who still love each other as I know they do. It reignites hope in my heart just like seeing you and the Deer Hunter together. There is no doubt you two are devoted to each other. You have the love of cupids and Valentines Day and the enduring love of Pap and Granny that will go on for centuries.
Happy Valentines Day !
Tipper, Wonderful! Thanks Ray
Happy Valentines Day to you and yours Tipper.
Nice post. We all have a story. It is an honor to our loved ones and friends to take a minuite to acknowledge and enjoy them.
Thanks for sharing, Tipper and Pap and Granny! It is inspirational to look upon a love that has endured on this Valentine’s Day!
Such a sweet story! “Jerry & Louzine” have a special love story.
waiting anxiously for that stack cake recipe
That was a neat story Tipper. I met my Valentine when she was eighteen and I was twenty. Now after all these years, I still have her. She has been a good’un. She has done so much to brighten my days down through the years. The greatest thing she ever did was give me the daughter I had longed for so long.
We were so different no one thought it would last but it did. After all these years the fire still burns.
There was this poem by Byron Herbert Reece called “Lullaby” that seemed to allude to our days together and how time can gradually pass by without our notice. These lines in that haunting poem go:
…”He slept and woke the years around and knew both joy and grief and time that never makes a sound was like the willow leaf that springs again and falls again while seasons slip away…”
That’s how it has been with my with my Valentine and I.
The time when we were kids did “Pass without making a sound” it seems.Time has made a change in me. My dishwater blond hair is now white. The dimples they used to tease me about are now deep wrinkles.My Valentine though,has not changed (in my eyes). Being with her is like that old song by Wendy Bagwell and “The Sunlighters”, “It gets sweeter, sweeter as the days go by.” HAPPY VALENTINE DAY EVERYBODY!!!!!