The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Letters Telling Our Love Story by Wanda Jennings

Episode Date: March 8, 2026

Letters Telling Our Love Story by Wanda Jennings https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Telling-Our-Love-Story/dp/B0GNP1F2ZD In 1966 the couple fell in love in college; then were separated during the next two summers.No email, no cell phones, no texting.Only writing letters and waiting for a response in the mailbox. They shared their love, they argued, they later debated about marriage. Is she doing what he wants with her hair? Can she make him like it Would they survive their separations? Could they remain as partners? Can they learn to live together? This is a love story unlike any in today’s world.It is a wonderful tale of Baby Boomers and what they went through as the Viet Nam war was going on.

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Because you're about to go on a monster education role. rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, Moses, Voss here from the Christfoss Show.com. Dang-a-l-Gel. When they're, lady, sings that that makes it official. Welcome to the big show. As always, the Chris Voss show.

16 years, 2,800 episodes, one of the oldest, handful of oldest still broadcasting regularly podcasts in the world. What can you say about that? And we're still kicking butt, taking name. So be sure to refer. for the show to your family, friends, and relatives, Goodrease.com, Forteouschast, Christfuss, LinkedIn.com, Forteouschis Christfoss, Facebook.com, Forteouschus, and YouTube.com,

fourststch, Chris Foss. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Foss show. Some guests of the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it's not an endorsement or review of any kind. Today, we have an amazing young lady on the show. We're going to talk to about her books that are just wonderful love stories. We love love stories, don't we, folks?

Doesn't everybody love good rom-com or, you know, romance and all that stuff? Love is the thing that keeps the world live. Title of her book is entitled Letters Telling Our Love Story out February 3rd, 26 by Wanda Jennings. She's a multi-book author. We're going to get into with her and all that good stuff. Welcome to the show, Wanda. How are you? Thank you.

I'm doing very well. I'm in Texas now. Ah, Texas. Give us any dot-coms social media. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? Okay. I'm on Facebook. That's basically it.

Okay. email me at Wanda Jennings' book at gmail.com. Okay. And so give us a 30,000 over you. What's in your book? Letters. Telling our love story. Okay.

My husband and I were going to college in 1966 and 67. And during college, the college year we met, and we were having a romance to go into dating and things. And then in the summers, we went off to make money. Each of us went one way or another and trying to make. money. So we started writing letters back and forth to each other. And it just increased our love and showed how much love we had for each other. And you've written three books now about love letters, have you? Yes. The first one, I think, was so Brian's grandparents in World War I,

back in 19, 18, I think, got married. The next day he went off to World War I. And left her sitting in Texas. So they wrote letters back and forth the whole time, and they kept those letters. They are keepers of letters. And I was given those letters, and I typed all those up and put them into a book that's available on Amazon called, what do you, you said, love letters from the sailor to her sailor, something like that. And then another set of letters, Brian and I were teaching Eskimo children in the bush of Alaska. And it's a very different culture and a very different culture and a very different way of living. He wrote letters, and I think I wrote a few of them, to his parents, and they kept all

of those. And so a few years ago, I took all those letters and wrote them, typed them up, and put them into a book. Wow. That's awesome. And, you know, what's the importance of love letters, especially maybe the tactile version, the way it used to be when it was kind of acoustic. and you know, you had to write these things out and you, you know, I, what was the importance

of love letters? Why is that, why are those important to us as human beings, I guess? I think it's because you, you have a visual, you have something in your hand saying that, that you love each other with text and, and other things today. You don't have that as much. So I think this is a real, and you had to wait for them. You wait until the letter got there, it was two or three days after you've been written, or maybe a week. and you finally get the letter. So yes, there's a lot of important things in there. Yeah, you made me realize a little epiphany today

that kind of all this texting that people do in romance now back and forth or emailing is kind of like old, you know, you and I growing up knew as a love letter's. But there was something about the tactile nature of that. I still like reading a newspaper, like a real paper newspaper. There's something I find glorious about that. Maybe because I'm old and my eyesight's gone and I can, you know, I need something I can see. But, you know, I mean, just, I don't know, having the whole thing there and folding it out,

kind of having some control over it. And our brains enjoy three-dimensional stuff. Our brains don't work well with this 2D screen crap. And so, yeah, I mean, I mentioned to you before the show, I wrote me and my girlfriend wrote love letters back and forth to each other in high school, because her parents will let me see her. And so it was a forbidden love, something like that. I don't know.

