December 6, 1944
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310.52.1-5.2016 Transcription
Somewhere—France
CONSIDER IT DEC 25, 1944
(actually = Dec 6 @ 11AM)
With the 7th Army
Dearest Em, Terry[1], Mom & Dad,
A very very
happy & blessed Merry Christmas
to you all! [Estimating that this reaches
you for delivery on Dec 25th. Luck might just
have it that this one special delivery stamp
I have been hoarding & guarding could bring the
postman to 710’s door on Christmas Day][2].
I hope those 3 or 4 letters I
wrote about how terrible I felt
about not being able to do-
Christmas-shopping for you all
got through safely. [Every day we hear
of mail failures — so please be sure to
mention this letter specifically in some of
your letters][3]. However, as of the present
moment I feel better about my
Christmas-shopping problem &
here is why:— As of this letter
I hereby “hand” you each $12.50
to buy whatever you wish as
my Christmas present to you.
The money should have arrived, or
will arrive, shortly via the P.T.A.
[2]
(Personal Transfer Account) system. Ordinarily
the P.T.A. is permissable only in
family-emergency-financial matters
but I was able to swing this
without any explainations. A New
York office will have made out
the check in Em’s name in
response to a cablegram, & My
Beloved can divide the $50 into
fours.
As I wrote several times
before, I just cannot see
giving out money to these French
“racketeers” for actually worthless
junk-presents which so many
soldiers buy. They pay about
400% for the “name” & thought that
this-or-that came from France.
You can be God-thankful that
American values are usually
fairly equitable. We hear over here that
your newspapers tell about the price-
racketeering perpetrated on the American
soldiers — & it is so true!
While on money, I might tell
you some interesting things about
overseas-money. At the first
[3]
part of this letter I meant to
joke with you by telling you that
I hereby “hand” you 619½ Francs
apeice for your presents, but then
I changed my mind about
confusin’ you right off the bat.
P.S. 95% of we soljers[4] are always “confuzzed”
about this money-exchange “biznez.” Anyway,
here goes:— A Franc is worth
$0.02017. Now you can after a
minute or two know that I
didn’t “gyp” you (ho! ho!) regarding
your 619 Frs. but just how,
m’ dears, are you gonna get
your ½ Fr.? — huh?! Well,
you’ll dig & hunt in your pocket
for a goofy tin-like coin called
50 centim[e]s. Then you’ll be
fixed for your ½ Fr, & be fairly
happy until next time when
some goofy fast talking Frenchman
keeps shifting prices (& your cerebration)
back & forth so fast that you get
dizzy. There are lots of other interesting
(and annoying) things about it all
but I’ll just mention one more.
[4]
The minute we landed in France
we were all severely warned
under threat & penalty that we
should immediately change
all our American money (except
one paper dollar bill to be kept as a
souvenir) into Francs. One the
exchange we lost money [as you
can figure, if you have the patience of a
Saint from the data I’ve given you][5] but
on reconversion after the War
or via such as P.T.A., we have
it “made-up-back” to us. The
reason for all the stringent
methouds [sic] is that there is a
big crooked-deal in Europe to
“suck-up” as much true blue
seal American paper money &
silver currency as is possible
so as to “stabalize” Europe’s
monetary rottenness when the
War is over. Thank Heaven’s, our
Treasury Dept “saw-through” it
& have clamped down with
heavy penalties for letting
sound American currency getting
into European hands. P.S. However,
some unthinking & unpatriotic soldiers go
[5]
around French alleys “selling” an American
$5 bill for $15 or $20 in French Francs.
I unconsciously mentioned blue
seal paper currency on the last
page — that is another long
story that in brief is this: — the
Treas. Dept. printed millions of
dollars worth of money that looks
exactly like that in your pocket
except that the Treasury seal
is yellow instead of blue as
in the U.S.A. Boy! how these
Europeans hate to see “yellow-seal,”
as Uncle Samie has told them
it will do them no good to
“hoard-suck-up” yellow-seal,
AND they all try so hard to
perpetually hoard every blue-
seal or silver peice they can
lay their hands onto.
Well, m’dears, I must go
to bed as I’m still on the night
shift of work from 8PM to 8AM.
I’ll probably dream of you (as I often
- do) & I want you all to know that
I think of you every minute of my
waking hours. A blessed Christmas
to you all. With you is –
All my love,
Dave
[1] Their infant son.
[2] Bracketed text is part of original.
[3] Bracketed text is part of original.
[4] Soldiers.
[5] Bracketed text is part of original.