My Little Hammock

Mon. 18 Dec. ‘44

1:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m. there)

 

Dear folks,

This will perhaps be the first letter you get after quite awhile. We can’t mail any more on the boat after today so I’m putting stamps on it and hoping it will go air mail. I have a few stamps that I’ll nurse along as long as possible so I’d like you to put in a few air mail stamps every once in awhile when you write.

Here’s what to look for in the way of letters. Dec. 7 letter you should have gotten a week ago today. Dec. 8 is a V-mail letter. This one is air mail and the ones between – Dec. 9-17 inclusive are all sent “Free.” That’s 11 letters in all. They are sent as you can see by all possible methods and in all probability will go out together so you will be able to tell which goes faster. I imagine the V-mail will get there first.

It’s a beautiful day today for which I am thankful. I can’t seem to make it seem that Xmas is but a week away. I got a good night’s sleep last night again in my little hammock. This morning I found myself on a little mopping detail again but it helps pass the time away at least.

It’ll sure feel funny to walk on something that doesn’t move. I’ll probably walk stiff legged for awhile. Maybe some of the things in this letter don’t tie up very well but they will when you’ve gotten all the letters. Everyone around here has grabbed pen in hand and is furiously writing. I’ve written every day just as if they were going out because I know you and how you like to get letters.

There really isn’t much I can say except I hope you get all of these pretty fast and that I have mail waiting for me. But if you get mine O.K. I won’t complain too much. One never knows how long we’ll be in one spot from now on so getting mail may be a problem.

That’s about all I guess so I’m going to sign off and write a V-mail also so you’ll be sure of hearing from me as soon as was at all possible. It might possibly beat air mail and I know you’ll be looking for the date to see how “far behind me” you are. So long now,

Love

Son

…So I Exterminated It

Sun. 17 Dec. ‘44

2:10 p.m. (whatever time we’re on)

 

Dear folks,

Right now I’m just sort of wondering what I’ll be doing at this time next week. It’s hard to tell. A week from tomorrow is Xmas but I don’t imagine it will seem much like it. You won’t have received any mail from me yet either probably. These letters written “Free” will probably take 2 or 3 weeks to get there after they finally get mailed. I must have 2 or 3 packages on the way. Edna’s sending one, & you said Elmo was too. I think Marie may have also. I hate to think of what Edna’s will look like as she never wraps anything securely. Even from Mich. to Ark. the pkgs. were all broken up.

Last night I tried a new experiment (for me) in sleeping. Up to now I’ve been sleeping on a mattress on a fixed spot. By that I mean a part which moves with the ship in its rocking and rolling. For a change I tried a hammock last night. What a difference. Instead of moving, you just hang still and the boat moves around you. It’s a real improvement but getting out on the floor in the morning proves to be quite a shock. We’re in rough water today and this boat is rolling plenty. I slept until time for breakfast this morning. It wasn’t too bad today – oatmeal, bread, jam & boiled eggs. There isn’t much you can do to an egg anyway except boil it. Someday when it has no longer military significance I’ll tell you a little more about this trip but for now I can’t.

After breakfast I went up on deck for awhile but it wasn’t very pleasant today – windy, rainy and rough. At 10:00 I got a little conscientious and went to an hour church service with a couple of the fellows. It was pretty good and I’m glad I went. A couple chaplains, one a Negro Captain, held the service. When that was over I took a swing around the deck and came on down and washed up a bit and shaved. I cultivated a mustache for a few days but it began to get that sort of sickly look like the ones Pop used to raise so I exterminated it. Now before I wrote this I dug out my typewriter and knocked out V-mail letters to Edna and Rudy so I’m even with my mail once more.

I just got the low down on the air mail situation. Letters written “free” go by boat to the U.S. and by train to you. Letters written “air mail” go by boat to U.S. and by air from there. That would make less than a day’s difference for you probably so I guess there isn’t much to be gained in that. V-mail is photographed, sent by air to the states, reproduced and then sent on by train. It might be faster but it is held naturally on this side until a complete reel of letters is photographed so all in all the 3 will probably have about the same speed. I wrote one V-mail and I’ll send one air mail so you can compare them and tell me which is better. I imagine I’ll end up just using the old “free” mail system.

