Name/Title
AU Grabill, Glenn - 1989-02-12 letter to Pauline, Paul, and John BierleyEntry/Object ID
1992.1.22Context
February 12, 1989
Dear Pauline, Paul and John,
We cannot tell you how much we thank you for sending us the package of letters, pictures and books that came here one day last week. Every evening we have been going through them and reliving those depression years, and finding many things we lived through but hadn't remembered the details. I suppose that Dick told you how rough times were right after we four friends graduated from High School in 1929. I knew and remembered that he went to Dayton where he got a job in the YMCA but failed to remember that it must have been right after he graduated. I stayed in Westerville, and while I wanted to go to Ohio State and study mechanical engineering, being a train nut, couldn't because of the Stock Market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. I had saved about $500 from carrying papers... did you notice that the Columbus Dispatch cost 1ȼ back then!... but lost it when the Westerville Bank closed its doors. That made it necessary that, if I still wanted to get a college education, that I stay home and enroll in Otterbein College, where my father was head of the Music School. In order to earn my tuition I had to get a job and luckily, I did at the local Rexall Store there on the corner of State & College Ave. The tuition at Otterbein then was $80 per semester, and professor's kids got no discount then either, so I did manage at 15ȼ per hour to handle my own expenses. If I hadn't been able to stay at home and get my board and room free, I'd have never made it. It took me five years to get my BA degree, so I didn't get to graduate with John Smith and Ed Burtner. Dick, of course, finally ended up at Ohio State and got his Music degree there. We surely had some time trying to Chicago to attend the 1933 World's Fair, didn't we? And Dick never made it. I went with Roger Moore, another railroad fan, and had a hard time scraping up the $16.50 too! We rode up to Hammond, Indiana in a School Bus, and were taken to the
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fair grounds at 63rd St and Lake Michigan every day and picked up at night so didn't have to use public transportation. Dick and I did get to the 1940 World's Fair in New York City together and, while there, stayed in Dan's apartment while he & wife were in Europe. Such memories.
Thank you too, Pauline, for sending the bulleting from Dick's memorial service and the newspaper clipping showing him at his last "Town Band" rehearsal. All four of us played in that; Dick on flute and piccolo, Ed Burtner, trumpet, John Smith, bass horn and me on Clarinet. Thanks too for the copy of Ed's eulogy and for your son's comments. He sounds like a mighty fine young man, and must have thought a lot of Dick.
We were happy to hear too that you are kindred spirits and that you rook a mind control course; was it the Silva course? Our "Mind Dynamics" was much similar. We were glad to hear too that there is a Unity Church down there; is it in Westerville or Columbus? There is also a Science of Mind study group in Columbus which meets at the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow at 2400 Olentangy Road on Sundays at 11 am. Their mailing address is 38 Tulane Road, Zip 43202, phone 263-8316. The man who directs the group is Paul B. Frank. (This from the Science of Mind magazine to which we subscribe.) We find both Unity and Science of Mind very helpful in keeping a positive, healthy and reverent outlook. It would be nice if we could get together some time and have a long chat, and if and when we ever get back to Westerville we will look you up. I wondered where Massey Road was (it wasn't there when I lived there), so got out my trusty AAA map of Columbus and found it up near the intersection of Sunbury and County Line Roads... is that it? Of course we would give you fair warning and contact you by phone of letter beforehand. We have no plans to come that way in the near future.
Once again, thank you all for all your friendly letters and favors to us and thank you for being so good to our friend Dick. We both wish you belated Valentine greetings and good health and happiness.
Sincerely,
{Irene & Glenn}
