You Let You Run Away With Yourself

Thurs. Dec. 23, 1943

7:50 p.m.

 

Dear folks,

Well, we are free from now until Sunday night study hall. They are throwing some kind of a party for us tonight at the Union. Freese & I are going over pretty soon and see what it is. I got back from study at about 10. I washed and shaved and got to bed at 10:30. I was up at 6:15 and after reveille I came back and slept until about 25 to 8. Then I made my bed. At 8 we had Calculus. We had a 12 question test. So far as I know I got them all O.K. but I’m not positive. I did each one twice and 2 different ways if possible in order to check my work. I did one wrong the first time but I caught it O.K.

Fri. Dec 24, 1:10 p.m. Here I am back after dinner on Fri. You always get the Thurs. & Fri. letters together so for this time I put them together. After Calculus yesterday we had drawing from 9-12. I worked as fast as I could with safety and just barely finished the second plate at the end of the class. It isn’t too bad looking but I don’t know what he’ll think. At 12 we ate. At 1 we had a study period. We went and got our Geography books and came back and spent the rest of the hour in the dorm. At 2 we had Physics lecture. At 3 we had History. The regular teacher was sick with the flu. The substitute we had Tues. got sick also so he sent his wife. One more class and they probably would have sent the little boy to teach the class. At 4 we had P.T. and we played volleyball. At 5 we had Military class. At 6 we were free. We ate. I had roast beef, potatoes, salad, bread, butter, milk, and peach cobbler. After supper I came back and took care of my mail, shined my shoes & brass, & cleaned up. Then I wrote on this until Freese and I went over to the Union. It wasn’t much of a party. They had a sort of program – a magician and some dancers. Then they gave us each a Xmas present – 2 packs of cig., 1 pkg. of gum & 1 bar of candy. A few of the guys got lots of cigarettes because a lot of us in our section don’t smoke and gave them to them. Freese & I listened to the juke box awhile then we looked at some magazines and finally came back at about 10:30 and went to bed. I was lazy this morning. I woke up several times but it was 11 before I finally got dressed. This morning one of the fellows who just got out of the hospital brought me a note from Ferd asking for his toilet kit, stationery and Calculus book. Several of us were going out to see him this afternoon but he’s isolated so we can’t. So I got the stuff together for him and took over to the infirmary. They’ll send it out to him when the ambulance goes out. The hosp. is way out north of town. He’s really conscientious about that Calculus. When I took care of that, I came back and at 12 I ate – meat loaf, potatoes, peas & carrots, bread, butter, salad, milk, and pudding. That brings me up to now. At mail call yesterday I got your Sat. –Sun. letter and a card from Thelma. The mail is all at least 1 day behind. I finally got the box of candy you sent last Fri. It was all O.K. and I’ve begun to make an imprint on it already. Now so far I have gotten 2 boxes.

Back at 4:00. My roommate and I went downtown for awhile. I got my shoe sewed. The whole side ripped loose yesterday. He got his laundry. We were going to the show but it wasn’t open so we came on back. When I got back my bed was full of mail – your Mon. letter & card, your Tues. letter and card, cards from Hugh & Nate and a card and $2 from George & Betty. I also finally got the other box of candy, nuts and the rest of my laundry so that makes all 3 packages finally. The mail is really balled up but I’m up to your Tues. letter today, so I guess I’m back on schedule. I hope you are getting my letters regularly now. I wrote them but you must be having the same trouble I had. The mail is overloaded now but it ought to clear up by next week. If you hadn’t got my Fri. letter by Tues. it really must be bawled up plenty. All I can say is I hope you had a big day of mail by now. If you get my Tues. letter today as you should you won’t be worrying so much about me because you’ll know my cold is nearly gone. I’m just blowing the after effects out of nose now as you’ll see by my laundry. I really wasn’t as bad as you thought but I did have a good cold.

