April 29, 1942 - Dear Wife (or fat stuff - or just plain kid)

You aren't really horrible.

So she's driving up Friday but instead of brownies and fudge, he'll probably get a knuckle sandwich. And he deserves it for all the ribbing she has to put up with. At least a knuckle sandwich doesn't require sugar. Sugar rationing has just begun and it'll put a real damper on the treats. Everyone will need to register for sugar stamps. Initially, each stamp allowed the purchase of 1 pound of sugar every two weeks but by June 28, 1942, this will change to 2 pounds every four weeks. So they're about one month into this adventure and aside from the snark and the sugar, it's going pretty well. Sounds like she's looking for another job and managing - except for the sister drama. Never ending sister drama.

Original Letter

Transcript follows.

Boston Globe - April 29, 1942

I believe the American Expeditionary Forces - the A.E.F., which started in WWI, has become the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe and the Middle East in WWII. President Roosevelt delivered a talk to the nation on Tuesday night to announce several hundreds of thousand soldiers are now overseas. Every radio covered it. He also discussed his plan to keep costs affordable for Americans. This is why he has the support of the American people. Oh, and movie stars are on their way for the big show on Friday.

The Boston Globe - Government Price Fixing

The Boston Globe - More Government Price Fixing

Boston Globe Exclusive

Here's chapter 3 of the Globe's exclusive: Defense Will NOT Win the War.

Transcript - April 29, 1942

Battery H., 9th C.A., Fort Banks

Dear Wife (or fat stuff or just plain kid),

I've just received your letter in which you claim to be doing your exercising Faithfully. You don't have to worry too much about getting fat because I'll love you anyway. Didn’t I marry you when you weighed in the vicinity of 144 - 1/3 lbs? Or didn't you? But I would love to be around to see to it that you got fat. Your letters give me a little thrill when I think of it. I'm crazy about you and I'm sort of looking forward to seeing you. If you come up Friday just come over and I'll be waiting for you.

I promised to go to the opera but it won't hurt me to stay home one night. Please don't plan to drive all the way over to the farm Friday night after you leave here. It's too much driving for you. You can go to Melrose or Natick. Don’t forget that it is a long ride up here from East Hartford and so don't fall asleep or speed. I'll worry about you until I see you. I love you too much I want you in one piece. So don’t try to wrap the car around a tree.

I got your fudge and brownies and they are all gone already. I wrote Vicki a little note but didn't know she made the brownies so say thank you for me. Don't get your heart set on that $40 a week too much because they don't throw those jobs around like confetti even in these times. I have no doubt but what you could fill any of these jobs or better and that you should get one, but it would seem too good to me. Also they don't put those factories up overnight either. I think my wife is quite a girl but I don't think we would ever get a break. I'm a pessimist by nature but I'll be hoping you get it. One of the boys was telling me how his pal was doing defense work and that he was kicking because his paycheck was $70 short. Can you imagine that? I used to kick like a mad steer if my paycheck was $1.43 short but this guy is missing paltry $70. The poor guy. I hope next week he is short the whole $150 or whatever it is he gets. They should put a new suit on him and cut his pay to $5.25 and see how he likes it.

The last 10 lines represent the first squawk in the last three or four days I put up. I'm improving. The only tough part of this non-gripe letter is that I have a hard time finding things to write about. I have to fill the letter up with a lot of baloney like “I love you and how much I miss you”. I hope you don't believe me because I'm apt to have you on my hands for the rest of my days. And that would be horrible. Girls are the cause of more disasters than anyone. Look what happened to me. The horrible part of spending the rest of my dying days with my wife is that I wouldn't know what to do. I've spent so much time away from her but I couldn't get used to living with her. But of course when the time comes I'm willing to try and it's coming soon.

I love you very much and I'm only fooling about you being horrible. You aren't really horrible. Of course it's not your fault. It's your father's. He must have been thinking about the cows when he was thinking of having you. Oh, oh here we go again. So I'll close and I'm kidding you. I love you, I love you and I'll be looking for you.

Lots of love,

Leonard

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Next letter tomorrow, April 30, 1942

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