I Was Practically Eligible For A Dog License

Fri. 26 Jan. ‘45

 

Dear folks,

I’m back again. It’s a pretty snappy day here. No more snow but pretty cold. Last night after supper – hash, spuds, corn, beets, bread, butter & peanut butter & fruit cocktail – I changed clothes, got a pass and went into town. I usually always drop into the Red Cross & the YMCA first. Someday I may run into someone I know as there are probably quite a few fellows near here that I know. Then I went to a movie. It was “Dragon Seed” with Katherine Hepburn and wasn’t bad at all. It was a very long picture about the Chinese War. By the time I walked back to camp it was about 10:30. The barracks was really empty. I woke at about 7:00 this morning and finally got enough courage to crawl out and dress and take off for chow – grapefruit juice, all bran, milk, eggs, potatoes, bread, butter and grapefruit. I got ambitious and came to work early this morning and built the fire to get myself thawed out. I quit for dinner at the usual time – fish, potatoes, peas, salad, bread, butter & fruit salad. I don’t usually eat fish but that was good today, even for cod fish.

I think perhaps I shall stay in tonight and do a little washing and a few other things. I miss my boy Buck. He has a friend from back in Fort Wayne whom he hasn’t seen for nearly 2 years who is stationed not too far from here. Buck has been figuring on getting a pass to go see him. This morning the other kid shows up here looking for Buck but unfortunately he’s out in the field so they missed connections. I don’t seem to hear from any of my boys over here lately, not even Sammy. I don’t know yet how the mail will be today.

So for awhile I’ll start to answer all these back letters. Report – no mail today. Now Thurs. Dec. 14 – I got that letter from Amelia & answered it over here. So that kid finally got married. Can’t see it. I don’t answer very much in your letters some times as I may have already mentioned the same thing in my letters to you. The subjects are a bit cooled off too by the time a month elapses between answers. It does take nearly a month for a letter to be answered. I haven’t been getting my hair cut very often over here. I was practically eligible for a dog license. It’s almost long enough on top to comb again. The only mail I got from the time we left Texas until the first mail over here was 3 letters the first day on the boat. Today I read in the paper how thick the subs are in the Atlantic. It’s good we didn’t know it as we didn’t worry particularly about them on our trip over. Now Fri. Dec. 15 – You dated it the 16^th. We didn’t leave in a hurry. In fact we stayed longer than the average. If you ever wanted to send me a cablegram my cable address is AMIGUV. I don’t know just how it really does work but I believe you use that instead of an APO number. If I had it to do over I’d bring practically all of that stuff with me that I sent home at the last minute. I still have all the Xmas cards I got. I sort of hate to throw them away. You know me. You may as well use 3 cent stamps as the air mail doesn’t make any difference. Save the money. I haven’t heard from Walt. We can write to each other on this side but delivery is very slow. It doesn’t have to go back to the States. Now Sat.-Sun. Dec. 16-17 – All you put on the V-mail is a 3 cent stamp same as any letter. Oh yes, everybody came along. So Pop censors your mail for you. Now Mon. Dec. 18 – Well your correspondence is speeding up. Did Marie get down or I should say up to see you yet? You know time is really going surprisingly fast. Only 2 months ago we were in Texas. That seems long ago but New Years seems just a few days ago. So long as we stay here things won’t be too bad.

Well that answers a few letters and brings me up to Dec. 27. I still have 4 more to answer next time and perhaps more if it arrives. If any of those subs sink any of my mail “gives it war.” Well I’ll call this enough for now and sign off for one more day. So long for today,

Love

Arlington