Resplendent In Pajamas And Robe

England

Sat. 31 March ‘45

12:50 p.m.

 

Dear folks,

Well here I am resplendent in pajamas and robe lying on a nice soft hospital bunk. In case letters come in backward order I’ll explain. I had the cast removed yesterday and the wrist was X-rayed as I said in yesterday’s letter. According to the X-ray, the bones aren’t knitted right so the Dr. decided I’d have to come here for a couple days. I talked him into letting me come back today after I had a chance to get my stuff together and get my toilet articles. So he let me go back last night. I’m allergic to hospitals anyway and didn’t want to come at all but he outranked me. I haven’t the slightest idea yet as to what will be done. The wrist feels about like it did when I first jammed it back at Ark. If I move it right it is a little sore and sort of catches. So that’s all I know about it now. Time will probably tell. I was over here nearly all day yesterday and got back to camp at about 5:00 I guess, told everybody I had to take off and got things partially in order. I better not be here very long as today is pay day and if I’m not there to make the payroll my job may be gummed up, but I guess there isn’t much I can do about it. The main thing is I don’t want to be sitting here some fine morning and find out the gang has “pulled.” If I have anything to say about it I go with the rest of my boys. I have good reasons for saying that too. After supper last night I cleaned up, changed clothes and went in to town at about 7:00. Don’t know when I’ll be back but I’m going to try to get out of here on pass tomorrow. If I had to be here very long I’d probably go slightly “wacky.” I looked around and spent some time at a little carnival or fair as they call it over here. It wasn’t much, a couple rides and the rest darts, target shooting, penny pitching, etc. It’s all under one canvas instead of spread out like an American carnival. Then I walked around a little more, ran into Haines, we got some sandwiches at the R.C. and then rode back to camp and went to bed. I was lazy this morning and even slept through reveille. I got up about 7:15, dressed, packed my stuff, made up the morning report and then headed for here. It is a beautiful setup here for a “goldbrick.” It’s a pretty nice ward I’m in and not at all crowded. Three of us from C Co. are right here together. The radios are fixed so music is on all the time. They have my clothes except for my shoes but I can get them anytime I get a pass which will be tomorrow if I have anything to do about it. The food here isn’t bad at all. Dinner today – beef, gravy, rice, corn, peas & carrots, bread, butter, pudding and a couple oranges. Now it’s afternoon and here I am. There is a movie shortly so I may go to that. The mail was good yesterday. I got your Mar. 19 & 21 V-mails and your air mails of Mar. 6, 8 & 9, 10 & 11, and the 19^th. Also there were letters from Edna & Amelia. So now I’m way behind once more. I have about 14 letters from you to answer sometime when I get to them. I’ll probably end up with another cast on this arm so if that happens my writing may be curtailed until I get access to a typewriter again. We’ll see.

Back at about 4:00. I saw “Show Business” with Eddie Cantor & George Murphy this afternoon. So that’s about all the dope for today. By the looks of things they won’t even bother with me until Mon. so I will probably get stuck for longer than I expected. I don’t like it but then what I do or don’t like doesn’t mean a lot. I told the mail man to hold my mail back there as I didn’t want it chasing me around. I’ll be back there every chance I get anyway. This life isn’t for me. I understand we can get 4 passes a week but I hope not to be here that long. The heck of it is once you get in its hard to get out again or seems to be. So that’s that. Don’t worry because the wrist is in about the same shape as it’s been for a long time near as I can tell by the feel of things. Everything works out for the best you always say. Sometimes I wonder about that though.

I have stacks of letters to answer here so we’ll see how far I get until supper time. The first one I have is Mon. Feb. 26 – I see it was almost addressed to Cp. Maxey by mistake. My glasses are still O.K. The one pair has a couple chips out as you know but are still useable. That Dr. in Texas was off the beam on my wrist I think. An X-ray would have probably showed something then but that was the 99^th Div. Those truck rides I mention are G.I. trucks run between the Red Cross & camp as a free bus service for us. Well, the nurse just stuck a thermometer in my mouth – for what? We have a little nurse, partially gray haired. I can’t mention what you asked about in the Atlantic. I’m always glad to get the V-mails. I think both of us are doing better now. I get at least one letter nearly every day now. This fact that it takes a month to get an answer is bad. It makes it hard to follow something. Ah yes, the radio reminds me its Easter tomorrow. Last year Leonard & I spent the day in Paris, the year before Bert & I were in Frisco, and next year? I wonder if those cards got there on time, probably not. There, that’s one more letter and cleans up everything for Feb. finally. I’ve already answered Mar. 1 & 2 so next comes Sat.-Sun. Mar. 3 & 4 – The robots were coming in in the daylight when we were in London. It’s about time they got the pedestrians on the ball back there. Well, so Pop is electrifying my room a bit too. One of the boys’ wife wrote that his Feb. 14 letter was in bad shape, had been wet so I guess they got dunked someplace. I’m still here yet. Well if Dad didn’t owe any more taxes that’s something. Yes, our letters run about the same as to fast & slow ones. I have had just the one letter from Hugh so far. Financially, I was really ”hurting” this month. Those two 48 hour passes ruined me plus the fact I had 4 pounds lent out. I came back with 2 pence but got 2 of the pounds paid to me so that helped. I hope they bring us our pay tomorrow or Monday.

