June 24-25, 1942 - Continued

I fell asleep sitting on a rock around one o’clock last nite.

They're not assigned bunks? That seems wrong. Anyway, if there's no place to sleep, he might as well keep writing. It's a quiz letter. And a book club. Darn the mostly rainy days.

Original Letter

Transcript follows.

Transcript - June 24 -25, 1942 Continued

East Point

Dear Audrey,

All the bunks I mentioned a little while ago are being used and the pool table is in use. So I think I’ll continue the other letter. I owe about five other letters, but I would rather write to you. I get a certain satisfaction from writing to you. I shall call this the quiz letter. A sort of question and answer affair. The first one is a fifty cent one and strictly business. How to wash a pair of dirty shorts. Now she tells me. Three days too late. As it so happened, there was no hot water when I got around to washing them and so I used luke warm water. They look pretty good. The next question is a dazzler. How did you fix the rear seat up? The only solution I can see is to buy some new seat covers. I suppose Aunt Amelia will continue working at the Bank and you can send her the money. I don’t know how to advise you on that. Send it to the bank in her name. I guess that will be all right.

It has always been my impression that sympathy cards were for friends and persons outside the family. The incident being in the or our family does not warrant a card in our case. This is only an opinion… This is Thurs. Those sirens went off right in the middle of this letter and I just dropped it. In fact this is the afternoon and I had to pick it up from underneath the bunk. We just come off duty and in the rain too. It started to rain about half past one and did it rain. It is still coming down in sheets. Maybe I can sneak a little nap. Including the alert last night, I stood guard seven hours straight. I fell asleep sitting on a rock around one o’clock last nite. Did you ever hear the sea gulls late at night? What a weird and scary cry they heave. Each time I hear them it’s different. I think I shall be allergic to the g.d. things when I leave this place. Sometimes it is like a small child crying or a cat sitting on the backyard fence. Or when a few of them get together it is like a nagging wife scolding her spouse. Lord help me if my wife ever gets like that.

What shall we do with the income tax for last year? Shall we pay it or let it slide. I have the blanks to fill out if we are to let it slide and there are quite a few of them. I’ll bring them down the next time I come down. I’m quite sure it will be before Thanksgiving. They tell us we are going back to Fort Ruckman tonite. That means they are changing the guards here completely. It seems kind of funny to think of going back there. We have lived differently here and now we are going back to the old dogged routine. I can’t help feel there is something being held in store for us and nothing good either. As bad as this guard duty is, my life has been more my own here than it has ever been in the Army. I’ve been sleeping until ten in the morning and though I miss breakfast it is nice to lay in bed and it is not very long to noon chow. Maybe we will get a pass when we get over to Ruckman. Everyone else is getting them and so we should.

I’ve just finished a book entitled “Without Armour” by James Hilton and I think it was very good. It was about a fellow who became mixed in the Russian revolution and I never thought the fellow would live thru his adventures. I have another book I’m reading that I got from the library here and I won’t finish it by tonite so I guess I shall take it with me. I’m just going to borrow it. While I have been writing the rain has stopped and the sun is coming out. Just a thunderstorm but a good one. Well sweet, I’ll sign off. I’m not going to spend all afternoon writing to you. I’ve got other things to do. I think I’ll get dressed up and go out to the gate and see if any of my gals show up. Yesterday a couple of them had a fight over me and they got so scratched that I wouldn’t take either one. I do hope they do as I suggested to day and cut cards and take turns. They are all nice girls. If they only knew I was married and loved my wife.

Your man

Leonard

War Update - The Boston Evening Globe

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Next letter Tuesday, June 30, 1942

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