Anyway, they wanted her to go back to the previous boyfriend who actually had, let's see, I think I had done what they were afraid I would do. And, yeah, they didn't, I mean, they would call the school. So we would have to pass love letters back and forth to each other and a romance and then get together in different classes and sneak away sometimes. I don't know what that means.

but yeah I mean they were I still have them I I several years after I bumped into her and I said hey do you some of those my letters I sent to you because I have your letters you sent to me and she said yeah and I said you know I'd like to get me copies of and so I got I got a copy and she never cared to ask for him back so I have both sides good I've often thought about publishing a book of those letters. Yeah, you could do that. Publish a book of your letters. Yeah. I mean, I think it's amazing. It's wild the stories of, you know, people, and there were a lot of people back in the day that in World War I and World War II,

where they got married, and then they took off for duty. Your parents did that. Yeah. That's wild, isn't it, though? Yeah. And can you imagine you bury somebody? and then they're gone the next day. I know some marriages that pretty much

that should have been where they started because that's about where they ended. So some of these love letters, you guys are in 1966, you fell in love in college, then you were separated during the next two summers. Tell us about how that worked. What was that like

and what sort of stress or issues that put on the relationship? Going back and looking at the relationship. Going back and looking at the letters, we weren't certain that we wanted to get married. We talked about it a little bit, you know, actually got engaged once and then got unengaged. He said, it wasn't what we wanted to do. And so we wrote some more letters and now just, just that started, kept our love going, our relationship going. But we were also dating other people just trying to decide if that's what we wanted to do.

Oh, that sounds like modern texting to me. That's usually what a lot of people are doing now. They have a whole mess of people they're talking to. And in pick of culture, we call that plate spinning. But they're still texting each other. You know, whatever. But so now it says you fell in love in college, but then you were separated during the next two summers. So were you together when it wasn't summer for those next two summers?

Yeah. The school year of September through May. Oh, okay. Then it was summertime, and both of us needed to make some money. Oh, yeah. Yeah, first summer I went to, we were at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, and I went to Big Bend National Park and was a maid making up the beds in the rooms and worked there for about half of that summer until I got into an accident and went back home for a while.

And then the second summer, he was in ROTC, VLOM War was here. come what's going on and he had to go to summer camp for r o tc that summer so we were separated for that reason yeah so i mean love is it true the love or separation makes the heart grow fonder or something i think so yes it's when you miss people that maybe you appreciate them more yes you keep wishing they were back around and yes yeah which is probably different for when they're around all the time you get sick of them maybe i don't You know, this romantic thing of writing these love letters and doing this dance of romance for sometimes years that people do, do you think that leads to better relationships,

maybe a better appreciation of each other when you finally do get to spend, you know, daily time together? I think it did for us. We got to know each other a lot better. Oh, really? I think we both shared our emotions a lot more than we would sitting in a car and talking, going out to eat dinner. I don't think we shared our love, nearly as much as we did in his letters.

Maybe more merry people need to write the letters, love letters to each other. Yes. I don't know. It seems like romance and love is harder to find in today's world than ever before. And I know people that are writing these text messages back to each other eternally. But the funny thing is they never meet. Did you guys fall in love before you started writing the letters back and forth? Absolutely. Yes. We met playing a game called Winkum. Have heard of Winkum?

Was that the old wood stuff where you built cabins and things? No. It's a game. We're at our church activity place. They had a game and the girls all sit in chairs and a man stood behind each girl. And then there's one chair that's empty and a man stands behind it. And he looks around the room and gets a girl looking at him and he winks at that girl. And if she winks back, she jumps up. If the man behind her doesn't ask her to sit down there, she jumps up and goes to see him. So Ryan winked at me, I jumped up and went and sat with him. Was he a cute guy, I guess? Yeah, oh, he was.

Oh, adorable. Yes. Everyone's good looking at high school or college, right? Yeah. Everyone's still young. Yeah. Would you still pick him after all these years? Oh, absolutely.

Yes. And how long have you guys been together? We were married 57 years. 57 years. Wow. That is wild. I can barely put up with anybody, any other human for 57 minutes. We had in the morning life. We traveled around the world and lived in Germany for a while and lived in the bush of Alaska for a while.

I've been Boise, Idaho, lived in Texas. Yeah. Boise, Idaho. That's kind of like living in the bush. No, I'm not kidding. It used to be a real small town. I think it's still kind of is. I remember last time I visited there I could throw a rock from one end of the airport to the other

and and that's probably grown now it's been about 20 years but I remember the tallest building in town was four stories or so or six stories and they had two lane freeways everywhere I was like where's the third lane and yeah but what made you decide these deeply personal letters I mean these are you know some of these can get personal I just felt like the they need to be shared. They were just so important and so loving that it was important that people would have thought that people would like to read that. Yeah.

It's a good example for maybe the young Gen Z years that are having trouble with meeting and relationships and stuff. When you reread the letters all these years later, what surprises you most about the younger selves that you'd stuff you were up to? I guess I was surprised at how much we talked to each other. We kept talking of love and we stayed together and we didn't have arguments back and forth. But we got over those and came around again and apologized for it or whatever. But I think that's the main thing.

