Dear Mom, Dad and all:

     Your V-mail of April 23rd received May 4th.  Glad to hear the good news about the ring and about Art's being okay for the Navy.  We need one sailor in the Martin family, if it's really necessary for him to go.  Sent your letter on to Evelyn.  She wrote yesterday saying she was writing to you again.  She has her wedding dress now.  She's coming to the "Wings for Victory" benefit ball on the fifteenth.  She has a very lovely sort of pink colored formal dress and I know she'll be the "belle of the ball" in it.  I'll have to carry a club.  We've decided to V-mail the wedding invitations.  They will be quite a novelty.  Evelyn has bought her entire trousseau and "going away" suit out of her own earnings.  I'll bet that few brides her age, or even older, can say as much.  Her mother gave her the veil.  It cost $10.00 alone, so you can guess what the rest of her clothes cost.  Nothing is cheap over here now.  Haven't heard from George since he moved.  I've written George Huff about the packages.  I'm sure looking forward to a month from today.  Love to all at home.

Thatch