Meet Me at the Wall

In the season two finale Anne hosts Doug and Betsy as they share family-history finds from archives, trunks, and keepsakes. Drawing on his father's extensive genealogical collection, Doug highlights early-1900s correspondence between his grandparents Joseph Marconnet and Lillie Gray—courtship by letters, family objections, work in mines, and the lead-up to their 1912 marriage. He also shares snippets from Lillie's diary and his maternal grandfather Hal Patterson's reflective "Pat-o-graphs," including notes on family life and Pearl Harbor. Betsy presents photos, postcards, and artifacts from her mother's side, including her great-grandparents' Beloit restaurants and a poor, mobile rural past, then describes tracing that line via Ancestry.com back to Plymouth Colony and English figures. The group wraps up by reflecting on journaling, tangible records, and plans for season three.

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This episode features guest Bob Zanotti, who discusses his historical fiction novel Beyond the Copper Horizon, drawn from 40+ years of genealogical research on his great-great-grandfather Domenico. Bob explains how a college trip to Piedmont, Italy made him his family's archivist, leading to years of research in Italy and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, including oral histories and legal records. He describes blending verified facts—like Domenico's cavalry service, immigration timeline, and later life—with dramatized elements to show emotion, daily life, and the difficult reasons families left home. Bob outlines a rigorous six-year writing and editing process with beta readers in the U.S. and Italy, and shares plans for a companion novel focused on his great-grandfather Antonio.

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Anne, Doug, and Betsy welcome newly found second cousin Chris (Mimi's grandson), who tracked them down by googling family names after sorting his late parents' belongings. They swap memories of Mimi, her husband Joe, and the Titusville house, discuss family artifacts, and share a joyful wedding-trip letter. The conversation then returns to the unresolved 1947 death of 19-year-old Cornell student Dick Kraffert, reviewing a "Cornell Atomic Shadow Timeline" that links lab work, illnesses, sudden deaths, and Soviet spy Alfred Sarant, alongside frustration over missing autopsy records. They close by assigning Chris "homework" to search more letters.

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Anne shares a photo of bundled condolence letters and explains how reading family correspondence helped her finally "meet" her uncle Dick Kraffert, a brilliant 19-year-old Cornell student who died suddenly in 1947. She reads three short sketches inspired by details in the letters, imagining Dick's campus life, his close bond with Anne's mother Nancy, and Anne's grandmother's private grief in the attic armoire where the letters were kept. The group discusses the mystery of Dick's death—three autopsies with no cause found—and a lingering rumor linking his physics promise and Oppenheimer-era tensions to foul play. Doug's cousin Lori connects the theme to her daughter Jessica's death, returning saved childhood notes to friends, and her own postcard-inspired creative writing, as the hosts look ahead to possible letters from Fleur to her sister via a newly contacted second cousin.

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Meet Me at the Wall welcomes Beloit neighbor and aspiring storyteller Rick McGrath, who shares a parallel "letters project" from his own family archive. Rick describes a shoebox of World War II letters from his Uncle Emil—an Army Air Corps pilot—written to his mother during flight training and up to his deployment. A decades-later call about recovered remains and artifacts leads Rick to a previously unknown relation, and to the painful misunderstanding caused when letters were intercepted. Rick connects the story to aviation history, family artifacts, and the rediscovery of the lost letters, before the episode ends with the show's traditional cookie toast.

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The hosts finish their World War II conversation with historian John Gurda, covering rationing, Victory Gardens, war-bond propaganda, and how labor shortages brought many women into Milwaukee defense factories during the Rosie-the-Riveter era. After reflecting on how letters enable "time travel" and historical imagination, Anne shares a Red Cross newsletter about a 22-year-old pilot's Guadalcanal heroics and a Valentine she mailed to his grandson. Anne then reads her sketch "Curious Nancy" and its source letters describing her mother's teenage appendectomy, plus a short hospital note from Nancy. The episode concludes with a 1941 letter referencing "Franksgiving," touches on preserving the letter archive, and previews a bonus third WWII episode.

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This episode introduces World War II, featuring letters from Anne's family archive and part one of a call with Milwaukee historian John Gurda. Betsy reads a December 1941 letter from Shiny to Fleur describing air-raid warnings and rumors of enemy planes near New York. Then Doug and Anne read June–July 1942 correspondence between Fleur in Titusville, Pennsylvania and Ben, training with the Army at Miami Beach's Wofford Hotel. Gurda discusses how letters provide immediacy, outlines the transition from the Great Depression to wartime mobilization, and explains economic and social dislocation.

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Episode three begins with a call to Barry Cressman, a longtime Titusville resident and former Presbyterian pastor who knew Anne's grandparents Ben and Florence Crafford. Barry recalls Florence shopping in Manhattan during the 1929 crash, describes Titusville's Depression-era bust and WPA projects, a local bank-run story, and the town's later booms in steel and plastics before a 1990s downturn and current tourism focus. He also shares memories of Florence's humor and Nancy Kraffert Russo's memorable introduction. Anne reads two 1930s sketches that end with a real-life tragedy.

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This Meet Me at the Wall episode spotlights Florence "Fleur" and her best friend Shiny through Anne Goodwin's 1934–35 sketches and Betsy's readings of Shiny's original letters. Anne portrays Fleur settling in Charlottesville while Benj attends UVA law school, hosting a large cocktail party, and growing concerned about Shiny's health; a second sketch dramatizes Fleur driving over winter mountains with her children to visit Shiny, mixing fact with a borrowed real-life detail. Betsy reads Shiny's 1934 typewritten letter about wanting a typewriter, a possible Thanksgiving trip, and the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, plus earlier letters showing Shiny's humor and her struggle to get well. Shiny's son Frank Mountcastle calls in, shares memories of Shiny's personality and Bay Head summers, describes his father's work (including WWII production), and reflects on how important Fleur was to Shiny.

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The hosts of Meet Me at the Wall return for season two, thank listener Billy in their first call-in interview, and discuss plans to blend dramatized sketches with original letters as the story moves into the 1930s and 1940s. Anne shares a new sketch set in 1931 about Florence and Ben being invited to fly with barnstorming aviators Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn, then a 1944 postscript about their son Dick's growing flying obsession. The hosts read Dick's August 1944 letter describing soloing, tailspins, rough landings, and passing his driver's test, and Anne connects it to her blog reflections. Betsy adds background on Herndon and Pangborn's trans-Pacific record and Japan arrest.

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