October 1, 1944
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310.14.1-9.2016 Transcription
1 Oct 44
after Trinity Service
My dearest,
This letter is going to be
so much more a pleasure than the
one last night—that is, so
much more a pleasure to write
as I now finally have some time.
Lordy! I can never remember having
had to write so fast. When I
stated yesterday was (QUOTE) “full,”
I should have said hyper-super-full.
Many times I have been
glad that you took your Masters
Degree at Northwestern-U in the
Dept of Logic & here this Fall is
just further proof as you can now
grab that job teaching sophomore
Logic. Infact your rationalizations
have always been “tops” c̅[1] me & may
they continue on while I am
away from being able to help you,
which I would so love to be
able to do—all my feeble-
mind could do to help you would
[2]
be to make only very slight
variations in your decisions.
Infact, I am so p[r]oud of you
darlin’, that I am going to
tell Aunt Katherine [I hope!][2] all about
my very “tops” wife a day or two
after our “long-distance-[REMOTE-CONTROL][3]-Birthday-
Party” is over. Gee! I surely hope
I will have a really full chance
to “brag-you-up” to Aunt Katherine.
Before I forget—the
woman photographer at the Dunbar
Studio was notified that you
would spank me good if I
did not smile on some of those
pictures. Well—she said,
“You certainly smiled nicely, as
best I could judge, on two of
those picture-shots.” So there!—see!**!
She only took 4 exposures—
I guess it was because of time,
& rush, & maybe war shortage of film,
Also, I forgot to tell you something
[3]
that I meant to tell because
I know it will please you—
I ran all over down-town Columbia
to borrow a cap-Pershing AND after
finally borrowing a cap from
a mens store, I ran all over town
a second time to borrow an
officers emblem to put on the
cap as apparently metal shortage
runs even into emblems. So,
all in all dear, your picture
shouldn’t be too far off from
what your wish would be.
Again, I am very very pleased
that I could arrange things
as 100% as I did for you! WHOOPIE!
Oh, yes, I didn’t explain that your C.O. had
known I was down town during day hours
he would [ARMY SLANG][4] “Chew my butt”!!
Nobody seems to know if
our mail has been censored in
the past weeks, & if it has not as
yet started, when it will start.
One never knows nuthin’ in the Army.
[4]
Do you know that I go to
bed shortly after 9.P.M most every
night? It may sound funny but
already I am in a pretty well
fixed habit of 9 oclock retiring.
Another point I forgot to
tell Terry[5] in my letter to him
last night was that my pistol
range firing yesterday was the
first time I had ever really
fired a .45 automatic [(a big lumocks gun)][6] (Guess maybe
I pulled Clyde’s trigger 2 or 3 times at the most).
Thus, this all sounds a bit like
braggin’ but it really isn’t—
it is just that Terry has thanks
to offer his “god-uncle” Clyde
Fields for having drilled the
fundamentals into Pop so well.
Sumthin’ else I forgot to
tell you about the “port[r]ait-ing”
See if you can tell that the
2nd Army patch (the #2) is only “stuck”
on c̅ 2 pins. Gee, I almost
[5]
forgot to put it on & remembered
it just about 5 seconds before she
clicked the first camera shutter.
What a melê!—she ran next
door to borrow pins & all she
could dig up was 2 pins to hold
the patch on my shoulder. P.S. She says
you or nobody else could tell it was only “stuck”
on, but just see if you can tell—I doubt it.
Just to be point blank—
no! no! no! you did not make
any mistake (or “wrong”) by writing
your “deductions” out as you
did. That is what I wanted
you to do, dear. The only
potential pit-fall is that you [might][7]
“read” too much—& this
pit-fall you have [already][8] seen & corrected
yourself. Bravo! Just remember,
dear, I never will be able to
get too many things into a
“silly-paragraph”. Again, my “sillyness”
is just the forerunner/’”forewarner”.
