Month: June 2021

By Elva Leona Schadle 1935

Thought it best to insert this here since I’m not sure when it was written, but I’m sure this is the era it was about.

Leona graduated High school in 1939 from Altoona High School in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Their class of 1939 had 1,157 graduates.

It’s quite likely she hated this photo. I have never seen it before. She’s the first on the left.

The draft was a way of life back then. Our younger generations of the last 50 years have lost the significance of knowing that unless you were a girl or physically challenged, it was likely you’d be drafted.

Good day. For 25 years I have been the keeper of the boxes of letters my mother held onto throughout her life. Realizing we are at a crossroads and rapid declining use of personal United States Postal Service letters and postcards, I appreciate the significance of this rich family history and the quality and substance that these letters wove to tell the story I am excited to reveal. I hope you find these forthcoming pages interesting. Thank you for visiting.

My mother, Elva Leona Schadle was born in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania on November 30, 1920.

Last year during our lockdown, I began to catalog and file the letters chronologically by year. Some years have very fat files. As I open each year, I will then sort and file the months and days of each file in turn. I will be documenting each letter and uploading to this website as I scan and comment.