Now, when you write text messages, you know, they come pretty fast sometimes. Like they can, you know, you write one and then it pops back to you. You really don't have any sort of delay. It kind of builds that anticipation, you know, the fondness that the heart grows. rose when they're separated. Do you think that's kind of more the key to them? You know, the weight you have to do? I mean, you have to wait for them to come through the mail, basically, right?

Yes, and sometimes it takes three or four days, five or six days. Yes, that's part of the whole thing, is you're waiting to see what he's going to say next. And if you said something kind of nasty in the last one, is he going to accept that? Or what is he going to say? Ah, sometimes when you have those arguments, you're worried that maybe they're going to break up. Exactly. And, you know, that might be the next letter.

I'm breaking up with you. How did, what letter in the book best captures the heart of your love story and why? Is there one that sticks out for you? Yes, this one was sent from Brian to me. Came from Lotton, Oklahoma, June of 1967. I'll just read part of it. Sure. I'd much rather be there with you where I could share my experiences with you in person.

at least I get some consolation in thinking of the day when I'll be able to spend all my time with you. Wanda, last Tuesday when I was with you, it seemed like paradise. I love to just be with you, both doing everything together, talking together about little and big things, and just sitting together on the sofa,

just being with each other. It seems like the natural thing for me, and it's the way I think I'd like to spend. the rest of my life. We seem like we were made to be together in spite of certain minor differences. I realize that married life can't be contained continual ecstasy, but whatever it is, I think I love you enough to go through it all with you. And the rough places I have to face in my own life will seem a lot smoother if you're there.

Wow. Love. Can't be denied. Can't deny love. I love that. It's awesome. And, you know, I mean, in today's world with texting, sometimes they just send pictures to each other, which is, I think not as good as writing stuff and, you know, being able to see how people think and how they do. Did you guys write to each other after you got married?

Only if we were separated for a little while. Okay. Yeah, yes, he went off to the Vietnam War was going along at that time, but he didn't go to Vietnam War. But he went over to Germany, and he went over there about six weeks before I got to come to him. So we wrote back and forth at that time. And a few other times we were separated for a little while and, yes, continued to write letters. It's interesting, folks. Maybe you should write letters to yourselves, each other if you want to have one of those long-lasting

57-year marriages. You know, I run big dating groups and the attitudes are really different nowadays and weird. You know, people are, social media has really kind of changed everything to where it's, how would you describe it? It's basically, I don't know, there's a lot of people just writing to each other and just nonsense. Let's put it that way. How did distance and uncertainty test your relationship during those summers? Did you guys, did it cause strife maybe sometimes? That was one of those things I found in writing back and forth is when love is sometimes you can't be with a person.

Sometimes there's a bit of, I don't know, you get angry, you get upset. But sometimes, you know, like, this isn't working. This is a, this is a, and I can't ever see the person I'm in love with. It's misery. And so sometimes you take that misery out on each other, maybe. Yeah. And sometimes, but during that whole time, we were debating whether we should get married. So we were sometimes dating somebody else and seeing, is this person better than him?

Do I want to marry this person? So we both of us were doing that a little bit, not a whole lot. Uh-huh. How did the cultural expectations of the 1960s influence your relationship and choices? One of the things for women was that when we're supposed to get married, having a career wasn't really what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to find the man that could be a breadwinner for them and marry that guy and let him be the breadwinner and they do whatever else. So I think that's not what people are looking for today. They have more careers.

But that's what it was back then for a woman. her job was to get married. Let's see. What would you hope readers feel or reflect on after finishing the book? Say that again. What do you hope readers feel or reflect on after they read the book? Yes, I hope they feel the love that we have between us and maybe remember back to their times when they were in love

or if they're still in love today, remembering that, making them understand and appreciating. what love is. True love. If you can speak to your 1966 selves, what advice would you give about love and patience? I think I would say you've got it. You've figured it out.

I'm glad you figured it out and had the patience to continue to writing the letters, continue to stay in love through the whole time. Love. There's hope. You know, the one thing that's great about, human beings is there is their adherence to hope they it's the thing that helps renew us and keep us on a vision of of a positivity so now the other books the soldier book and then the other

book is what was the title of the other book three years of teaching in the bush of alaska what was that like for you guys you guys that we've had a few people on that have done was it was one of those christian ministry sort of experiences or no we were both teachers and we were teaching in texas and And I, as I was finishing my master's degree, a woman at the placement office said, I'll pay you double what you're getting paid in Texas if you'll come teaching the bush of Alaska with me. Wow. Okay.

