December 28, 1944
Click Here to Enlarge Item
310.68.1-8.2016 Transcription
Somewhere – France
c̅[1] 7th Army
28 Dec 44
[My last letter suggested we
were maybe moving—
today makes it a little
less likely for a few more
days. Our moved aren’t far.][2]
Glory Be! dearest,
Four (IV!) (4!) letters in
one day & one of ‘em in 8 days! WHOOPIE!
(All c̅ APO[3] 758). Umm! Gee! Hmm!
I hereby “take-back” all those
fretfull/worrisome things I said
in a letter very recently—but I
still don’t see why my APO 758’s should
gap so, when other fellows 758’s run
so well.—maybe we’ll blame that
Dakota “dog-sled”—ho! ho! (OUCH! 卐 Ü «).
Before I forget one more
minute, let me give you our cable
(code) address that I learned just
one hour ago:—it is [AMNIGA],[4] all
together as a “solid-word” like
word viz. Amniga (but I guess
it is always written viz. AMNIGA. P.S. Dont
let the circle around the (above) AMNIGA throw
ya—it doesn’t belong there, & is just
my screwy way of showing all letters together.
I don’t send this for any special
reason [or even as a subtile hint][5]
but I’m just so tickled that you
finally/at last have the information
in your hands that can let you
[2]
communicate c̅ me in the fastest
way possible if you should ever
want to—infact, this
AMNIGA + my receiving an APO
758 in 8 days, makes me purrr
all over c̅ a feeling of greater
“geographical”-closeness [Lord knows
I couldn’t feel one bit more close to you
emotionally, you Precious Thing][6]. A third
factor in “geographical”-closeness
is that one hour ago we have had
the EFM[7] transmissions opened to
our gang for the second time—
they were “shut-off” for just about
a month. Dearest, didn’t you ever
get my 2 EFMs sent from the
Marsielle area? DAMNIT TO HELL! One
EFM conveyed Happy Anniversary
for Nov. 26th, & 4 or 5 days later you
should have received just an
assuring-loving type EFM. Anyhooo,
I’ll try to get an EFM off (AND THROUGH)
to you tomorrow Dec 29th—you
report on it. Lastly, c̅ this same
“opening-up” comes the privelege
of Senders Composition Messages,
but lordy! they want 25 Francs
per word & (if I read English) you must
[3]
send a minimum of 25 words in
an SCM. If they only got through for
sure I’d send one every day [almost!][8]
you precious, precious, precious Lug!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Ü!卐!«! NEVER
“GO-OFF-THE-DEEP-END” ON ANY E.F.M. or
S.C.M.[9] YOU MAY LAY YOUR EYES ON,
AS THEY ARE NOTORIOUS FOR MIXING
UP THE CODE-NUMBERS (just like Fran
Harrigton cited an example when we were
together). Why! a fellow in our gang
sent one from Marsielle which
wound-up something like this:—
“The boy was born; am recovering
from wounds; will be home soon.”
Sooo, darlin’, if cablegrams make
sense——EAT ‘EM UP——if
they say anything but good things,
(probably) disregard them. (because
any ungood things are better said in letters
when they originate in War Zones.)
Now, you Precious Gal, heres
to your Dec 12th’s:—Right here let
me thank you a hundred million
for sending it in duplicate on
Dec 20th [which was the #4th letter of my
4 letters today][10] ‘cuz, gee darlin’, I’d
hated oh so much to miss that
beautiful letter. This way, I just
[4]
“gobbled” 5 times (I had read the first
duplicate 4 times before opening subsequent
letters which ended me up c̅ that envelope
marked the 20th). Let’s always continue
to do “such-&-said” letters like
that, dear——IT IS SO WORTH
IT! Probably I have you bored already by
repititions [sic] of this-or-that in just regular
letters that I want to make as sure as possible
that you get. I’ll save my respon[s]e to your
beautiful letter as a [(3 word)][11] closure to this one.
Your Dec 18ths:–was a “quickie”
but H O N E S T L Y, darlin’, there is
something about your “quickies”
that are so nice & “zippie”—so
don’t even feel badly about dashing
off a one pageful of zip[p]ed quickiness.
Wheeew! am I relieved that
those Truax papers got through! Now I
have only one more breath holder coming up:–
After days of having phone wires buzzed
I found a JAG-army lawyer. I took a “trip” to
see him today WHICH REMINDS ME—WHEN I’M
HOME LET ME USE THIS SENTENCE TO
REMIND ME TO TELL YOU WHAT I PASSED
on the way to the JAG—just something
interesting Ill probably never see again.
Now, to go on—after getting off at 8AM
tomorrow I am to return & pick up 6 Powers of
Att[orne]y drawn c̅ foresight so as to included
all “hookers” of North Dakota & Wisconsin—& it
[5]
is suppose to be a “cover all” Power of Atty.
Also I learned today that the Oconomowoc[12]
Power of Atty was unwittingly smart—
the average run-of-the-mill P. of Atty can NOT
sell real-estate unless it is specif[ic] as to
“covering” loopholes of the Law of said State;
soooo, if they do as I asked you & as a
“Bird-Colonel” advised, you will have “cover-all”
full P. of Atty—AND, it will not mess up
or violate any P. of Atty as exists already
re: the specific & peculiar Laws of Wis[consin].