I forgot to mention that Dick Heil & Ken Hammond looked me up the other night. Several other Lansing boys are in their outfit but most of them I didn’t know.

It must be storming up on top judging by the movement of the ship and also the fact that everyone is down here instead of up on deck as usual.

You know I’d be getting in to Lansing tonight on a 15 day furlough for the holidays if we’d stayed on that side awhile longer.

I wish I’d kept a few more of those pictures I left at home. I was just looking through the ones I have now. They really look good. Stick a picture in once in awhile when you write, will you? Even though I may have seen them before its O.K. and I wish you’d take a few once in awhile and send too.

Well I guess I’m running down a little so maybe I better quit for this time. I’ve been writing on this for an hour. So for today, So long, Take it easy.

 

Love

Arlington

I’m Not Supermouse

Sat. 16 Dec. ‘44

 

Dear folks,

Well one more weekend is here and I’ve been wondering how to spend it. I can’t decide whether I’ll go to town tonight or not. But since I’m not Supermouse and have no water wings I’ll probably be right here where I am.

I feel a little disgruntled today. The boat is rolling quite a bit but that doesn’t bother. I’m just a bit sleepy as I couldn’t seem to get much sleep last night. The motion of the boat sort of rolled me around a lot. As soon as I could I got up on deck this morning and stayed up until about noon reading a small pocket book “The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.” It wasn’t much of a book but it’s something to do. When I came back down I spent about 3 hours trying to sleep off a headache but didn’t get very far so now here I am.

Nothing much I can talk about. I’ll really be glad when this trip is over as its getting pretty tiresome. We’re all getting a bit on edge and a bit on the argumentative side.

So far they won’t let us write where we think we are going although these won’t be mailed until we arrive and by then we’ll be writing our letters from “Somewhere in Timbucktoo or Nagasaki” or wherever it may be. I consider we are lucky to be headed to where we are and I hope we’ll stay for awhile. I’m going to miss being able to buy anything I wanted to eat so long as I had the money. When we were back at our last camp I did a pretty good job on the stuff I like – ice cream, milk shakes, milk, etc. Over here most of all that sort of thing will be unavailable. Remember those Bismcarcks I used to like so well? Well, they sold them at the P.X. and I really got my share of them for the short time I was there. Well this isn’t getting me anywhere, except hungry, but it’s something to talk or write about. I’ll really lay into some good food when I can get at it again.

As I mentioned once before we get a little work on languages. One of them I like and could catch on to fairly fast. Of course all they teach us are phrases to get directions, ask simple questions, etc. and we really learn nothing about grammar or construction but I know a little about it so I could grasp it fairly quickly. I’ve intended to do a little studying but never have done much yet.

Maybe I’ll get ambitious and answer Rudy’s & Edna’s letters tonight so I’ll be caught up when we arrive. I’m hoping we’ll have mail waiting and we should have quite a bit.

Well I guess that’s all I have to say for today so I’ll sign off until next time again. So long,

Be seein’ yo’all

Love

Arlington

Chicken Feed

Fri. 15 Dec. ‘44

[cut out by censor] (5:20 p.m. your time)

 

Dear folks,

Well I feel pretty good today. Right now we are listening to some music being broadcast from the recreation room here on the boat. I got a good night’s sleep last night and the world looked a lot better this morning. As soon as I washed and shaved and ate my breakfast I spent the rest of the forenoon on deck. The old ocean had smoothed out a little and also I guess I’m getting used to it by now. I got stuck for a little calisthenics this afternoon. I don’t mind it but it’s really been a long time since I’ve done any. They just sang a couple Xmas carols. It takes me back a year to the nights when the girls from the Tri Delts & Chi Omega houses used to go around signing [singing] evenings back at Arkansas Univ.

