In the days before email, letter writers would sometimes make notes to themselves about a letter they’d sent so they would have a record of it. While cleaning up my father’s estate I found notes for a letter he sent to my mother shortly before they were married. The purpose of the trip is unknown. He traveled alone by train from Toronto to Chicago via Detroit.
Sunday, June 29, 1952. Trip to Chicago.
By Ilmar Talvila (1928-2010)
Left at 3:30
forgot the ham
thunderstorms
Left your house feeling like a doomed man walking to the scaffold
Berlioz Symphony Fantastique
no trouble with customs
impressions of Detroit – beer and more beer – dirty and unappetizing – hot as hell
countryside same as Ontario
feeling desperately lonely
Chicago traffic terrific
speeding in middle of city
beautiful Michigan Boulevard
swimming in Lake Michigan – walked there in swim trunks
liquor stores everywhere
I hate it – but I’m greatly impressed by the beautiful parks and buildings
huge area of Chicago – 200 square miles, 25 miles long in parkland
the awful heat, broken records
big day tomorrow – synchronized traffic lights
8!! lane highway
elevated railway
100,000 on the beach
TV aerials everywhere
used car lots and furniture stores
garbage trucks
all the cars are new models
huge hotels and buildings
Natural History Museum and Shadd Aquarium – wonderful!!
exchanging money at banks
map
money-crazy and more people driving than walking
Finnish girl wins first Miss Universe Contest
cool day now – expect 98F tomorrow
nearly 1,000,000 people at beach
Green belt and parks
water temperature 61F to 69F
price comparisons
the Loop area
Toronto small and far away
talk with museum officials
writing book on Mexico – bird and mammal exhibit – plant and tree sections – races of mankind
Story Ending Challenge
And now for something completely different!
We are asking you to use the incomplete Chicago Letter above, and turn it into a story!
Play Literary Detective! Use your imagination and fill in the blanks in the notes for the unwritten letter, as inspiration for a new story…
Using clues provided in the notes above, write YOUR version of the author’s story:
– what the purpose of this trip may have been;
– what sort of person the author may have been (i.e. his character, occupation, interests, nature of relationship with the intended recipient of the unwritten letter, etc.) ;
– why it was to be ‘a big day’ the next day;
– what the nature of the impression made by a) Detroit, and b) Chicago on the author was;
– why mention was made of ‘Miss Universe’;
– why the author felt like ‘a doomed man’ when he left Toronto.
Submit your story the usual way, either by using our form on https://www.story-quilt.com/submit-your-story/, or emailing it to we*@st*********.com.
Approved submissions will be published in the next edition(s) of Story Quilt. Ready, set… GO! 🚀
* Thank you, Peter Scotchmer, for suggesting this story-ending challenge!