Now to some of these unanswered letters I have here. Wed. Dec. 15. I don’t know how much good I would have done you if I had been there but you know I’d rather be there than here. We have a pretty good sized crowd here when we are together. Just about everybody came back with this cold or got it afterwards. Ferd happened to be the only one who went down. He had it bad though with a fever & chills. I intended to go on sick call last Sat. if I didn’t feel better but I could tell in the morning that the cold was broke so I didn’t go. Other mornings I have Calculus & I can’t afford to miss it or drawing. Those mornings I didn’t go to breakfast I was smart I think because I’d have had to stand in line in the cold a long time. I’ve done all I could with what I have and I’ll be doggoned if I’ll run over to the dispensary unless I absolutely know I need it. I’ve had enough colds so I can guess pretty well how bad they’ll be. Oh I know I’m not doing the right thing probably or didn’t but you know me and how I hate stuff like sick call. I guess I’ll have to make a resolution to do different but you know how I am. Every morning I tell myself, well if it isn’t better tomorrow I’ll go on sick call so that’s the way it goes. If you were here I bet you’d do the same thing but maybe I’m wrong. I think I know you pretty well though and they’d have to tie you down to get you to a doctor.

Thurs. Dec. 16 – Helle liked that cake. It wasn’t hard. I didn’t get the flu in Chicago. I had the cold when I got here Sunday morning. Most of the guys on this floor were snorting around. My roommate was sick for a day or so. It got his stomach. Don’t worry about me going places with that Stuart guy. I’d like to be home tonight having popcorn & cocoa & stuff. What a way to spend Xmas eve & Xmas. I got a kick out of the thing you said but I won’t mention it here.

Fri. Dec. 17 – If you don’t get any mail anytime don’t get excited. It’s very foolish. You know I’d get a card or something out someway. Of course I doubled up this letter with yesterday but you get them both on Mon. anyway. Any time you don’t get mail it’s not me but the U.S. Mail service. You let you run away with yourself. You don’t stop to think first. It’s your parents fault. They never taught you not to jump to conclusions. Be like Dad. Think about what might cause things first. I thought of telegramming to find how you two were but I was afraid it would get gummed up like the one in Sept. & then you’d think I was sick or something and it would make things worse. If everybody went to the P.O. if they didn’t get mail on time look what it would be like. Practically all of us were home last Xmas. Lohreny was just talking about the Xmas program his kids put on a year ago tonight. He was teaching school then. I got disgusted about the nuts but you know me. It doesn’t last long. I guess I’ll be able to stick with the A.S.T.P. for quite awhile at least. I’m a cinch to get into Advanced. I hear that’s pretty tough but I feel pretty sure of sticking at least until June and probably longer. One pkg. you mailed Mon. I got Wed. The one from Fri. I got Thurs. & the other one from Mon. I got today. Oh yes I got a pkg. yesterday from the WJIM Xmas Club. I don’t know where they got my name. The junk included a deck of cards which I’ll donate to whoever wants it, a pocket book “Journey Into Fear” a little sewing kit, a rubber stamp with A. FOREST on it, and a bag of peanuts. My, oh my, isn’t that lovely. Praise Allah & Lt. Finch. They must have gotten my address from somebody but I don’t know who. The olives are long gone. I haven’t tried my cheese yet.

I still have your Sat.-Sun., Mon. & Tues. letters to answer. It’s 5:25 so I think I’ll bring this to a close and maybe get it into the mail a bit sooner. I sure hope you’ve caught up with my mail by now. Thanks for all the candy and stuff. Don’t worry about laundry. I’m pretty well set again now. I didn’t send this week and may not next week. We’ll probably have classes as usual but the P.O. will probably be closed Sat. afternoon. Jan. 2 is some sort of an anniversary but it isn’t anything worth celebrating. Well for today I’ll sign off. I hope you all feel a lot better. That will go a long way toward making it a better Xmas for you. So long on Xmas eve.

 

Love,

Arlington