| Electronics Training Group
APO 640, US Army Letter #3 - 30 Jan. 1943 |
Dear Mom, Dad and All:-
I hope you received the cable I sent you last
week telling you the good news that George and I got together last Sunday
afternoon, Jan. 23rd, at Evelyn's. I had asked for a 48 hr. pass
for Sunday and Monday, and Saturday being our day off, this gave me three
days there. The Thursday previous I got a letter from George saying
he had arrived and would try to meet me. I wrote him immediately
telling him of my plans and to meet me if he could. He got a pass
and came to Evelyn's Sunday afternoon. How he ever found his way
there was a source of wonderment to the whole family as the fog was so
thick you couldn't see twenty feet ahead. You couldn't even see the
houses from the sidewalk. Evelyn and I had gone down to the Eagle
Club to ask again if there were any messages from him and were not there
when he arrived, so it really was a surprise when we came in and found
him there eating dinner, in which we joined him. I suppose he'll
write and tell you what he thinks of Evelyn, though I don't believe she
got a chance to say half a dozen words during the afternoon. He had
to catch a train back at 6:30 so we only had a couple hours together.
Evelyn and I went with him to see him off. All in all it was a great
week end.
Mailed
Received
All transatlantic air mail has been cut off by bad weather so V-mail
goes by boat the same as any other mail, hence the long delays in it.
I hope you got my pictures O.K. I sent one to the Martin's on fifth
street, too. Will send Art one when I answer his letter Evelyn had
her picture taken and will get the proofs today. Lord knows when
she'll get the pictures. I gave George my camera, which I had with
me Sunday.
Love to all,
Thatch.
Now that George is here you can write just
one letter to the both of us and we can send them to each other.
George is only four hours from me by rail and I can tell him on the phone
in the evening rates for 50 [cents] which I did last night. We hope
to get together again next Sunday, probably here, since he can travel for
about half of what it costs me.
Since I last wrote I have received the following
from home:-
Cable
Jan. 8
Jan. 11
Letter from Warren Spenser Dec. 17
Jan. 18
Letter from Gerry
Dec. 29
Jan. 19
Cable
Jan. 19
Jan. 22
Letter from Art
Jan. 7
Jan. 26
Will get some snaps of us together and send them
to you. There was no chance to take any then because of the fog.
Will have to send all our films to the Photo section the Signal Corps now
for development and censorshlp which is a bit inconvenient.
I was sure glad to hear Jerry was pleased with
the phonograph as she wrote in her letter and the sketch she draw of it
was very good. I suppose she knows you can borrow records from the
Public Library. I don't know just what they have to offer, but in
might be worth finding out. That record I wrote about in my last
letter is "Italiana in Algiers". There is a N.Y. Philharmonic recordlng
of it, too.
The holiday season really must have been a
joyous one at home judging from what I've heard from Art and Gerry.
Jim's arrival home, births, forthcoming blessed events, bags of gifts,
etc. Was happy to hear about Art and Mary's expected addition in
June. It takes more then one child to really make a family.
I wonder what Cathy will think of it, I'd sure like to see her now.
Gerry says she doesn't care much for Chemistry
and I can't say I blame her. I had a year of it at the "U" and it
was the least interesting one of the lot to me. She should have taken
physics. If she goes in for Medicine, though, she'll need both anyways.
I have Clare Boothe's book "European Spring" and liked it very much.
I loaned it to Evelyn to read and she liked it, too. I believe I've
written before about it. I'm about three-fourths of the way through
"The Letters of Lawrence of Arabia," (It's 870 pages) and about at the
same spot in "World Crisis 1914-1918" by Winston Churchill (820 pages).
The prime minister is a very capable historian. It will be something
to read his own history of this war if he writes one and I sure hope he
does, although it will be some task for a man his age. There have
been very few man who have not only made history, but written it, and Winston
has certainly done both, and in two world wars as well.
Did Florence ever get her Christmas card?
I didn't know where she was staying until I got your letter in November
saying she was going to move into the Marlowe on the first of December
(or was it November) so I addressed it there and sent it with a six cent
air mail stamp on it. I hope everybody was happy about getting a
letter from me at Christmas. I had two different kinds of cards and
mixed them up among the relatives. Did you see them both? I
sent out two dozen altogether and have none left. I don't think I
missed anybody.
It's Saturday morning, or was, that I'm writing
this and I just went down to dinner. It's a quarter to two now, the
housekeeper has been chatting with me for the last hour. I get all
the local news, scandals, her past history, etc. from her after dinner
every day and it's most amusing. She speaks the brogue of this part
of the country, always using him and her as the subject of a sentence,
instead of he or she, and it's fun to listen to her odd words. She's
as good hearted as can be. She washes my socks and handkerchiefs
for me now, darned my "holey" socks, too, and my tan wool sweater which
was torn. I gave her a bunch of chocolate bars and candy for her
grandsons at Christmas and the funnies from the papers you sent.
I get cookies and cans of tomato and orange juice in my rations from the
U.S.A. PX and give them to her for all of us, for breakfast, etc.
They like to read the American newspaper, spend hours reading them from
front page to back, every item. They're as grateful for these small
favors as if I had showered them with gold. Her daughter-in-law sent
me six fresh eggs from her country home the other day in gratitude for
the Christmas candy. You couldn't buy an ounce of candy here during
the whole month of December so what I gave them was all they had.
There are three grandchildren aged 14, 9 and 7. It's a poor Christmas
without a tree, presents, and not even candy. The American doughboys
all over Britain gave away two weeks sweet rations to the children and
earned, I think, the undying gratitude of their parents, judging by the
letters of thanks published in all the reader's columns of the newpapers
and the comments I've heard around the country. The common people
over here practically worship the American doughboys. With the increased
rates of pay they really are "dough" boys in the eyes of the British.
Well I guess that's about all for today.
It's a rather dreary, rainy one. We have no snow and the weather
during the past two weeks has been rather warm, about like April at home.
I still haven't received the Sam Browne or
the other Xmas package so they must be presumed lost at sea as I wrote
before.
So, Cheerio for now. I'll see Bug next
Saturday when he comes here and write you again then. It sure was
a thrill to learn he was here and to see him again. We hope to get
caught up on what we have to tell each other, next week, and later on do
a bit of sight-seeing together.
Thanks for your letter, Jerry. It was
sure a good one and you used to say you couldn't write letters. How
about you breaking down sometime, Pete, and letting me know what goes on
in your life these days? As I said before, Bug and I can exchange
letters so there's no need to write both of us individually. Write
to either alternately and we will exchange them unless either of us are
moved.