Dear Gen: A love letter

Chapter Six

On June 18, 1925, you sent this letter to Andy from San Francisco:

Dear Andy:

By the time you get this I'll be on the train to N.Y. Yes, at last I'm going, on the 11:30 train Sunday a.m. And, I'm awfully excited, I can't hardly sleep at night thinking of the trip. Getting to be a regular old nite owl about staying awake. Everyone at work is just about as happy as I am. I suppose they're glad to get rid of me pestering them all the time. But they're all good hearted so I suppose they mean well.

How do you like it in the mountains And? Is it very hot for you? Don't get tanned now, because I won't know you when I come back. I suppose you will start up that beard again to scare people with, but you didn't scare me.

Well And, I'm writing this at work with one eye on my boss so I can't write very much this time. I'll have loads of time to write on the train, so you will get plenty of letters from now on. And write to me often Andy, tell me all about yourself way up there. My address will be Mc Alpine Hotel, 34th + Broadway Sts., N.Y. City, N.Y. % Mrs. Kathyrn Sager. That's my new mother And, the one I have been living with. I was going to send you some pictures of the house, but it was so foggy the days I had off I couldn't take any. But I rather have you see the place anyway when I return.

I hear my name being called outside now, so guess I'll good-bye with a great great big hug. Now promise you'll destroy this and I'll make it real when I see you And.

As ever,

Gen. x

P.S. Be sure and tear this up. Good-bye.

~

I stared at this letter in puzzlement. Be sure and tear this up...? Is that why there aren't as many letters from you as there are from Andy? Had you requested he destroy the other ones? If he did as you asked, why did he spare this letter, or any of the letters that he ended up keeping?

Anyway, I also thought it worthy to look up the history of the McAlpin Hotel: It was built in 1912, so it had only been a little over a decade old when you stayed there. Located in Herald Square at the corner of Broadway and 34th street, it cost 13.5 million dollars to build, which is an estimated 331 million dollars today. The family eventually sold it in the 1930s, and it became a series of other hotels. In the 1970s, it was converted to an apartment building, known today as Herald Towers. Comparing a 1914 postcard to a current photos of the McAlpine Hotel, one can see its exterior has remained much the same for the most part, red brick contrasting against a white base and trim.

(Thank you, Wikipedia, for being so helpful. Oh Gen, if only you and Andy knew the advent of having a wealth of information at your fingertips.)

The Herald Towers website describes it as, "Built in 1912, Herald Towers was once the famous McAlpin Hotel, the largest hotel in the world – boasting a Turkish bath, its own orchestra, and more telephones than any other building. It was even home to famous faces, like Hall of Fame baseball player Jackie Robinson when he was an All-Star second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Though much has changed since, this pre-Empire State Building property is still one of the neighborhood's most recognizable landmarks."

Would you look at that, Gen? You got to stay in one of New York City's most notable landmarks. Lucky you! Did you see anyone famous there? 

I try to imagine you standing outside the McAlpin, craning your head back, letting your cropped dark curls fall beyond the nape of your neck, your blue eyes attempting to take in the full scope of the hotel. How dwarfed you must have been in comparison, only twenty-one-years old and under five feet tall. Well, unless you were wearing your new pumps, some class to you.

More on those pumps later, though. Once Andy got your letter, he sent his reply as soon as possible:

West Point

June. 22. 1925

Dear Genevieve:

I'm alful sorry Gen. I didn't get your letter in time to even send a special to say good-bye before you started on your long trip.

So I'll write this one so you will get it soon after you arrive in New York. I'm up here a little over a week and didn't have a chance to go to town for the mail until Saturday. And received your two sweet little letters one saying you would like to hear from me again before you started on your trip and other one saying you were going Sunday.

So you see Gen even a special wouldn't have reached before you started.

I will try to make more regular trips to the Post Office in the future as you say you are going to write me plenty of letters and I sure want to be there to get them as there isn't anything I enjoy more and I will try write often just so you will know that I'm always thinking of you Gen. And of the time when you will return. So don't forget the promise you have made me Gen. And I will make good on my offer.

I guess two months won't seem long to you Gen. But its going to be a long long time to me.

I'm up here all by myself and I don't enjoy it as much as some people seem to think I do

I like the mountains and I like this cold mountain water but I sure don't like my own cooking and living alone.

So please write often Gen so I won't get lonesome. I hope you had a nice plesent trip going back there. So with a great big hug and kiss I'll say good-bye and try to write more next time.

As ever Andy

If Andy was afraid you'd forget about him while you were in New York, he didn't worry long. A coincidental meeting just two days after he sent this letter left him wondering if maybe you were thinking about him more often than you let on.

Dear Genevieve:

Being that I'm going to the Post Office to-night to see if there is a letter from that sweet little girl will write a few lines so she will know that I'm always thinking of her.

I take a long ride every day Gen. And who do you suppose I meet yesterday Mrs. Hallian, Mr. Cook and another lady but I didn't get her name.

Now this is how it all came. In takeing my usal ride yesterday I came by Shorty's camp and was sitting talking to Shorty when they drove up and being that Pat and I are old friends of course I had to go out and talk to them. Not knowing who the ladys were. Being that my whiskers had about a weeks start I didn't want to meet any ladys just then that knew so much about me. For this is what Mrs. Hallian said when she saw me I have heard so much about you that I feel as though I know. Now who has been telling her so much about me is what I'd like to know?

It makes me curious, too, Gen. Even in 1920s New York City, through all the glitz of high society, of flashy flapper girls, walking through the throngs of New Yorkers on the sidewalk, tall buildings towering above your short stature, taller than any you had ever seen in San Francisco, did your mind still wander to the sleepy golden hills of Calaveras County, to the man amongst the lonesome pines?