Again, dearest, I just cannot see you
“running-off” from Terry[13] (or dragging him
along) to do MULTIPLE trips from Dak[ota to] Wis.
just to fuss & fume c̅ hostile elements over
real estate. So all in all, maybe there are
hidden blessings in our “diffugelties”—
that an Army P. of Atty drawn in So[uth] Car[olina] for
example, would have been the cover-all-type
YET it wouldn’t have been worth a damn
in selling Wisconsin real-estate—it
would have been just my luck in that mad-
house of Ft. Jackson to have the “drawer-up[p]er”
not know about (or via laziness) State specif[ic]ness
in this P. of Atty re: real estate. So, you would
have had to send over seas anyway if a sale
for that Oconomowoc property had come up, as
based on the Army’s general/dished out mimeo-
graphed P. of Atty forms they use by the million.
This all seems awful jumbled in the way
its worded, but its finally done & Im happy.
Maybe I better summarize: #1 Mr. Brendemuehl
can still go ahead & save you the MESS of selling
any real-estate—he is not “conflicted.”
#2 You have what is termed a cover-all-full
- of Atty. for a Bird-Colonel in the 7th Army Hdqrtrs.
Everything on my part here c̅ the JAG was done,
AND IS, in open-ness, whole-heartedness, & innocence.
[6]
I here as of this moment vow that if anything
“backfires” [or is misconstrued][14]from todays
legal-farting-around, I JUST GIVE UP!!!
Dearest, we just can’t go through life having
misunderstandings & “fights” because some
innocent act is tu turned into a
“backfire,” or “misconstrue-ation” fatefully
enters in unwittingly.
To go on c̅ your letter:—Umm!
that ol’ Heavyweight weighting in
(in this letter) at TWELVE POUNDS TWO
OUNCES! Say! I’ll have to throw my
hat in the 710-4th St front door
before I dare enter into such a
den-of-strength-‘n-size—huh?!
Lordy! how times change—we
old, tremblin’, decrepid, ancient,
old fashioned Army-docs use to
feed babies in them thar past
years baby-food called Pablum,
Pabena, Clapps, Gerbers, Heinz cereals
etc—but here by crackie the[y]’re
a’ feedin’ babies new-fangled
fancy foods called “Cerevim” which
we ol’ timers a’ just ain’ta trustin!
No sir, Hippocrates m’ friend, its
down right dangerous sez us, huh?
P.S. Ho! ho!—what the Hell is “C-E-R-E-V-I-M”?
Oh yes, Miss Smartypants, if you
want to write O-L-A-C on a
piece of paper you capitalize the
[7]
the first letter “O”, & you put quotation
marks around the whole word
(as it is a proprietary preparation)—SEE!
Yes, SEE!—we ancient Army docs
ain’t 100% behind times! [P.S. EM,
BE JUST A LITTLE LEARY OF “BIOLAC”][15].
Your Dec 19th’s:—your mention
of hair tonic reminds me to [again][16]
mention that no f stationary,
tweezers, etc, etc [infact, any box from you][17]
has ever come through. If you
ever for a moment thought I was the
only one suspicious of pillaging-
package-people, just read the
enclosed clipping.
Thanks, darlin, for teaching me how
to spell the word “pillage”—do it often.
[P.S. I don’t pronounce it [“off”-“ten,”][18] either.
Im smart! but not as smart as my
little ol’ sweet Son. Infact, Emmie
Schmaltz, you gotta get up lots earlier
in the mornin’ to be ahead of that little
ol’ sweet Feller—see! Ya gotta rise awful
early to figure out his stradegy [sic] of spittin you silly.][19]
Oh, yes, my understanding is
that only inflamable liquids are taboo.
Can I retract sumthin—
please,—huh? I [was in] a vile bodily &
psychic mood the other night that
I wrote that I didn’t like so 100%
Frank Browns second set of pictures.
[8]
The more I look at them—the
more I “take-it-back.” Boo! hooo! hoo!
[spoiled brat][20]—I still want new pictures
taken often! Some “tiny-baby-wives” shoot 1 roll every 2 wks.
The silliness involving the
name McGee is “right-on-the-beam.”
Just go further around & go more
minutely. The “Elko-Clinic” travels widely around.
I never received a letter from
you saying Margery was sending
me a Xmas-box. Again (4thx 5thx or 6thx)
I say I bet you never get all I
send you or all you send me.
Just another emphasizing of duplicating/
“repitition-ing” things—such as
your beautiful Dec 12ths (et Dec 20ths) letter.
Say! Smaltzie, when [i]n Hell are
ya gonna take that M-A-N outa
Rimonas (you were pressing in this letter) &
put real He-Man pants on him?!?!
OK! OK! Grandma Belk, (OUCH!) its just
a “foot-soljer[21]-father’s” idea! (Whumpf!
my son in skirts—peewie!) Ho! Ho!
Just now our very first snow flakes are
falling—it stirs something in
my “Wis-Dakota-Nev heart”—cuz
it visably stands for such things
“surrounding”/surrounding you & Terry who
ARE MY LIFE,
Dave
[1] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[2] Bracketed text written in the upper left-hand corner of page in original.
[3] Army Post Office.
[4] Bracketed text is circled in original.
[5] Bracketed text is part of original.
[6] Bracketed text is part of original.
[7] Expeditionary Force Messages, with numbers corresponding to messages for quick correspondence.
[8] Bracketed text is part of original.
[9] Two types of outgoing Army mail that were subject to censorship.
[10] Bracketed text is part of original.
[11] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[12] A city in Wisconsin.
[13] Their infant son.
[14] Bracketed text is part of original.
[15] Bracketed text is part of original.
[16] Bracketed text is part of original.
[17] Bracketed text is part of original.
[18] In the original, there is an arrow pointing from bracketed text to the word “often” on the line above.
[19] Bracketed text is part of original.
[20] Bracketed text is part of original, with the word “me” written under it.
[21] Soldier.