A Story of Love, War and Science

April 10, 2011 7:37 PM

"This is the story of Walter and Ina…" "It begins before they met, when he was taking aerial photographs of occupied France from a Sopwith A2, and she was looking for work in rural Texas and worrying about the boys “over there.” They continued on separate paths until 1924." I'm a sucker for a good love story, and one that elicits nostalgia through historical documents is even better. Here is one such story. Although I have only just now begun to read the correspondence myself, I immediately thought that MeFi was a good place to share it. The curator of these letters is Dr. Alan Dove, a virologist and podcaster. Walter and Ina were his grandparents.
posted by Moody834 (4 comments total)

I have a negro engaged to plow up the Johnson grass and re-sod with Bermuda. I guess he started this afternoon, cause he didn’t wan “to start no job on Friday.” He started one job on Friday and the following Monday had his finger cut off, so he won’t do it again.

Great read, thanks!
posted by unliteral at 9:51 PM on April 10, 2011

Super neat. Here is a little bit of back-story from the curator.
posted by exogenous at 7:27 AM on April 11, 2011

FYI: After doing a text search of available pages, I did not find the "quote" given by unliteral.
posted by Moody834 at 5:41 PM on April 11, 2011

Correction. I found it (my mistake in not following a link to older posts on my first pass). I suppose this is the risk in reading pieces from this particular period, written by a white man, in America. However, that said—and perhaps this belongs in MetaTalk—it seems about as damning as anything else from the period, and probably less so in context. But historical context doesn't make me feel comfortable about its use, and so this comment should stand as a caveat for anyone thinking of reading the letters.
posted by Moody834 at 6:08 PM on April 11, 2011