OPEN WINDOWS

Letters are very interesting because a person can learn so many things from the ones that write the letters. When a person reads the Langston Terrace letters, that person can learn a lot about the people who wanted to live there. These letters expressed many things, they expressed personal lives and why they wanted to live at Langston Terrace. By writing these letters, these people opened their personal lives up to the reader. That is why these letters are so important to the history of Langston Terrace. The letters helped the reader to understand the type of people who wanted to live in the housing complex, so they could make a good decision on who could live there.

The people that wrote the letters were expecting many things. These people were expecting these places to be nicer than the places where they were living because Langston Terrace was going to be a brand new complex. They believed that they would be in a better community for their children. The biggest expectation of all was that the price of rent was going to be very low. In most of the letters, the people mentioned how they were looking for lower rent or they stated that they could not afford a high rent. A person named J. William Cook said in his letter how he "wishes to get a low cost rent place" (kaq website). Getting a low rent place was the biggest issue for all these people wanting to move to Langston Terrace. Because of this, people wrote letters that would help them obtain a place with a cheaper rent.

Some of the people who wrote letters gave specific details of their personal lives. A few ladies wrote in their letters how they were widows and had children. Some gentlemen wrote how they were married and had a job. Other letters had references that made them look better in front of the people who were reading the letters. Even though people tried to communicate the same desire to obtain housing, there were differences in the styles of how people wrote their letters. The major differences were seen in how men and women wrote their letters. The women seemed to talk more about their marital status and their children. For example, Mrs. Hattie Crumpton wrote that she was "a widow with two sons" (kaq website). In another letter, Mrs. Louise Pickel stated how she was also "a widow with a family" (kaq website). On the other hand, men seemed to be more interested in just getting information and applications. Letters written from Waddell Thomas, Andrew Perry, and W.C. Alexander were few of the individuals who asked about applications and information. I believe that most of the women who wrote the letters were single because if they were married, their husbands would have wrote the letter. There is definitely a difference in the way the men and women wrote letters.

The way the letters were written go right along with what American culture is about. I feel that most Americans want to have a nice place to live for the lowest cost possible. This is exactly what the people writing the letters wanted. I also think that in our culture, many Americans think that it is all about who you know in order to get ahead and get what you want in life. In the letters written in behalf of certain people, this quality is shown because they thought that if they knew somebody important, they would have a better chance of getting a place in Langston Terrace. For example, Senator Millard E. Tydings wrote a letter of behalf of Mr. Louis Bose and asked the reader if they could "take care of him" (kaq website). The only reason that Mr. Louis Bose had the Senator write the letter is because he thought he would have a better chance of getting a place at Langston Terrace.

I believe that these letters were very important in deciding who lived in Langston Terrace. By reading these letters, one gets an idea of the type of people who would be living there. The people that wrote the letters wanted a change because they wanted a nicer place, but mostly because they wanted a cheaper rent. These were important letters because back then, they did not have e-mail and faxes to get information back and forth. These letters definitely helped me to understand about the people who live at Langston Terrace and also about the complex itself. Most important, the letters allow others to learn the situations that colored people lived during the time the letters were written.