January 30, 1945
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310.95.1-6.2016 Transcription
Somewhere–France
c̅[1] 7th Army
30 Jan 45 @ 6 PM
Ummm, darlin!
I knew it! I knew it!—I
just knew I’d get mail today. Its kinda
spoiling us to get mail as regularly (only one
skip on the 6th day of 7 days a runnin’) but gee!
how nice it is! Ummm! 3 (iii) (III) of em!
Your Jan 14th’s:- Guess maybe you are
hearing from Evac. Hosps, etc direct via a
microphone. From one other source Ive
heard that such broadcast were received in
the U.S.—it was said the reception
was very noisey & “blurred.” (P.S. Cartoon was cute)
Your describing ol’ Thump’s[2] talking
attempts sounds so much like Margee’s
letter that she wrote today as re: her Tommy.
Since receiving your swell swell swell
snuggle-ducky (?) pictures of him I can
better see the way of it all. Geeeeeeeeee!
Devilish???—umpf!—Just
wait till I put some more “bees-in-his-
bonnet”—then he & I will add some
J[iu]-Jitsu—& will we have you goin’!
Regarding Emily E Belks $45, PTA,[3] $50, etc
I will admit I as too overanxious c̅
the mail-running-time factors—but
geeee! I was so ernest ‘n annxious ‘n
excited that my Xmas-Plan for You Four
should materialize, that I just couldnt
help it. You can feel my feelings, darlin?
[2]
Just for example, why couldnt a PTA $50 versus
a Govt $45 get themselves running chronologically
together in a month of November, let’s say?!?!
(or even run themselves in separated months).
Which reminds me, I started the first
mailings of French & “Army”-French money
a few nights ago. Let me know how much
is pillaged! I’ll do all denominations till Feb 10th.
That is—between tomorrow night’s letter & Feb 10th.
[A nice [Jan 14th][4] came from Dad today along c̅ your 3
& Margee’s one—please thank him lots, & say Ill
answer it if I can—though both he & Mom know
these letters are sorta-kinda theirs too].[5] Tell Dad
(& yourself) to tell Forkner that Doc Baldwin
truly is………(I cant used the real Army phrase)
to be struck as “nurse-maid” to Quartermaster
negroes. Whewww! (Repition: -Two explainatory
letters recently tell why [I guess][6] you are relieved that
I’m not joining the 2nd Auxillary Surgical Group.)
One of the nicest Army slang ways of describing Doc Baldwin’s
situation is [Wilitzski[7], you bad boy!][8] “Capt B. is pissed-off c̅ a bunch
of niggers” [U N Q U O T E][9].
For the life of me I can’t remember if I
wrote a point in that P[ower] of Att[orne]y (enclosure) letter—
I was so damned mad & tired when I
wrote it. [Also, this may be misinformation but it
was carefully listened to][10]—many Powers of
Atty, of the “general”-type, are no good in
real estate transactions as they do not
cover (or fullfill) specific State’s legalities;
thus often a special-new-specific P. of Atty
must be drawn up in addition, to handle
real estate matters. Just where & how you
sit re: real estate c̅ what you have in your
[3]
hands, I do not know. Be real sure, darlin’,
before you “force-Brendemuehl’s-hand” as I
know he has Wisconsin-real estate-legalities
covered “cold” c̅ what he has in his
posession. (As you know already, his is only for real estate.)
Your Jan 15th’s:- FOR ONCE AND FOR
ALL——YOUR LETTERS DO NOT STINK!
Also, pleeeeeeez, why not “uncork” yourself/
your feelings to me about “the-home-front”?
I know 92.81394% of what your gonna
say anyway—I betcha! (It’ll make
ya feel better—betcha!)
You said 3 of my letters arrived (as you
were writing on 15 Jan) & that you were relieved
etc, about the Nazi push at 7th Army, etc, etc.
