The Old Navicular

Tues. 27 Nov. ‘45

Manila

 

Dear folks,

Tues. afternoon and not too much to do so I’ll write a short letter. The navy left a lot of this tinted [pink] onion skin paper so I thought I’d get fancy and use some of it. Things are going along in a fairly normal manner once more. Yesterday morning I took some time off and played some tennis with one of the kids in the section. I was pretty rusty but we managed to win a set or two of doubles. We were playing on a cement basketball court and the lines weren’t the same as a standard court. It’s my first time since last May in Germany. Then yesterday afternoon I took a ride up to the 4^th Gen’l Hosp. and had a little talk with one of the Drs. about the old navicular. Judging by what he said, which was practically nothing, I imagine there is nothing that can be done about it but one can never tell. I gave him the whole story as to what has happened to it in the last 2 years and he wrote it all down, did a lot of twisting & feeling of my wrist and compared it to the left one. Then he sent me down for X-rays and I’m to go back tomorrow afternoon to see how they turned out. Actually I don’t really know what they could do, probably nothing, but I decided to find out. If it is possible I’d like to have it fixed before I get out of the army. If I had a few more points now, I’d be in a much better position as I might be able to pull a deal of some sort. We’ll see how things turn out.

No mail yesterday & I got Gram’s letter of Nov. 17 & 18 today. That’s only 8 days enroute so the speed is picking up. I see you are getting mine in better time also. There won’t be so much mail coming this way as more men are shipped home so we will probably get better service.

Everything we read is very encouraging. Supposedly we’ll have plenty of ships by Jan. I still figure they won’t get to us until in February – either by dropping the points to 45 or the service period to 3 years. I guess I was about right when I said spring. I suppose I should not complain about it because 3 months or so really isn’t too long after 3 years, but still it seems a long time now.

I am looking for those Xmas packages but haven’t seen any yet. No one has received any Xmas boxes. Maybe they’ll start coming in pretty soon. I didn’t mean I’d received Edna’s, I had just got the letter saying she had sent it. We should cash in on quite a few packages as they aren’t forwarded to the men who have left. One fellow who used to get a couple a week left his to us and not a single one has come in so far.

Last night we had “That’s The Spirit” with Peggy Ryan and Jack Oakie. It was a rather farfetched sort of plot but rather entertaining to me at least. A lot of the fellows didn’t care for it, but for an Oakie picture it was pretty good. Tonight we have “Where Do We Go From Here” with Fred MacMurray & Joan Leslie which should be pretty good.

Our E.M. club opened last night but I didn’t go over. There’s nothing there that I’m interested in particularly. I’ve collected over $300 in tickets & dues so far so that’s pretty good.

Well that’s about all there is to say for this afternoon so I’ll close and go back to work. So long ‘til next time,

Arlington