Not much to write about tonight that I can talk about. When you get that first check use it on the “outside” for little things such like a few Air Mail stamps. I’d like to send these air mail but I’m hoarding my stamps to use so you’ll get the last letters, or I should say newest ones, first when I land.

We just had a little practice with the monetary system of the nation we expect to be in pretty soon. It is going to be a headache I’m afraid if we get a chance to do any spending. I still think Alexander Hamilton had the right idea with our decimal system of currency. I can learn the American equivalents of their currency pretty easily but making change with their chicken feed is something else.

We’ve been issued books on a couple foreign languages and also have had some classes. One language I don’t know anything about and wouldn’t learn very soon I’m afraid. The other I know a little about and think I can catch on to pretty fast.

Well it’s nearly bed time so I’ll sign off once again until next time,

So long

Love

Arlington

Rambling On

Thurs. 14 Dec. ‘44

 

Dear folks,

One more day to cross off the list. I’m in a little better spirits tonight fortunately. That wasn’t much of a letter that I wrote last night. I guess first I better recapitulate a bit. I’ve been numbering my envelopes but the censor tells me that’s out so I’m doing a little differently to let you know how many letters to look for. So far I’ve written something every day and so long as possible I’ll keep it up. If and when there’s a break I’ll let you know when I did write and when I didn’t in the next letter so you will be able to tell about what to look for. So when you start getting mail again it will take up right where the last one left off. I wrote once by V-mail and I’ve use “Free” mail ever since which will probably be a lot slower. When I am where the mail will go right out I’ll use air mail perhaps so you’ll probably get the V-mail & the air mail first and then these will come tagging in. I imagine you’ll get better results than I. I expect mine to come in groups of ½ dozen or so letters but then I may be luckier, at first at least. I’m hoping we have plenty waiting for us when we arrive. I presume you’ve been writing regularly – so if it’s by air mail it ought to be there. Today we were told to leave the APO # blank on our envelopes that we mail so we may have a new number. All the letters I’ve been mailing have the old 17567 but they’ll probably change them for us or let them go as is. I’ll get it all O.K. so don’t worry about having written to the old address. That explains that a little I guess and I’ll get to something else.

I got to bed at about 9:30 last night but didn’t sleep too well. I felt a little steadier this morning and as soon as I ate I beat it up on deck and spent the whole forenoon outside in the air. It’s the only place to be when you don’t feel too good. I stood for over an hour just watching the water go by. I’ve discovered that watching the waves doesn’t make one sick. I believe the sea was just as rough but one can get used to it. I was a little distressed at the beginning of the trip, then got used to it until it got rougher, now I’m used to that. If it doesn’t roughen up more maybe I’ll make it. I came down this afternoon and started doing a little work. Sgt. Kumins hunted me up and told me I had to finish by tomorrow so I worked steadily all afternoon until I finished a little before supper. I just had my nightly stroll around deck. It’s mighty dark out tonight.

We change time again tonight. This is the 3^rd time we’ve been set ahead an hour and always at night so we lose an hour’s sleep. I can just guess that when we come back some day those extra hours will be during the day instead of night.

I was really surprised today. Remember that little kid, a T/5, that I was talking to one night when we were sitting downtown on my furlough last June? His name is Dick Heil. I was walking around with Buck today and I saw someone that looked like him. By the time it dawned on me he was gone. If you’ll remember, he said several fellows from our old High School class were in his outfit. So I started keeping my eyes open. I haven’t run into him again but tonight I ran into another one, Dillard Garrisson. So some of the old home town is on here too, by coincidence. I believe Ken Hammond and a couple more are in that outfit too. I’m going to try to look them up if I can because, once we land, we’ll probably be separated. It was good to see a couple old familiar faces. I’ve know these 2 since Jr. High at French.

Well I’ve rambled on for 3 pages and haven’t said too much but really there isn’t too much I can say. I have a couple letters here to answer so maybe I’ll do that yet tonight. I also have a book that was in that Red Cross kit which I’m reading at. Anyway I guess I’ve run down for today so I’ll sign off and turn this over to the censor. So long for tonight,

Love

Arlington