Oct. 22, 1942 - Dear Sternsie

Jan Palson

22 Oct 2026 — 4 min read

Boston Globe - there are also reports of bootleg coffee that's unfit to drink. Support this work: Newspapers.com

I’m lucky I have such a wonderful wife.

How nice of the Little Nahant Women's Club to bring coffee out to the soldiers patrolling the beaches. Considering how it's in short supply. Really short supply. A sandwich wouldn't hurt though. It's nice how folks share during wartime, especially with soldiers. Like big trucks with apples. I don't know about a white rat. It's not true. What a kidder. He still needs Tony's address and apparently, everyone is having a baby! Let's sign that furlough paperwork!

Original Letter

Transcript follows.

Transcript

For some context, War Updates follow the transcript. It includes the front pages of The Daily Evening Item from Lynn, Massachusetts (local to Fort Ruckman) and Mom's local Connecticut paper the Hartford Courant for additional news, plus the Women's Page so you're up on the latest recipes and styles, especially hats!

Research, learn, and support this work. Go to: Newspapers.com

October 22, 1942

Bat H - 9^th C.A., Fort Ruckman

Dear Sternsie:

I used to have a little white rat by that name but he died. I started out calling him Guernsey after Elsie the Cow, but I gradually changed to that. If he hadn’t died (the ungrateful wretch) when he did, I had another name for him. It was “Grouchy” because he was always trying to chew his way out of the pocket I carried him in. Maybe he didn’t like to take a back seat. Haw!!! Pretty sharp, eh? I had to walk the beach all afternoon to think that one up. I do my thinking on the beach this week and save my lie-in-bed to think of you. When I come off guard at four in the morning, I eat breakfast and then go to bed but that is about all I do. By the time I have finished breakfast and gotten into bed reveille sounds and from then on it is almost impossible to sleep. The fellows wrestle and yell; the trucks, bulldozers, steam shovel and what not bang back and forth; there are carpenters and painters working on the barracks, and this morning there was a jack-hammer close by. Perhaps it is part of the system. Trying to get us use to sleeping anywhere under all conditions. Last night I fell asleep all curled up like a knot and I woke up feeling like the knot hole. Did you ever feel of a knot hole – I mean – did you ever feel like a knot-hole? Talking of walking the beach the people down there are pretty good to us. They have a Women’s Club in Little Nahant and every night, one of the women brings us a half gallon thermos of coffee. It tastes pretty good around three o’clock in the morning. Someone is always handing us something. Apples, doughnuts, cupcakes and I’d like to talk the Women’s Club into bringing us something to eat each night to go along with the coffee.

The other day one of those great big cement trucks stopped and gave me some apples. It is quite a job to stop and start one of them and he stopped traffic both ways to give them and then it must have taken him all the way back to the fort to get started. All for a couple of apples. Say, what is the idea of telling me I did not pay attention to you. You told me you thought she was going to have a baby because they hinted about a playmate for David. And I asked for Tony’s address weeks ago. You are passing the buck. You messed up. I am coming down the 26^th and that should be next Monday. Of course I can’t be sure of the three-day pass but they said I could have it and so we will assume I will have three days. To show you how indefinite things are, I don’t know whether my furlough will be the 1^st or the 3^rd now. There is some talk about not being able to go the 1^st for some reason but I’ll know tomorrow. I’m going to sign it tomorrow and when you do that you have it cinched. Well honey, save your money because you are going to need it. I’ll take you out and spend it all for you. I’m lucky I have such a wonderful wife. I can lay on my bunk and just dream of being with you. The nicest and softest gal there is. I love you.

Love, Leonard

War Updates

The Lynn Daily Evening Item

I wonder if Dad knows this guy and Sammy - the penny baby. He's from Fort Ruckman but Battery K so maybe not. Scrap metal drive enters its final phase. And they're kicking everyone off the welfare list. At least there are jobs available. And Lynn may get their liquor even further restricted or gone.