The SpyMaster
It’s New Year’s Eve 1938. Spies dressed well, more style back in the day.
The Spymaster
Flying Fish at End of Rainbow
Love Letter excerpt by Morris to Arline November 1944, of awe and gratitude.
Love Letter 1940
End of the Rainbow
Diamond Ring – Practically Given Away!
Morris was in the South Pacific when an ad ran in LOVE romance magazine. Rationing had an effect on romance during WW2 and here we see one example, a fun one. HAREM Company (The House of Rings) did all right on the romance theme. They dealt Flashing Replica Diamond Rings. From the full ad, however, seems even better served were folks in the biz of selling real diamonds.
The House of Rings c. 1944 Flashing Replica Diamond
“LADIES! Have you ever longed to own a real diamond ring? Of course you have. But today, due to the war, diamond prices are soaring higher and higher. They are beyond the reach of most people. Yet you can naturally satisfy your desire for beautiful jewelry at a price you can easily afford…When package arrives pay postman $1.74 plus 26ยข postage charges.”
Read MoreBowdoin Polar Bears Band 1940s
On April Fool’s Day 14 years ago I was sitting in a church pew next to my mother. It was my father’s memorial service.
Morris had a dry sense of humor. He loved to quip and use puns. I was thinking then that “Mose” would be happy if he somehow knew we were all gathered in his honor on April Fools day. After the service we had lunch in the church courtyard. The weather was overcast. I was sunk, feeling shot down, wasted and dismal. Suddenly, from nowhere, a small warm beam of sun opened in a hole through the fog behind me. The light warmed and comforted me, like a whisper, “I love you.”
His letters are breathing now. I’ve spent many months trotting around the 40s. The process has it’s own pace. The life in the story is growing in a way I couldn’t have predicted. Details of the day, experiences mentioned in a word or two, small things I might miss before, are now jumping off the page. I’m following better than ever.
Polar Bears Band
c. 1940 Bowdoin College
Mose describes in an early letter to Arline their upcoming date at Bowdoin. It’s the fall of 1942. There’ll be an evening dance after the home football game, after the usual afternoon tea dances. “The Polar Bears will be performing”.
Read MoreHarpswell Maine 1943 Summer Love
Morris and Arline
Harpswell Shore c. 1943
In Portland the Stovers lived across the street from my mother. This was during her Deering High years. Mr. Bill Stover and his wife Helen had three daughters: Virgina, then Margaret called “Peggy”, and Helen. Arline was close friends with Peg. Much later in life Peg married Irving Wallace whom mom had also dated. But during this time, Peg dated Marty Lee.
Mr. Stover also owned a big family home in Harpswell by the shore. To get to the water you’d walk through a field of strawberries and blueberries. There was a clam shack on the shore but kids didn’t spend much money in those days. Here Arline has corn on the cob, Mose a hamburger.
Many homes at the Harpswell shore were left behind. Mr. Stover had moved to Portland for work opportunities. Folks would go back in the summer and the first thing that happened was wives would set to cleaning.
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