Okay. You have me a double. But when you get into the bush of Alaska, there are airplanes are the only way in and out, except in the summer they have boats that bring things by. But no, no car. There's, there are cars in the village that drive around the small streets of the village, but there's no way to go anywhere from the village except by airplane. It's very tight community and trying to be part of that with my personality of being a native Texan

and going up there and seeing their Eskimo way of life. And then I'm trying to teach them what we in Texas teach our people is the curriculum they give us basically. And so that's a difficult. It was all adventure, a lot of adventure to it. Lots of adventure. So was it was, I mean, you're going from Texas, which is fairly warm, especially in the summer, to Alaska. What was it like adjusting to the coldness up there? Cold.

We were, we stopped in Seattle on the way there and got some very warm clothing. War that warm clothing as needed throughout. We went skiing a few. times outside, cross-country skiing side and played around a little bit, but mostly you stay inside. Mostly you stay inside where it's warm. Yeah.

Plus you don't want to get eaten by the lions and tigers and bears there. That's always a bad thing. No lines and tigers there. A few bears. Yeah. You never know. It's the wilderness. This picture up here, there's a picture of woman painted of the two of us.

Oh, really? Who sets of us that she painted from some pictures. That's one behind. you on the mantle there? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah.

So you guys have these great experiences with your lives. You live these amazing lives. And you really feel that spending all that time writing these love letters back and forth that kind of really cemented the bond and maybe we need for a better relationship over time? Yes, absolutely. Maybe we all need to start going back to that and doing that. Maybe that's a good example of how to make your relationship last longer.

You know, because people nowadays, they get together and they're just. They don't have a clue who each other are sometimes. I mean, I've counseled a lot of people before and after divorce. After a divorce, you're like, you really didn't know who that person was, did you? And I remember when in our high school, we used to write back and forth me and my girlfriend. We used to pour our whole soul into those letters and, you know, our love and for each other. And yeah, it was a wild thing, you know. And I don't know, it kept the relationship going.

I think we're together for two and a half years or something like that to the angst of her parents. But, you know, she was a wonderful girl. And yeah, it was, it's interesting for me, our letters back is kind of capturing what I was writing back then. And I'm still amazed when I wrote my book. I went back and went through all my old business writing and my early dreams and goals and what I was achieving. And going back and reading some of that stuff, it really gives me insight to what I was thinking. back then and really kind of defines I remember myself as well

over these years as what it was like back then but being able to read those letters sure captures a time print of that era. Yes, it's very interesting to read them. So I hope people will buy the book from Amazon and read the book.

I don't know if anybody has a case of old text message just they can go through and look and there's something about the tactile nature of it just holding the letter, seeing, you know, we wrote, you know, that was, that was much harder than typing. Yes. I mean, you'd write these things.

Sometimes you'd write something and maybe you're like, ah, no, I'm sending that letter. And then you rewrite it or something. And I remember sometimes I'd write a letter and you're like, you wrote this big letter, sometimes three or four pages. And then someone in there would be like, yeah, that'll upset or whatever. and so instead of having to you couldn't just, you know, throw away at all because you're rolling four pages of crap

so it won't, you know, you're going to have to rewrite that whole thing. Sometimes I'd just really scribble out a certain part. I don't know if you guys ever did that, but I just scribble out of a certain part because if I threw it all away and restarted it was, you know, take me an hour or something. If you wrote in the back of the letter, then you

can't cut it apart or something because it's more on the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got the front of the back, you're writing on, yeah. So yeah, and there were times where she would be like, oh, what did you just scratch out? Oh, I said some stupid bullshit. You know, and it was weird.

I can't remember if we ever got caught on our love letters in school because we passed them in school. But, yeah, it's forbidden love and the heart grows fonder over time. I mean, sometimes maybe that's just necessary, I think. I don't know. I fixed this book up. There we go. those

And so as we go out, what do you hope people come away with when they read your books? What are your final thoughts on all that good stuff? I hope they have joy. That that book brings some joy. They'll go try to find some love for themselves if they haven't found it yet. Yeah. Find the love for yourself and all that good stuff. So thank you very much for coming this show.

We really appreciate it. It's been wonderful to have you and just delight. I should go back to read my own love letters. Maybe we need to do that in the future. Thanks, Wanda, for coming on the show. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Give us your plugs.

Email, I think you got to Facebook, whatever social media. Facebook for Wanda Jennings and my email. Gmail is Wanda Jennings book at gmail.com. Wanda, thanks for me on the show. Thanks for us for tuning in. Order up her book where refined books are sold. Letters telling our love story out February 3, 2026. Thanks for tuning in.

go to goodreads.com, Fortresschastchristch, Chris Foss, and LinkedIn, YouTube.com and Facebook.com for Chess Christchristos. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time. You've been listening to the most amazing, intelligent podcast ever made to improve your brain and your life.

Warning. Consuming too much of the Chris Walsh Show podcast can lead to people thinking you're smarter, younger, and irresistible sexy. Consume in regularly moderated amounts. Consult a doctor for any resulting brain bleed. All right, Wanda, that should have a sudden.