This ties in c̅ something in the latter part
of you [(this)][11] letter when you just very briefly-
calmly-insignif[ic]antly mention about Dad’s
Vmail arriving that same morning ↔ (“Absoloute silliest”).[12]
For one solid month (Ho! ho!—oh, me!) I think
about that V-mail at least 10X a day—
many things about it—but especially
how it could mislead you so terribly.
‘N then you don’t even comment “booo”
about Dads V-mail—oh me!
Well—as written the other
evening, everyone in the United States
knows where the 116th is via that assinine
rule of 25 miles: 7 days working itself [IN REVERSE][13]
into a prominent American newspaper
[4]
carrying the Lovers Coincidence Of The War
when one of our nurses was found here
by her Corporal husband—BUT the
damn newspaper spelled the town “wrong.”
there are 3 towns pronounced phonetically
identical yet spelled differently & are
in 3 different sites of this 7th Army.
Soooo, some wives took the newspaper’s
spelling over to a map & just swollowed
their hearts—while all the time
it is a spelled-different place we are
- To help clarify: Mr Smith, Mr Smythe, &
Mr Smithe—all different, all
different places/guys—yet phonetically
are identical. Speaking of heart swollowing,
you & Nancy the McGee’s should be fairly
close together on non-heart swollowing.
Darlin’, do I or dont I read-between-
the-lines, AS FAR AS YOU ARE CONCERNED,
when you speak of me personally handing
you one silver dollar alongside Crumley’s
roulette table? As for ME—I’m still
absoloutely 50%-50% about becoming an
Anesthesiologist or Practicing somewhere.
Yup!—Aunt K’s recording of—
“D O N T W O R R Y!”
is lousey, as to recording. Its just the thought
that sent me running all over of New-York City
for it; then (CONFESSION) I broke the record on the
way to her house; “propositioned” her to
[5]
go back the next day (as I [probably][14] would be on the ocean)
& get another out of this old basement of
a N.Y. “tenament” where records were “hoarded”
for ages; & send it to you by the 26th of the month.
(Repitition: After 3 months I received your letter saying it came)
YES, IT WILL BE MY PLEASURE TO
SEND AUNT K. A FRENCH P[R]ESENT!
Your Jan 16th’s:— (”Tanks” a million for the
5 air stamps. Ill read the war doctor clipping at liesure).
Whumpfffff! Smaltzie, you think you
have a $64-question re: a 3 3 day old
letter—what $-worth is 3+ month
old letter?!?! Anyhooo, its soooo wonderful
to get any letter from you, Precious!
Golly! 13 POUNDS 12 OUNCES!!!
G O L L i E E E.
Atta girl, Grandma, on the pants-decision.
No long curls, either, huh?! 卐Ü«, Grandma?
Heaven’s, dearest, don’t apologize for the
pkg containing pliers-Fels-etc—you
have enough to do s̅[15] fussin’ c̅ me!
(P.S. Im curious about Edith Rosenow’s—she is very nice, tho.
a simple (but likeable) farm woman. This “simple”—isnt
a derogatory adjective.)
[Later:- 10 PM I missed it via work][16] Know what?!—I think Ill go see
“Janie”; my first show in weeks (even though
they run 3x/week). [I write, instead of cinema-ing.][17] Mebeeee, in this show I
can learn some such beautiful a thought
as you learned in a show, ‘cuz God & you
know—
I AM NEVER ALONE, BUT WITH GOD,
WITH LOVE, WITH YOU.
Dave
[1] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[2] Nickname for their infant son, Terry.
[3] Personal Transfer Account for sending money back home.
[4] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[5] Bracketed text is part of original.
[6] Bracketed text is part of original.
[7] Wilsey’s nickname for himself.
[8] Bracketed text is part of original.
[9] Bracketed text is part of original.
[10] Bracketed text is part of original.
[11] Bracketed text written above “your” in original.
[12] In original, “Absoloute” is written above “silliest.”
[13] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[14] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[15] Medical abbreviation meaning “without.”
[16] Bracketed text written in small print in the left-hand margin.
[17] Bracketed text written between lines in original.