Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23102
Date
1920 July 4
Description
Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.
Source
Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler
Subject
Germany--History--1918-1933
Correspondence
Berlin, Germany
Contributor
Rachel Dark
Denise Montgomery
Language
English
Requires
PROOFREADING
Provenance
Evelina Suhler is the granddaughter of Jon Anthony Bouman and inherited the family collection of his letters from the years of World War I. She and her husband gave the letters to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum in 2013.
Text
Sunday evening July 4
Dearest;
Of course you have not been able to write, as you would not know, any more than I do, how long I am to be here and whether letters would be likely to reach me or not. But I miss your letters, and can only hope all is well at your end. I wrote Collins at the same time as I did to you (last Sunday) asking him to name a definite period but I have not heard from him as to what he means by “a little longer.” I don’t know whether I could now be home in time for your birthday. I doubt not, which is very annoying to me indeed. You may be sure you will be very much in my thoughts on the 9th; I don’t say more than otherwise, for I am always thinking of what you will be doing, and about holidays &c. and the letting of the flat, and hundreds of other things. I wonder if you have telephoned Collins at all asking about it; you have a perfectly legitimate cause as you are entitled to know whether you can write to me, and how long , seeing that letters take 4-5 days. I am wanting to know about lots of things – the old people, and whether Walter has communicated with them.
These are outstanding times for people like us – a German at the Foreign Office here told me he was going yesterday with his (American) wife and family on his annual leave when he got orders to go with the German delegation to Spa, so their holiday is broken up too. It seems one cannot make definite plans for anything nowadays, so we must just bear it; it is a long lane that has no turning, and we are bound to unite again soon.
I had a funny adventure when eight Dutch tourists came and sat a a large table in a restaurant where I was having lunch alone. They thought I was German and babbled away in Dutch, to my great secret enjoyment. It seemed that one mevrouw complained of getting vreeselijk dik. Did mevrouw perhaps drink a lot of beer? Oh no, but she had been “feeding up terrifically” before she left home, as she had been told food was very scarce in Germany. So she thought she ought to have huge meals as a precaution. Killing wasn’t it? She certainly nearly burst out of her clothes. And a lot of other personal things they talked about while I ate my lunch and tried hard to keep a straight face. At last I left them with a polite bow and said: “Het is my bysonder aanglnaani gewent.”
Whereat, little feminine yells of amasement and openmouthed astonishment. They were from couples. It turned out they were also staying at the Adlon, but I didn’t see them any more. I heard they had gone to Wiesbaden. Of course the Dutch are now even richer than before, compared with the Germans, owing to the high value of the gulden and the low value of the mark.
We have been having a couple of real hot days, fortunately the sun is never in the office, where it is nice and cool. Also it keeps out of my hotel room until the late afternoon.
I am now impatiently waiting for word from London; as I have both telegraphed and written I don’t see what more I can do. Patience! patience!! patience!!!
With all my love dearest,
Thine,
Jack.
Dearest;
Of course you have not been able to write, as you would not know, any more than I do, how long I am to be here and whether letters would be likely to reach me or not. But I miss your letters, and can only hope all is well at your end. I wrote Collins at the same time as I did to you (last Sunday) asking him to name a definite period but I have not heard from him as to what he means by “a little longer.” I don’t know whether I could now be home in time for your birthday. I doubt not, which is very annoying to me indeed. You may be sure you will be very much in my thoughts on the 9th; I don’t say more than otherwise, for I am always thinking of what you will be doing, and about holidays &c. and the letting of the flat, and hundreds of other things. I wonder if you have telephoned Collins at all asking about it; you have a perfectly legitimate cause as you are entitled to know whether you can write to me, and how long , seeing that letters take 4-5 days. I am wanting to know about lots of things – the old people, and whether Walter has communicated with them.
These are outstanding times for people like us – a German at the Foreign Office here told me he was going yesterday with his (American) wife and family on his annual leave when he got orders to go with the German delegation to Spa, so their holiday is broken up too. It seems one cannot make definite plans for anything nowadays, so we must just bear it; it is a long lane that has no turning, and we are bound to unite again soon.
I had a funny adventure when eight Dutch tourists came and sat a a large table in a restaurant where I was having lunch alone. They thought I was German and babbled away in Dutch, to my great secret enjoyment. It seemed that one mevrouw complained of getting vreeselijk dik. Did mevrouw perhaps drink a lot of beer? Oh no, but she had been “feeding up terrifically” before she left home, as she had been told food was very scarce in Germany. So she thought she ought to have huge meals as a precaution. Killing wasn’t it? She certainly nearly burst out of her clothes. And a lot of other personal things they talked about while I ate my lunch and tried hard to keep a straight face. At last I left them with a polite bow and said: “Het is my bysonder aanglnaani gewent.”
Whereat, little feminine yells of amasement and openmouthed astonishment. They were from couples. It turned out they were also staying at the Adlon, but I didn’t see them any more. I heard they had gone to Wiesbaden. Of course the Dutch are now even richer than before, compared with the Germans, owing to the high value of the gulden and the low value of the mark.
We have been having a couple of real hot days, fortunately the sun is never in the office, where it is nice and cool. Also it keeps out of my hotel room until the late afternoon.
I am now impatiently waiting for word from London; as I have both telegraphed and written I don’t see what more I can do. Patience! patience!! patience!!!
With all my love dearest,
Thine,
Jack.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1920 July 4, WWP23102, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.