Dear Harry AND Dear Bess: July 24 and July 25, 1923
Transcript
Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for July 25, 2022, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.
We’d like to offer a double-header for you today, and feature a rare “Dear Harry” letter, from July 24, 1923, written by Bess Wallace Truman, and the response written by Harry S Truman the following day, July 25, 1923.
The letter from Bess Wallace is rare, because relatively few of her letters to Harry Truman survive. It’s commonly accepted that she destroyed most of them, and somehow missed the few that survive. We’re certainly glad that what survives survive, and we are grateful to the family for sharing them with history…and us.
In this exchange, Mrs. Truman tells her husband about a tooth abscess procedure she had done…in turn, her husband voices his displeasure at the methods of the dentist. Truman wrote his letter at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was on his periodic reserves training.
Here is Mrs. Truman’s letter:
[July 24, 1923] Tuesday afternoon
My Dear- Both of your letters came this a.m. The Sunday letter didn't leave Ft. L. until 2:30 yesterday. It was silly of me to get worried yesterday. I knew it, even when I called but I was so afraid maybe the heat had laid you up or something. Anyway I wanted to talk to you.
The tooth is out. And it's a good thing. Doctor B. said it was much worse than he expected-the x-ray doesn't even show the abscess in the middle of the tooth. He had a pretty bad time getting it out. It had to be cut and drilled out entirely. It took him an hour and five minutes to do it. He was as worn out as I was. But it isn't bothering me much now. He had to give me so many hypodermics, my head feels funny. I'm going back tomorrow to have it syringed out good, to get rid of that pus. I hope this cooler breeze keeps up over Thursday-the trip will be much more pleasant.
There've been a world of airplanes over since the R.O.'s have been at Richard's Field. They seem to keep them as busy as you are. This is some scratching but I can't do it over. Fred is going up to mail it for me.
Lots of love- Bess
And here is Mr. Truman’s reply:
Ft. Leavenworth, Kans. July 25, 1923
Dear Bess: It sounded mighty fine to hear your voice over the phone but I surely feel like busting a dentist I know of. It does seem to me that he could have extracted that tooth in a shorter time than that. I'm very glad it's out and I hope you'll get the rest of them fixed. Whenever you do I'll have my throat cut. I sure feel fine this morning. It is cool and the pep is in everyone. I have been eating too much and I cut my diet day before yesterday. The result has been marvelous. Then we've had a new physical instructor the last day or so and he's been putting us through some real stuff. I'll be able to lick all the rabbits and the Kansas City Journal too when I get home. I hope your old lady gets her road oiled. If she does not there won't be any harm done.
That Battery drill today is going to be some exercise. I'll have about forty green men and you can guess what will happen. We are going to show the infantry how fast we can take up a position and start action. If someone doesn't fall off his horse and break his neck or point the gun north when we want to shoot south, we'll be all right. I've got a good executive and I guess everything will come out all right. Hope to see you tomorrow. Lots of love. I hope your tooth extraction hasn't caused any aftermath.
Yours, Harry
We would like to share both a "Dear Harry" and a "Dear Bess" letter from 99 years ago...talking about a dental procedure. It's one of the relatively few times that we can match a "Dear Bess" and a "Dear Harry" letter. We love when we can do that!
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/personal-papers/harry-s-truman-correspondence-file-1919-1943/july-24-1923-postmark
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/july-25-1923