This is actually two letters, dated July 21 and 22, 1944, both inserted into an envelope postmarked Sept. 2, 1944.
This is the July 21 letter:
Dear Folks,
I am well, happy, and safe and I hope you all are the same.
I received a few letters from you all today, and I was happy to hear from you.
I received Vince’s address via V-Mail from Bib, but I can’t make it all out. However, I shall write to him and hope he gets it.
I hear also from Bib’s V-Mail that Teet is in the hospital in England as a result of a little accident on D-plus two. He hasn’t anything to worry about. Send me his address and I will try to correspond with him while he is recuperating.
If you talked to Joe Acquista’s sister and neither of you know the reason why he didn’t receive my letter, why didn’t you send me his address again? He might have a different address than you gave me.
I am glad you received the pictures from Mrs. McClaine and intend to writer to her.
I didn’t get any cheese in that last package – or bunch of packages – you sent me. Maybe some more are on the way that I don’t know about. Anyway, I would like some more no matter what kind it was.
I also received a letter from Herbie Miller today and he has had quite a time back there by the course of his speech. However, I wouldn’t take his path and let him take mine if we had to start all over again for anything. I am quite content with my present position and see no future whatsoever in Miller’s occupation.
We saw a movie the other night entitled, “Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble” and I don’t see how they get people to see him play in the same picture every time under a different title. All of those pictures are alike and they don’t appeal to me in the least anymore.
I received another package and letter from Mr. Morgan. It was written before the end of the school year and he seems to be quite busy. I’ll bet that he’s glad he doesn’t have me to contend with this year, upsetting his form and temper at every possible moment. Then again, maybe school is getting too tame for him and he needs me now to give him more determination to make his pupils learn.
This is the July 22 letter:
Dear Folks:
I received another letter from you all today in which was a picture of Dad and Rosemarie and one of Grandpop. They are swell pictures and it seems like the older Rosemarie gets, the more beautiful she gets. And where did you get the flower garden all of a sudden?
You hadn’t previously mentioned the fact that you have sent me a couple of more packages, but I’m glad that they’re on the way. The size film you asked me about was 616 and I’ll welcome some more film. However you are going to be surprised by some of the pictures you receive in return. They may startle you at first, but you must take them for their face value only.
I just noticed that you said there weren’t any pictures of me standing up looking natural in that batch you received from McClaine’s wife, but I’m pretty sure that I took one that way. Maybe I’m wrong, though, so I’ll take another as you mentioned.
The weather here now is very nice and the food is good. We had a macaroni dinner yesterday cooked up by the local housewife. It sure tasted good and it was a pleasant change from the regular rations. We have canned chopped ham and eggs or chopped pork and egg yolks for two of the three meals a day and coffee and chopped ham and eggs for the other meal. It gets so that we don’t eat the bloody stuff anymore, we just swallow it. The only variation we have is the coffee, which is either too strong or too weak. When we do have good coffee, there is either not enough sugar or not enough milk, and when there is enough sugar and milk, there isn’t enough coffee. However, I never starve, so I guess I get enough to eat.
Incidentally, make the next package you send five pounds of spaghetti and make the box out of wood if you have to to keep the stuff from breaking. In another package, send enough tomato paste to make gravy for ten pounds of spaghetti. Also, you can put a can of peaches or pears in the package if you have enough room.
There is an Italian here who watches every move I make and he follows me around all day just gaping at me. I don’t know what he wants, but he better make himself clear pretty soon, because I may get angry with him. I don’t trust any of these kids between the ages of ten and twenty because that is the age where they start thinking of bringing glory to themselves and in these trying times it is very easy to win glory.
Well, I am just about at the end of my rope, so I’ll have to start signing off pretty soon. As you can see it took me two days to write this letter and to attempt another page would be sheer folly.
Well, Happy and Safe 