Oct. 7, 1942 - Dear Audrey

Jan Palson

07 Oct 2026 — 5 min read

Talk of an UN Council to deal with war crimes - The Boston Evening Globe. Newspapers.com

I find out how to spell furlough today.

Furlough. We knew he'd figure it out. Back to guard duty on the beach. What an interesting time. Yes, IDLE GOSSIP SINKS SHIPS. What if the guy on the beach was fine but the little old ladies were secret spies? The best lobster and clam chowder sounds like a bribe to me. And I would take it!

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 7, 1942

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

Dear Audrey:

Here we go again tonight and the subject is as usual – the one I am the most familiar with, which is your husband. With you listening, I can go on for hours and hours and fill page after page. I am a great guy and you are a very lucky girl to be married to me. (Wow! What a lot of baloney! It doesn’t take many brains to rave like that. If anything, that should be turned around so that it reads, “What a break I got when you consented to marry up with me.” You are one in a million and the only girl for me.) I’ve just come back from guard down on the beach. Yes, they have even got me down there again and I don’t like it. I have the four to eight shift and it was nice down there until the sun went down and then it got cold. You can meet the funniest people down there sometimes. There was one fellow lying on the sand and when I started to go by, he tried to strike up a conversation. He probably meant well and is good citizen but (and I guess it was my imagination) he had the look those spies have whose pictures appear in the newspapers.

If I said he had that wild hunted look it would sound too dramatic and the more I think of it he was just a guy with the day off trying to sleep on the beach. But he did ask some unusual questions and we are always being warned against what we say and so – well I left him quick. Then further up the beach, and there was plenty of beach this afternoon with the tide out, there were a couple of old ladies. They weren’t wading but it certainly looked as if they were. When I got up close I found out they were picking up shells. What a pair. A couple of typical old spinsters. They “gushed “ over me. Showing me the different kinds of shells and what they were called, and they seemed to know all about them too. It wasn’t long before I was wading out in the water for them, picking up sea worms, and digging snails with my bayonet. I had a swell time. Once I was so busy trying to catch a worm before it disappeared that I dropped my rifle and that is a terrible thing to do. But their sincerity is what I enjoy the most. Every shell I found was a beautiful one and just what they wanted and reason enough for me to call the other over and say “isn’t this one pretty and so very cute.” Then we found some sand dollars. I never saw one before and I still don’t know what they are. They are funny things.

They were a hot pair. The smaller one was always wading out into the water on her heels while the other one protested that she would catch her death of cold. When I left them, they gave me their telephone number in Salem and made me promise to call up on my next pass so they could take me out for a lobster dinner. One of them claimed to know where they served the best lobster and clam chowder in New England. I’ll never get the chance but I would like to take them up on the offer because they were so nice. I didn’t care if the General caught me talking to them. I find out how to spell furlough today. I don’t know how many times I have put on an “o” in between the “fur”. Just another step in the right direction. Every day we learn something new. Well honey, the time has come to say Adieu, Au Revoir, and etc. ….

I love you so very much

Leonard

War Updates

The Lynn Daily Evening Item

There's too much "vice" going on in Lynn Massachusetts so they will implement a curfew this month. Apparently liquor has been sold at all hours of the day. Now, last call is 1am except Sundays. You would think the war would drive people to drink and the city should have sympathy. Fresh Nazi hordes sounds terrifying. I do love the "nuts and bolt" pun.

Read more about it and support this work: Newspapers.com

Meanwhile in Hartford...

Senate wants to up taxes. Scandinavia countries are not happy with the Germans. the Dutch are not happy either. We're running out of unmarried men to draft. And so much scrap is needed. Demolition crews are in high demand.

The Women's Page for Mom

Let's cut out the Dorothy Dix column today and use it or save it for daughters. Spot on for 1942. Dorothy only acknowledges her as a "young woman" but bravo. Well said. No notes. Except now, she can keep the job if she wants. Today she probably has to keep the job. The menu today has quite the big breakfast. Isn't there a bacon shortage?