October 7, 1944
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310.19.1-5.2016 Transcription
7 Oct 44
Dearest,
I need not go into adjectives to
describe the thrill & fineness of being
able to talk to you on your Birthday.
I can just summarize it as
an actual God-send. So many & varied
reasons could have made the call impossible & that
is why I am so very thankful.
Before I forget — I am going
to finish off these last few days
by continuing to send air-specials.
Iz you “spoiled” good yet, darlin’? (P.S. No!!). Anyhooo,
after a certain date in the future
(which is always unchangeable, of course) let us
stick to straight V-mail as
much as possible. It probably
would be more possible for me
to break the V-mail rule, but even
so, I imagine it would avail
me nothing [(or little)][1] to do so as regards
speed-time-etc.
Since poor ol’ Pop Belk graduated
from St Johns Military Academy there
have been lots of changes in
[2]
miliarism militarism & thus it
is no wonder he was puzzeled
by the Wi Lamoille Free Press’s
newspaper statements about
the effectiveness of Combat Teams—
I suppose the truley proper way
to word them in that bass-acq-
wards military terminology
would be Teams, Combat. Well
you explain to him (as I dont have
time to write him) that it was
apparently the Axis Powers who
first used so efficiently that
thing called Teams, Combat —
the Allied Powers have merely
sorta “copied.” Well, a T., C. is
the really best outfits of
different types (catagories) of soldiers
all combined to make up a
“knock-out-team” — they
knock-out certain areas like,
for example, the County of Burleigh
while the rest of the routine
GI- Joes are just plodding along
[3]
at the remainder of the State of
North Dakota. They make up
T., C.s because they are a sure
“socko” & do a specific yet important
job in the overall-picture. You
might say a T.,C. is sufficient-
unto-itself — it has a
basic root of course a Division;
then added are tank elements;
M.P. elements; air elements;
anti-tank elements; l combat-
engineer-elements; etc; etc ad
infinitum even down to a
good old “dobie-earth-elements”
(which those Nevadia [sic] Shoshoni
indians use to make their so
very durable huts out of). I’m
sure you have seen those dobie-earth houses
out in Nevada — really & actually the
word is spelled adobie-earth but Westerners
drop the “ah” off the “ah”-dobie. Of course,
I am sorta kidding you when I
say armies carry earth around
c̅[2] them but I guess, by golly, armies
[4]
do carry actual earth for certain
gas-decontamination, engineer
building proceses, etc, etc. Many
newspapers have talked about
T., C.s in this war & all reports
seem to indicate they are the
“clear-dope.” T.,C.s are {formed [or] disbanded}[3] at will.
Speaking of the Army — oh,
me! — I sit (writing this
letter) on my foot locker as
they have taken back all our
chairs. Such goes it even down
to taking ourt sheets & pillow
cases yesterday. Dat’s gratitude,
I sez, - we run off a good
total-inspection this morning
as given by the biggest-shot, &
yet they make us scratch our
feet on a GI – matress below &
a “unsheeted” GI-issue-blankets
above. Dats gratitude! Ho! ho! Ha!
Ho! ho! I must tell you
how & why that smart Wilitzski[4]
[5]
wasnt so smart after all, as to
wiggling out of his wife’s Birthday
present for just a simple $2.00 as
he thought. Well — of course
the remaining component of the
“present” (aside from the portrait) was a
phone call. Still being smart
Wilitzski reverses da changes/
[Nice goin, sez Rabbi McTavish][5]. But —
because of the hour of call (due to
( Mountain War Time) the buses back
to the Fort Ha had stopped &
Wilitzski had to pay vun dollah
un feeftie zents (oi! yoi!) to
get back. Oi! Yoi! P.S. Wilitzski knew
it was going to turn out as such [re: buses][6] but he loved
the babe so damn much he just “threw” money
away! So there!
The officers party was fairly
nice. A few got “stunk” but all
in all it was OK except for the
“racket” price of $4 for ½ chicken
dinner. To bed at 3AM! [after
Birthday-“partying” probably accounts for all
[6]
the scratch-outs in this letter — Lordy!
just look at em’][7]. Anyhooo, I had
2 weak drinks & told 2 dirty
jokes (a number of the officers were called upon
to tell a joke or something) & thus I left
to go sit around down town
for 3 hours waiting for Mountain
War Time to “arrive.”
Also, before I forget again —
I never never saw such
welcome hand-printing in all
my life as what my Pal & Agent
Thump[8] prints. Smart feller,
sez I to me-self!!!
Also, before I forget—
your responses to “silliness”
are just “tops” [as regarding manner
of responding][9] & thus it goes s̅[10]
saying that your “thinking-out”
process is even [(PRIMARILY)][11] super-“tops.”
I just chuckled all over when I read re: Kellys
Numerolgy — “My division is as good as yours,
too, so you needn’t make any remarks about it.”
really very very {good [and] clever}[12], m’ dear!
[7]
Gee! Golly! I gotta hurry to
get this in the mail (P.S. this
may miss its usuall plane, darlin’)
Anyhooo, I love you & miss
you sooo that (I ask)[13]
THUMP,
PUT YOUR (= “MY”) LIPS UP
AGAINS HER LEFT CHEEK
IN A TENDER WAY FOR
5 MINUTES TONIGHT – HUH?
AML[14] to E. & T.
[1] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[2] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[3] In original, “formed is written above “disbanded.”
[4] His nickname for himself.
[5] Bracketed text is part of original.
[6] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[7] Bracketed text is part of original.
[8] Nickname for their infant son, Terry.
[9] Bracketed text is part of original.
[10] Medical abbreviation meaning “without.”
[11] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[12] “Good” is written above “clever” in original.
[13] In the original, there is an arrow pointing from text in parentheses to capitalized text below.
[14] All my love.