[or-roots] Looking for a Challenge

[Tracy Tallman]

Fascinating letter.  There was a Malcolm Bruce Spalding who died 31 Dec 1915
in Goldendale, 27 days old.  Born to Bruce W Spalding and Beryl McKinney.  I
didn't see anything in the article that would preclude the letter from being
written during WWI.  The Washington death records for 1907-1960 are now
online at www.familysearchlabs.org <http://www.familysearchlabs.org/> , from
where I found the death information on the child.  

 

Thanks.  Tracy in Edmonds, WA

 

-----Original Message-----
From: or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of
eugenemelvin.roots at comcast.net
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 12:19 PM
To: OR List Roots
Subject: [or-roots] Looking for a Challenge

 

Wife's WWII mail still needs delivery

 

Dusty Hoag lives in a bit of a time warp, anyway.  He buys old houses and
fixes them up.  He has been working the past few months on a house in
Goldendale, Washington, about a two-hour drive from his home in Portland.

 

"I think Goldendale is kind of an up-and corning spot," Dusty says.

 

The house he bought there a while back was built in 1880.  lt was a wreck.

 

"People said, 'Why did you buy that old abandoned place?'  Well, it wasn't
abandoned.  It was just in horrible disrepair.  You name it, it needed it."
At this point, Dusty estimates he's 60 percent done.  

 

Last Friday, Dusty and a helper, Eric, were working on the kitchen, trying
to remove a cabinet and countertop.  When they finally came loose from the
wall, "all kinds of stuff fell out."

 

There was a fly-swatter, from back when they were made of cloth.  Dusty
found six combs, three pencils and an old buttonhook, used to close tiny
buttons on women's shoes about 100 years ago.  There were old buttons, a
trivet, a pair or scissors, a single Camel cigarette and a pamphlet with
recipes: "FIAVOR for variety," it sang.

 

There was a package of Silk brand waxed paper bags, the kind mothers put
sandwiches in before plastic bags arrived. 

 

And there was an envelope.  Dusty picked it up.  It was the tissue-thin
stationery people used long ago for airmail correspondence.  "The envelope
is white, arid around the border it has red and blue stripes," Dusty says.
"So that makes it red, white, and blue."

 

The envelope was sealed; it had never been opened.

 

He turned it over.  "A/CB. Wayne Spalding, Jr.," it read.  A number followed
the name.  The address was for some kind of military base in Orangeburg, S.
C.

 

The return address?  "Mrs. B. Wayne Spalding, Jr.," it said, "Goldendale,
Wash," A letter from a wife to her husband.

 

Dusty was amazed.  "There were a lot of cool things about it," he says.
Clearly the number was a military serial number, and the address was
probably that of Camp Shanks, the largest Army port of embarkation during
World War II.

 

Dusty served in the military from 1991 to 2000.  "I was a captain in the
Marine Corps.  I served in peacetime.  I joined up during Desert Storm, when
I was attending Arizona State.  By the time I got in it was over."  He spent
his nine years in North Carolina, Okinawa, Japan and finally Pohang, South
Korea. 

 

Dusty's service means a lot to him.  "Last week (Monday Nov. 10) was the
Marine Corps birthday, and the 11th was Veterans Day.  We started the
demolition on Veterans Day, and three days later we found the letter."

 

Dusty wondered how old the letter was.  How long had it been lying behind
the counter in the house in Goldendale?

 

"I immediately stopped working and sent Eric to do something else," Dusty
says, "and I got online."  It took him about 20 minutes to discover when B.
Wayne Spalding Jr. served in the military.

 

In the U.S. National Archives, Dusty discovered the full name of the
letter's intended recipient was Bruce Wayne Spalding Jr.

 

He lived in Clark County.  He was a U.S. citizen with a high school degree,
born in 1923.  He enlisted Feb. 3, 1943, in Tacoma, his previous occupation
was carpentry and he was married.

 

Dusty briefly considered opening the letter.  "But I immediately decided
that would be a very bad idea.  It wouldn't be right. I was in the military,
and this is obviously a military letter."

 

Still, he did a little more detective work.

 

The letter felt substantial.  "I have a 500-watt work light and I actually
held the letter up to the light.  I couldn't read anything.  Clearly she
wrote it, folded it, put it in the envelope, licked it and sealed it, and
never mailed it.  It just got lost."

 

The letter is more than 60 years old, Dusty figures.

 

He'd like to deliver it to B. Wayne Spalding.  "I thought if anybody should
open this letter, it should be him.  He might still be alive.  He'd be 85.
It would be great if he could open it.  Or his kids."

 

But a Google search turned up only a single Seattle area 2006 obituary for a
woman named Mabel Marie Wilson who was "preceded in death by daughter,
'Constance M. Hurlbert, and husband, Bruce 'Wayne' Spalding."

 

Was Mabel the author of the letter in the 1940s?  If so, does she have any
living children who might want a letter written by their mother to their
father decades ago?

 

One thing seems certain: It's not a "Dear John" letter, written and then not
sent after Mrs. Spalding had second thoughts.  Because on the back of the
envelope is written "SWAK."

 

Someone had to tell Dusty that means" sealed with a kiss."

 

Dusty is hoping someone might help him track down a member of the Spalding
family.  Until he does, he'll keep the fragile letter.  Unopened. 

 

Margie Boule: 503-221-8450;  <mailto:marboule at aol.com> marboule at aol.com

 

>From the Tuesday, November 18, 2008, Oregonian, page B1, B2.

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