December 7, 1944
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310.53.1-4.2016 Transcription
Somewhere—France
c̅[1] 7th Army
7 Dec (Jap treachery day) 44
8:30 AM
Good mornin’, darling’,
It seems that
lately I’ve really gotten onto the
“morning-groove” of writing you
after being on duty all night. There
are good things & bad things
about it. There is no really special
reason for morning-writing —
unless it be to use daylight
instead of these lousey French lights
[described 2x before][2] to write by. Several
times I even lit a candle to
augment these lights while writing
you [at night][3]. Anyhoooo, here is a wee bit
of news —— starting tomorrow
night I will be on full day shift
for a week; then nights again for
a week; then — ad infinitum.
Let me quickly ad lib as
before — I have either written
you every day or when I was
forced to skip a day I so mentioned
[2]
- Thus you can check up on the
number of “lost” [gee! I hope not][4] letters.
P.S. Again, I say — I write not in the
least because I feel I have to — its
cuz I want to — & cuz its so swell
“talkin’” to ya, dear.
Ya know what? — quite
often I have sort of a “purr” about
the fact that probably you &
I are reading/reacting/thinking
the same at almost the same
moment —— as we pick
up the Episcopal Foreward. I
haven’t expressed this mutual-
communing feeling very well
on paper but maybe you can
glean what Im trying to say.
Guess one of the things that brings this to
my mind this morning is that last
night I had a few quick chances to
read paragraphs from Omnibooks presentation
of Ben Ames Williams “Leave Her To Heaven.”
We sorta kinda read his “Time Of Peace”
“together,” didn’t we, dear?
Still! S-T-I-L-L! STILL! no
mail. The Chaplain failed in his
mail seeking venture-trip that
I wrote about the other day.
[3]
Best rumor (Army is full of ‘em) hath it
that all our mail is down at
Marseille in a Base Censor Post Office.
Lordy! its been well over 3 weeks
since anyone has received a letter
& it seems like 3 years! Honest!
I meant to tell you all
about that weird-interesting-
& questionably [pleasant][5] experience call
a GI-Quarmaster shower that
I wrote you I intended (&did) to
take. I’m getting kinda tired, &
the paper weight factor would be
violated to really go into shower
details, so I’ll save it till later.
Good “night” now, dearest —
I’ll be dreamin of you —
while I miss you so terribly.
All my love,
Dave
P.S. The last 2 nights, the work (∴ casualties)
have slowed down to a “run” instead
of those previous 5 nights that roaringly
“galloped.” We all feel much better physically
& mentally for it. (Mentally ↔ our Amer. boys).
[1] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[2] Bracketed text is part of original.
[3] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[4] Bracketed text is part of original.
[5] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.