[6]
Oh! oh! in rereading your
first letter requesting portrait
“shooting” I see I had not appreciated
a word you wrote viz. “…in
your winter uniform c̅ & s̅[9] your
cap Pershing on….” Dear, those
pictures are all c̅ the cap on.
of course I never received this (above) letter
until 3 days after the pictures were taken so
I just could not have read it anyway. BUT
honestly, dear, my hair was in
such a filthy, smashed down,
touseled mess from wearing
combat helmets all day long
that I just didn’t dare take
that cap off. Gee, whiz, here I thought
I had been able to please you 100% but now
I get my percentage knocked down—boo,
hooo, booo, hooo!—how far are you going
to knock my percentage down to??—I
hope not lower than 97%--& anyhoooo,
I should bounce right back up to 100%
considering circumstances/rush/difficulties.
Say! did you give that
2nd Army patch to Gwen’s friend
for her little boy? Please don’t forget.
[7]
There is something I could have
written in Terry’s letter last night
had I had time, but again I say
I cant ever remember having had
to write so fast. However, I
supposed you snooped your darn
nose into his mail so I
may as well tell you this point:-
Maybe now it is a little clearer
why I got so damned mad
every time I was further denied
a chance to learn those weapons,
BECAUSE I had a vague hunch
that c̅ half a chance I might
“win” something for Terry to
“wear”/wear. Really, I never dreamed
that I could shoot that highest
catagory (Marksman àSharpshooter àExpert) but
I at least hoped I could get one
catagory for him to wear. Of course
I already have (had) a Marksman
category c̅ the carbine but lots of
guys have that & there is nuthin’
particularly special about a carbine
Marksman. On the other hand, it is
[8]
stated that the .45 automatic
pistol is the most difficult of those
3 weapons (Carbine, Gurand-MI rifle, & .45 pistol)
to shoot & this any father’s son
would think the highest catagory
in pistol was really sumpin’!!
Dear, haven’t you ever seen how cute little boys
are if they can strut around c̅ something of
their dad’s that is “treasured” amongst men—
well, I can dream can’t I??! Soooo, if
all this pistol Expert stuff seems
kinda silly/superfluous/much-
a-do-about-nuthin’ to a woman,
you just go ask my Pal Thump[10]
& he will tell you that he is
tickled as pink as is his Pop about
it all. So there!—see!Ü!«!
Anyhooo, even if you are a silly non-understanding
woman about these man’s-things, Thump & I
still love you moistest in the world. Honest!!
Dearest, --regarding
your “apologizing” for me being in
the Army—please just
have NO FEELINGS ABOUT IT AT
ALL—PLEASE!! You say that you
[9]
don’t know what was wrong c̅
you & that you guess you evere
crazy c̅ grief—WELL, PLEASE JUST
DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT ALL THAT EVER
AGAIN, DEAREST—I once had an
explanation that I never could say to you &
I don’t imagine I eve rwill be able to say
it to you, BUT ALL THAT “PERIOD”
SEEMS SO SMALL & MEAN-
INGLES & UNIMPORTANT &
WILL ALWAYS BE SO.
Soooo, you Precious Thing, don’t
ever even think again about
any part of it. I tell ya’—
here is the best way (incidentally
my way too) about looking at all
of these things—it is
certainly T-R-O-U-B-L-E, this
whole maze of things. Well,--
the Trouble-of-being-apart; the
Trouble-of-my-not-being-able-to-
help-you- c̅ -Terry; the Trouble-of-
war-soldiering in its billion
respects; etc; etc are all T-R-O-
U-B-L-E to make you & me better
people because of it. Dearest, any
[10]
day or anytime you feel as you
did when you wrote that letter of
Sept 27, just open Bishop Brents
Day Book—there before you
in a total whole on Day #23-Day#24
you see in a grand panoramic
total The Answer to EVERYTHING IN
LIFE THAT that every causes you
or me or Thump any heartache/
regret/unfathomable thought. Never
never fail to open that Day Book
to that place, my dearest, & may
God help you to remember to open
the Day Book to split second
any such category of feelings arises.
Just at your leisure; darlin’,
start peering around for me to
find another Day Book. Mine is
practically “threadbare” & falling
apart (P.S. FROM USE). I will be very
mad at you if you send me
your only copy so please dont
you dare do that as mine is
[11]
still readable, but I may start
losing pages from now on.
Bishop Lewis (505 Ridge St. c/o Bishops House)
can always help you find one.
