Hill Country Living
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
It’s a Wagner Week! Surprise, we have a correspondence between a couple of rich kids. Elma is funny, though, and I agree with her mother giving no sympathy over Elma having to cook for a week.
The second “letter” is actually an edited excerpt from a virtual Navy Directory that quotes, in part, from a 1936 directory called “Lucky Bag.” It’s about George’s son, also named George, who was born 10 years after Elma complained about cooking.
Winona
Sunday
Sept 1, 1905
Dear George,
Like your father, I will give you a day of grace to get home. Expect it should be three days.
Am glad you have gotten entirely well and guess they will keep you so busy from now on that you won’t have time to get sick. I have certainly been afflicted that way for Irene had no cook for ten days and I had the job. It wasn’t any of your fancy cooking I can assure but three good square meals a day for nine people. It made me so mad I could have killed you and
Julia for having such a good time while I had to spend my entire time over the stove. All the sympathy I got from Mamma was that it was a good experience for me.
You are very much mistaken about seeing me before long. I’m so mad I don’t know what to do. They won’t let me in home before the first of October. Guess Mama and Auntie will be home in about a week and I’ve got to stay stuck down here just because I happen to be south of Grenada. If they don’t watch out I won’t go home at all.
I think Fitz and Vic are back home after a Western trip and Dr. Young writes me Julia has returned from abroad.
Went to church this morning. I’ve gotten to be a regular attendant there and at prayer meeting. Guess I’ll be a leading member by the time I reach home. But you have to do something for amusement.
Sincerely, Elma C.M.
Lucky Bag, 1936
George Andrew Wagner, Jr.: From Water Valley in the highlands of Mississippi, the N.A. received George on June 14, 1932. Nature endowed him with a mind of rare brilliance and breadth and “Miss’ippi” gave him the attitude of the Southern gentleman—thus George as we know him, an attractive personality and a likable classmate. Though on the verge of starring most of the time, George never “let school interfere with his education” too much. Fencing, golf, Reception Committee work, classes, and a Queen of Water Valley’s famous Watermelon Festival have been his chief interests for four years. Gifted with the speed and precision of the natural athlete, George has proved a valuable man to the fencing team. Success must attend such ability.
Loss: George was lost when USS Dorado was sunk, possibly by a mine laid by a German submarine near the Panama Canal, on or about October 14, 1943. He was the boat’s executive officer.
Growing up, his family lived at 204 Dupuy St., Water Valley, Mississippi. In 1930 they had a 30-year-old black cook, and the woman’s daughter and son, living with them.
He has a memory marker in Mississippi.
