Another One for Dad "Dad-isms"

This is out of order from my original Jean blogs back in 2006, but so apt for today I decided to add it. From June 27, 2006...

"Reading letters today (finally!). Its fascinating to think people once took all that time to write about things as mundane as what they ate for every meal of the day....and I mean EVERY piece! Details about hygiene, laundry, weather, what they are wearing. I suppose in our time we fire off an email now & then to close friends & family with these kinds of tedium....but the effort to WRITE it all down & take it to the post office! And Jean's parents write her nearly daily. Given the phone was still newer & expensive for long distance, I guess it makes sense, and they were indeed a close family. Its nice, really. Quaint even.
But Jean's Dad is the one who really spices up the letters! Either he adds a bit at the top or back, or writes his own short one separately.....some quotes...
"My Dear Babe....
Well, poured your Ma into a seat on the Challenger at 3:50 and started her for Lake Mich.
"Heard Roosevelt today, he's a nut"
Hello Kiddos, So busy this PM I forgot to get the Duchess until I was about 30 min late....
I think I find it refreshing how frank he is, how comfortable talking to his daughter....and how at ease he seems writing to her. Now, Mother, on the other hand.....writes as comfortably as a couple old gals at the bridge table! Happy to dish....and in an instance like this, her love for Jean is evident, even in a moment of cattiness.
"Well, I'd say that Virg. is dumb or jealous & Dorothy T also. She (Virg.) was afraid to ask you to her tea on your Wedding Anniv. or near it for fear someone would ask you what you got or were doing that day and it be so far ahead of her- and she couldn't stand it- too jealous. I'd see her in _____ before I'd ask her to my house until they do something for you & Bob."
Yikes! Someone slighted our dear Jean. Despite my not reading many things Jean HERSELF has written, I have definitely sensed a touch of insecurity in her......her anxiety over trying to please her Mother yet be a wife & adult where she & Bob are concerned during her surgery & recovery......many mentions in letters from both parents of her worries, other events she has hostessed in her home that were snubbed by "friends". I have yet to learn where her insecurity comes from.....though all it would take in the 30s would be a lack of children to feel "different". Funny, her Mother rarely speaks of other couple's children, and it appears as though her brother & his wife never had any, either.
They all seemed well off enough, so I can't imagine it was money that made her feel inferior to these other couples. I guess I can only hope to learn through future letters.....to what end, I can't say.....but I am curious. She dressed well, went to college, was in a sorority, married well.....didn't seem to want for much. Entertained often.....curious. It makes me sad for her....often I wish there would have been a way to have known her before she passed away, though I'd never had gotten access to this with her alive. Strange to "miss" someone you never knew.....a person who I am getting to know as a young girl that it would never have been POSSIBLE for me to know. While its fascinating, its almost always tinged with a little sadness.
Eventually I will figure out what the lesson is here. I'll be sure to share that.....! Ang "