Edwin to Melvin Saturday, 5th August 1945
In the Office
Saturday Evening
Dear Melvin,
For the past two days we have had everything around here tied down while a hurricane went by. Luckily it passed about a hundred miles from here and we have only had a little stormy weather; but it has me very worried because I am afraid that it might delay you in getting here. Please let me know if everything is all right, and how soon you can make it.
I am going to the YMCA tomorrow, and if I cannot make temporary arrangements there will check the hotels. Since the Y is in the heart of town, I think it would be very nice for a temporary stop, However, just to be on the safe side, if I cannot possibly get off to meet you at the Airport, I will leave a message for you at the Information Desk (or whatever kind of desk it has) at the airport, telling you where to go, how soon I can be with you, or telling you to come here. God!, I just have to get off tho, because I doubt if it would be safe for me to see you here for the first time. If anything goes wrong tho, call the CG Base and ask for Ordnance; I will probably answer the ‘phone. If it is at night ask for the Barracks; I am in Bunk 89A, Barracks C, after you get ahold of the barracks.
This all must sound mad to you, but I am rushing through it as it is almost 10 PM now and I have to get it in the mail for tomorrow. I have been here in the office all evening studing my Spanish and I feel that I have accomplished quite a lot. It is going to be so easy tho when I can argue with you about it. I can hardly wait.
Melvin, Please try to stay calm and collected, tho I don’t know how you can possibly manage it with all the details you are taking care of now. I admit that every-time I think of the near future I am not very collected myself. Please take time out to drop me a note in the meantime, or if necessary, send a wire giving me the good news of the arrival time (and date if it is changed).
Looking forward with all the gladness in the world.
As ever,
Edwin
Melvin to Edwin Monday 7th August 1945
7 August 1945
Oh my own precious, adored, sublime shnooky-baby,
Last night, upon my farewell tour of the Adelbergers, I came into town and suddenly felt extremely excited, as thou something wonderful was about to happen to me, and I went to the studio and something wonderful did happen–I found TWO letters free you, my darling!! Funny that the airmail special, dated two days earlier than the other one, should have arrived at the same time. Precious, your suggestions are perfect: if you are not at the airport in person when I arrive Sunday morning, I shall inquire at the information desk for a message from you; but, beloved, PLEASE manage somehow to meet me! I arrive at 10:05 Sunday morning–our eighteenth anniversary, and the first eighteen of twenty-five more to come, Which will find us together ..and then twenty-five more, and then fifty more after that, and so on thru all our lives…always the two of us together. Yesterday I picked up my reservation on the Atlantic Coast Line to Miami; I leave Washington Thursday evening and get to Miami about 6:30 Friday evening. I shall check thru my luggage on the Pan American at once and then scout about for a hotel for the night. I frankly don’t know how I shall survive the excitement till I have you in my arms again. All week, I have been in a perfect sweat, catching up on last minute details, seeing people to say au revoir, checking facts and figures, confirming reports and promises, shopping, etc., etc., till my head is in a twirl. I have had literally pages of items to check off, things that must be taken care of before leaving town, and every day a few more things find themselves added, almost miraculously, to the list. Last Friday I took Aunt Rae downtown to lunch and a movie and then we met Uncle Dan at the studio (both he and Aunt Rae were on vacation last week) and he gave me a very much needed lift in his car, helping me to clear the studio(s) of books, paintings, frames, bedding, etc. Eric wanted me to store my canvases at his place, so that he can hang various ones at different times, so Saturday afternoon he met me at the studio and we took most of the smaller painting out to his house. I rather like the idea of the paintings being kept out on the wall and appreciated, instead of reposing in the cellar at 617. Emma went absolutely mad about the quick study I did of Dougie– she even went so far as to say it is the most remarkable sketch she has ever seen, for what it is intended to represent! Leon and Ida got annoyed that I had taken all my hangable small things out to Eric’s and made me promise to salvage at least one for then to hang in their apartment. I was with the Adelbergers Saturday, Sunday and Monday afternoons, in order to finish the portrait of them before leaving town. It has come along excellently. Before I left there last night, Eric had already hung a great mess of my things, so that their house looks like a gallery of Buckneriana. The rest of this week is all taken up with luncheon and dinner dates with odd souls who want a last crack at me: David, Carlos Stotler, Walter, the Berkomitzes, Dad, etc. Maybe it’ll help me gain back some of the 8-10 lbs I lost in the hospital–I hope! Yesterday afternoon I dropped in on Elmer Keyser, the dean at G.W., and finagled from him a letter of introduction to one or two of the big-shots at the U. of Peurto Rico. Eric gave me the name of three flossy figures in the island’s current list of eligible benefits for me: Rexford Tugwell, the governors Adrian liprnbush, who heads the native arts and crafts cooperative under Tugwell, and some third soul who works for Adrian. Then Emus found thru a friend that someone in this friend’s office is from a very wealthy family in Puerto Rico and would like to have me look her family up when I arrive there. By the time I do get there I shall have entre to several desirable sets–not that I particularly want to use them—still it doesn’t hurt to have an “in” with the right people. All I want in Puerto Rico (as all I want anywhere) is YOU, my marvellous shnooky-baby!
I swear, darling, I’m so excited about being with you this Sunday that I can hardly function as a normal human being these days. I can’t sit still long enough to make sense, no matter whom I’m with, and my mind is with you incessantly. God, Edwin, in a few more days we shall be together again –for always! … I am sure that lying in my sleepless bed last night I figured out many more things to mention to you and will appear in this letter, but you can see the condition I’m in –I know that I’m at the typewriter I can scarcely remember a thing. I’ve loaded up on art supplies so that I can be able to plunge right into a profitable painting spree, and so long as I can keep my luggage went down to about 55lbs, I’ll be OK. The ‘Y’ sounds like an elegant idea –treat am perfectly adequate. But an inexpensive hotel will be all right for a few days also. Don’t forget, darling, to be at the Airport at ten in the morning this Sunday or leave a detailed message for me at the desk. And again I ask: PLEASE be there to meet me, or meet me at the ‘Y’ or hotel as close to ten o’clock as you can possibly make it. Al practically die if I have to see you for the first time down there at the Basel …. I love you, my baby – love and adore and worship you …. and shall be with you on Sunday.
Forever thru life
your own