Back from supper. You know this is developing into the life of Riley. A couple days and I may get to like it. The food seems O.K. – meat loaf, potatoes, gravy, spinach, pears, jam, bread, butter, cocoa & oranges for supper. You get all the oranges you can carry practically. Well its 5:40 so I shall keep writing for a couple more hours or until I run out of ambition & ink. Good music on now, as it seems to be all the time. So you think I’m English. Well Healy is Irish and Forist is English according to the best authority I’ve found over here so far. This authority hails from Dublin so it ought to be pretty reliable. These English rush everywhere they go. You ought to see or hear a crowd of them walk. They all wear heel & toe plates and a group of 5 or 6 sounds like a team of horses. Woolworth seems to be in all the cities over here too. Bouillon cubes are quite popular over here. Oh yes, these English cut loose with a little hillbilly music occasionally. It’s good you were an “old maid” only for the 3 days. Now I know which door was closed up. It’s a lot of fun to fix up a place when it’s “yours.” I wore wool underwear for awhile and the first warm weather we had I started a gradual change until I got out of them. I don’t particularly care for fish although I’ve had some over here that was pretty good. You mean England isn’t blacked out. They do have a few lights on at night and vehicles drive with full headlights instead of blackout lights but still its pretty dark at night believe me. The moon affords more light when it’s up than anything else does. The army doesn’t give one much chance to chose his own style diet. My eye is the same as always. Yeh, Buck was the one I referred to as my boy. The robins over here are about like your sparrows. All of us get that down feeling occasionally. I’ve hit it quite a bit lately but then it doesn’t last. Oh yes, “My Dreams are Getting Better all the While.” I like that song. Also I like “I Walk Alone,” “Some Other Time,” and “As Long as there’s Music.” I must be getting sentimental in my old age. Next in line comes Mon. Mar. 5 – Well that’s a good deal for Jack Arning. I thought he was still in the States. We had a boy who was appointed to West Point and we dropped him off before we went to P.O.E. I wasn’t sending V-mails because they would have been typed due to the cast. I figured someday you’d notice how little I say in answer to some letters. Sometimes I can’t answer everything and then again I’m just not in a writing mood sometimes or I feel it would be better to just skip certain things. You don’t say too much, I just don’t say enough but sometimes silence is golden when it’s applied to me. I have a peculiar habit of putting my foot in. They’ll offer a lot of bills on manpower. Wait until they pass one before worrying. I don’t know just how you meant that remark you made about dancing where you said “but that doesn’t need to fall on you also.” Anyway I still haven’t done any dancing. It takes 2 people you know and I’d hate to mangle anyone’s feet. You are getting a full repertoire of dog stories. I won’t be sending many if any cablegrams. Haines got one announcing a daughter the other day. Sam was in Holland last I heard. I still have all my blood yet and I’m keeping it if I can. I haven’t made requests to anyone now but you yet. I have all the pictures and have trimmed them down so they fit in those celluloid envelopes.

Well that’s one more letter. I guess I can write another page yet before this gets too heavy. Next in line Tues. Mar. 6 – Oh yes, I finally got a good conduct ribbon. You’re telling me time has rolled around, particularly the last 3 months. Gold bars or stripes on the sleeve represent 6 months overseas service. You know you can borrow all you need. It will take a long time at $25 a month. That makes $300 a year or 10 years with no interest. That printing just happens to be on the V-mail paper I use. It’s not all exactly the same. Yes, it takes let downs & bumps to make us appreciate things in life but sometimes they are hard to take. I haven’t had many yet but I’m building up my store. The news is all good now. It could happen any time. Next comes Wed. Mar. 7 – Well the boys are all getting promotions but me. Now whoa, I don’t remember writing anything to Marie to give her that idea. I did say once that I tried to be sure & write every day because I knew you worried about me. She wrote & told me not to write so I’d worry you so I guess she’s trying to read between lines. Forget it. You’ve done O.K. for 2 years so why worry about that. I have nothing to say. It’s time you quit paying so darned much attention to what others say. I don’t think your feelings are that calloused. I imagine Pop had enough of his “furlough.” You’re a pretty good guesser most of the time. Oh, so Pop wanted to protect the life of his truck. It’s developing into a windy, rainy night outside. Next I have Thurs. & Fri. Mar. 8-9 – I always like to see cactus plants growing. They are usually pretty cute. My letters, or some of them, have been reaching you very quickly evidently. I’m glad you get an occasional smile from what I write. You kept pretty busy while Pop was gone. I haven’t got many pictures yet. I have one snap of myself on the roll which isn’t all taken as yet. I’m not particularly interested in what Dunkel’s daughters do as you know. I go to a show to go usually regardless of what’s on. I’ve done pretty well on passes here, more than ever before anywhere. I’m afraid I will never get up to Edinburgh but if I do I’ll probably call on Nellie.

Well that answers partially at least, a few of these letters. If I write any more, this will be too heavy so I had better call it enough. So at 7:10 I shall sign off until next time.

So long again,

Love,

Son