December 30, 1944
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310.72.1-3.2016 Transcription
Somewhere–France
c̅[1] 7th Army
30 Dec 44
Dearest Em & Terry[2],
This letter [maybe, considered
“odd”][3] is to emphasize to you that:—
BE GOD-THANKFUL YOU’RE AMERICANS!
Its most clumbsy [sic] to try to put
these concepts in my mind into
written words but here’s tryin’:—
You’ll look at the enclosed
pictures. They won’t mean much
to you at a first glance—but
when you finally realize that
they show AMERICAN INGENUITY
of making “everything-from-nothing,”
you’ll grasp one of the fundamental
things I am trying to express.
Christmas was only 9 hours
off. We had no real Xmas “atmosphere.”
Somebody “dug-up” a Frenchman
who knew where to dig-up a
Xmas tree. Enlisted men started
hammer-saw-nails. Nurses
started ‘delicate-things.” Patients
dug into good ol’ packages from
[2]
home. Docs mixed laboratory
chemicals into dyes. Others started
cutting the shinny [sic] sides of plasma
cans. Everybody scoured every
remote corner & supply-depot for
appropriate “ground-work”-materi[a]l.
Lets go to the details:—We’ll
start at the top-star of the #1 picture
that’s an inside (shinny) of a plasma
can rolled out flat & then cut
c̅ the hospital engineers tin shears.
Next you see a balloon-like
ornament———those dozens of
Xmas-balloons are cut-off fingers
of rubber gloves blown up by mouth
[or by hypodermic needle as they slowly
lost their air][4] & tied c̅ abdominal
surgical silk. Then you dip these
balloons in 10-12 different “dyes”
made from laboratory & pharmacy
chemicals; or you make a “mush”
of plaster of paris & “frost” (like a cake)
the balloons c̅ pure white or dye-
impregnated plaster of paris. [you also
paint all appropriate & ingenious colors
[3]
onto dyed or undyed balloons c̅ a throat
swab as your “artist’s-brush”].[5] Now
take a tongue blade (seen better nearer the
bottom zone of #1 & #2 pictures). Use natural
color; total dy[e]ing; or staggered-dy[e]ing
of the whole blade—then diagonally
wind adhesive tape (thus the barber-pole effect)
& either make it more contrastingly
white c̅ p. of paris, or dye it in 10-12
different colors. On #2 you see
nearest my head, spiral like thin (one of many)
structures—that’s brilliant silvery
plasma or medicine cans cut into
long-thin-twisted-“snakes” (really pretty!)
Cotton-“snow” bedecks all over, though
not very well seen in #1 or #2. The
stick candy dug out of “Boxes From Home”
is an adjuvant. See the one of the
many cotton-“snow-men” here → #1.
His color, his adornments, are all
“ingenuities” [including the mystery “Who Stole
The Cap to the Argyrol[6] Bottle”—until you find
it being used as Mr. Snowman’s cap. P.S. We
threw the argyrol down the sink because it had no
cap—we’d never de-cap Mr. Snowman!][7]
Someplace—somebody dug up a
[4]
“military-secret” (probably caught Hell if discovered)
“icecicles” of tin-foil like material;
P.S. Maybe, brain surgeons foil—no one will ever
know! Etc; etc; etc; for pages &
pages more of good ol’ homey-Xmas-
ingenuity-by-A M E R I C A N S!
Next get all your “loose”
rations you’ve h-o-a-r-d-e-d,
& bring ‘em for Xmas presents to
eachother and for the f French
civilians who work by your side.
you have no nice wrappings, so
you turn your back while one
of your roommates digs into your
own precious [un-opened!][8] packages
from home to unwrap the pretty
papers & findings so as to put
them on the “Little-Things” pooled
for Frenchmen or your fellow workers.
[The fat[t]est-shortest doctor will act
as Santa the next morning, of course.][9]
Now how ya gonna light it??
take black-out candles & whittle them
into “Xmas-candles.” Get a belly-
surgeons flood-light-bulb & use
that in a concealed manner for
[5]
spot-lighting/”showing-off” the
tree just like on Chicago’s Gold-Coast.
When you’re done you step back
& look—yes, Em & Terry,
you look impartially & you &
all visitors agree that it is
A-C-T-U-A-L-L-Y B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!
it was all done c̅ taste & care—there is
no “slap-together” factor involved to make for
a lack of beauty or “cheap-look.” Guess you
could say it was done c̅ the heart & thus
it just couldn’t help but come out in Beauty.
Sooo, My Precious Ones, that
is very briefly (&s s̅[10] too much detail)
how Beauty and Xmas Come Out Of
Nothing in a wrecked, rotten,
stinking, sordid Europe. Exactly
where that tree stands on the floor there was
a pile of feces when we moved into this bombed
& wrecked former French hospital——they had
used the floor as a toilet!! You don’t see the broken
glass-plaster-wood splinters, & knee-high-dirt that
was taken off the floor of all rooms in this hospital
just 36 hours before we did major modern American
surgery on those same spots some time back
[6]
No letter came today, darlin’, but
its good, as I had my first chance
to write this “Ingenuity-Letter” thereby.
(Ill enclose the Rev[erend] Smiths letter for you all to read, too)
Im sorry the pictures aren’t “super”
in their shooting-developing-printing
but even there, there is lots of
American Ingenuity involved to
even have them at all. [Two (personal)
pictures are in the making that were taken outside.
I’m sorry I dont show up well on #2—the
cap-gown is because I was “posed” inbetween
giving anesthesias][11].
Here’s hoping I get a letter
tomorrow—despite the
few-&-far-between skips in your
writing each night—I think
your are doing a marvelous job
in writing as often as you
do, dearest—c̅ all you have
on your hands. Honestly!!
I’ll pray so hard for you two
Precious-American-Guys tomorrow
at an 8:30 AM Eucharist [that][12] I know
you’ll just “feel” it these 1000s of miles [away].
All my love,
Dave
P.S. Yes, (WHOOPIE!) that Episc Chaplain is
still in the vicinity. Guess I forgot to mention
that I did get to Xmas-Eucharist—God-guidedly!!!
[1] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[2] His wife and infant son, respectively.
[3] Bracketed text is part of original.
[4] Bracketed text is part of original.
[5] Bracketed text is part of original.
[6] An antiseptic solution with various medical uses.
[7] Bracketed text is part of original.
[8] Bracketed text is part of original.
[9] Bracketed text is part of original.
[10] Medical abbreviation meaning “without.”
[11] Bracketed text is part of original.
[12] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.