There is no hurry about this,
Dear,—just anytime in the
next month.
I could write pages about
correcting the unfortunate mis-
understandings on both your part
& my part re: that phone call + telegr.
the other night. Lets summarize
it as this #1 a should-be-murdered-
South[er]n-phone-operator, plus 116th
“heat”, etc, had me off the beam; and
#2 foggy depressive day, plus
neophytic “education” in
“informational-letters” had you off
the beam. P.S. You did not “lose your head”—so there!!
P.S. #2 Just to hear you was so worth it to me too.
S U P P E R
Oh, joy! Oh, boy! what a 100%
perfect Sunday this has been! Nice
service at Trinity; Chicken in the
mess hall; a whole day (BELIEVE IT OR NOT)
[12]
just writing & dreaming & writing
& dreaming [I write a sentence to you & then
dream a book, etc, etc][11] to you all day long
AND now that super swell
registered-airmail-special! WHEE!
[P.S. Before I forget, never waste your special delivery
stamps on big Army posts—the mail sargent says
they do not make one single bit of difference.][12]
Gee! golly! whee! Whoopie! Oh, boy!
I must confess that I never expected to lay my
eyes on those baby pictures while on U.S.A soil.
Sincerely & honestly dear, I love
those pictures heaps, but WHY!
must that guy in the del printing
room of the photo company mess
them up so. Oh, yes, both c̅ & s̅ your
permission I “TOOK-CAR[E]-OF” that boootiful
picture of me. OK?—O.K.! Promise me
you will do the same if Frank Brown sends
a duplicate. I will scoot the
pictures right back registered
mail tomorrow when the P.O will
again be open. I wrote freely
(tho I’d like to have written gobs) on the back
of some of them. On three of them I
wrote Roman numeral I-II-III. I
would like each & every one to
[13]
carry but by being foresighted [there
goes Wilitzski[13] again!][14] I realize that over
the course of time I just must
keep [only][15] the snaps that warm my
heart most & return the other
ones (even tho they are very nice) because
I won’t have room in my safe &
protective picture-holder to carry
all as I would like to do. I
remember carefully how you hated
to let any of these photos get out
of your sight, dearest, so I am
sending them all back. Please
send me the #I, #II, & #III photos
when Frank Brown complies.
P.S. Thanks a lot for the just-right address book.
Now!—I so want
to be able to express something
on paper. Maybe I can, so heres
hoping. Your letter quotes Dr Barnes
[roughly][16] re: “it ([Terry’s] heart condition)….luckily…
…that doesn’t seem to bother him
much” (UNQUOTE). Dearest, from the
minute I saw that lovely little
boy I knew that it would
[14]
take “everything-in-the-kitchen-sink”
just hurled at him to ever
slow-him-down or “knock-him-
for-the-count”—he has so
very very wonderfully much of
“WHAT-IT-TAKES”. (Gee, I’m almost crying).
Anyhooo, what I am trying to
say is that he is so fine, so
dynamic, so tough-a-little-egg
that he could/can/& has “take[n]”
the nastiest “knocks” & still
battle[d] right back. Oh, I know!
I know! I know! so positively
that God is helping him
pack those whollops [sic] that he
is dishing out. Prematurity?—
socko!! Dehydration?—socko!
Cardiac embarrassment?—socko!
Lung congestion?—socko! Gee,
dearest, how I-N-A-T-E “socko”
is so God-given—so God-sent!
And I never forget for a minute
[15]
my thoughts & statement to you
one hour after he was born—
You, dearest, make such very
very nice babies inside you!
I love you both, sooo-
Dave
[1] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[2] Bracketed text written above line and inserted with a caret.
[3] Bracketed text written above the line, with arrows pointing upwards from “long-distance.”
[4] Bracketed text is part of original.
[5] Their infant son.
[6] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[7] Bracketed text written up the right-side margin and inserted with a caret.
[8] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[9] Medical abbreviation meaning “without.”
[10] Nickname for their infant son, Terry.
[11] Bracketed text is part of original.
[12] Bracketed text is part of original.
[13] His nickname for himself.
[14] Bracketed text is part of original.
[15] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[16] Bracketed text is part of original.