Hello Esther Mae

July 27, 1945: Wiley is in the Army and far from his Galveston home, training in Chicago but sorely missing his girlfriend Esther Mae, his sweetheart from high school. He goes to the Chicago Servicemen's Center to make a record to surprise her, titling the finished disk with a simple handwritten "I LOVE YOU." After the war and service with the occupation forces in Japan, Wiley marries Esther Mae.

It so happens that Esther Mae had two older sisters. One of them was my mother; Wiley and Esther Mae are my uncle and aunt. In the late 1950s, a group of us cousins found this record in their closet and played it. And played it, and played it, and played it, to our endless entertainment. Even after hearing it so many times over the last 50 years, I still smile every time I listen to it.

A lot of things have changed in the 66 years since this record was made, but Wiley and Esther are still sweethearts, still making the best of it.




Announcer: This record is coming to you from the Chicago Servicemen's Center.

Hello Esther Mae,

I told you that I was going to try to get you a record and so I finally found one. I'm at the Chicago Servicemen's Center, in Chicago, and on the way home.

I, uh, you ought to appreciate this thing 'cause I ran up seven flights of steps for this! And this place was closing, too.

I didn't tell you about me coming home because I wanted to surprise you. But, uh, even though everybody teased me, they said I was going to be sorry, because you'd be out with Otto or somebody. But I told 'em that you wouldn't.

When I get home I'm going to have ten days and ten nights, so, uh, we, make the best of it, huh?

[long pause]

I just about ran out of things to say. I just wanted to make you a record before I went home. I hope that you haven't found out about this already, because I told my mother but I didn't want you to know about it.

That's enough.

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Many thanks to Radio Dismuke for excellently digitizing the original record.