My grandparents wrote one another nearly every week during the summer of 1927. They were friends and young lovers who missed one another. Sometimes they worked in the same state but different cities within the state. Other times, they worked in different cities and states, each trying to earn money to help their parents while also planning to marry.
On July 27, 1927, my future step-grandfather, Clifford, wasn’t sure his love, Mattie, my future grandmother, was still being true to him. He was concerned about whether or not her interests remained focused on him. He wrote:
I been saying to myself that she be meeting some more boy friends. I [am] not with you. [You] soon forget the things you told me.
Clifford’s concerns about their relationship continue in the letter.
I may be out sunday. If I do [come out, I] call you up. Don’t go that way now.
He’s asking Matt [Mattie] to not look at other boys, to remember the promises she made to remain “true” to him; to not “go that way now” meant Don’t get another boyfriend.
When I first read this letter in 1985, I laughed. I couldn’t believe my step-grandfather had the same concerns as we did in 1985. There’s a tendency to think your parents, grandparents—older adults—had experiences that were truly foreign to yours. Yet, my step-grandfather had anxiety about whether or not his love was keeping her promise to him.
OTHER REACTIONS
I wanted to see how other young people of the 1980s thought when they read this letter so I included in one of my African American history lectures. I didn’t inform students that I knew the person who wrote the letter or the “love” being discussed.
Students reacted much the same as I did. They couldn’t believe that people in 1927 had anxieties in their relationships. They were convinced that love was easier “once upon a time,” or “back in the day.”
How about you? Have you experience this kind of insecurity in any of your love relationships?
ON LOCATION
Let me point out that my grandmother, Mattie, was living/working in Far Rockaway, Queens, NY, about 2 hours from Clifford who was living in Harlem, Manhattan, NY, and working in downtown Manhattan, New York City. The subway system was functional, but trains did not move as swiftly then as they do today, 2024. No doubt future riders will moan about the slowness of 2024’s subway. Indeed, current riders experience slow travel in 2024, often saying it used to be better “back in the day.”
Clifford and Mattie continued their weekly letter writing throughout July, August, and September 1927. On September 22, 1927, they got married at City Hall, New York City.
Clifford and Mattie Williams Bell’s marriage lasted almost 31 years. They divorced some time in the 1950s, but remained friends.
Their marriage did not survive, but their love did—even after Clifford remarried, he still visited our home (I was raised by them for a period of time), visited me in junior high school as our marching band prepared to perform at football games, and grandmother attended his funeral in 1962.
Young love can become stale and complicated as it ages. I think my grandparents love fell into this category.
Wooow Dr Marshall 🥹
My archivist collecting heart jumped out my chest seeing the old photos and letters.
What a treasure trove.
Such a great story. How did you find the letters or did your family save them?