World War II Letters: August 1943 to Parents in Highland, Indiana

 Dad had his picture taken to send home to his parents, his siter Vi and her husband, “Moonie” (Norman), his twin brother Eddie and his wife, Marge, and his older brother Jesse and his wife Bee, and of course to Bonnie, his fiancee.  I don’t know what happened to that photo, but I can’t find copies of it.  Eddie’s daughter Dianne, who now lives in Florida, gave many photos to her daughters but said she would try to track down some photos from that time.  If she finds them I’ll use them eventually in the blog.

August 6, 1943
                                                                                                                                    Friday night

Dear Mom & Dad,

     I’m sorry I haven’t written but I just didn’t have time to write more than a note, and they don’t do any good.  The reason I haven’t had time you know is I started my technical school, don’t you?  Well they gave us a four weeks course in the one week, and sometimes we had to pull detail in the evening, so with the details, we were pretty busy trying to keep up our book work.  I’ve been trying to make good in this school because now we are done with classroom work and will do the actual work in the shops for a while.  I passed OK but was only a few points above average.  I passed with only an 80% average, so I guess I’m still no place in this darn place.  I guess I’ll be either parts clerk or requisitioning clerk in the company.  It will be a good job anyway.  You remember that carton of cigarettes you sent me?  Well today I finally was able to get over there and sign for them.  The post office wasn’t open in the morning and at noon I didn’t have time to get them and in the evenings, I didn’t get out of school until 5:30 and the P.O closes at 6:00 (some fun.)

     Well anyway, I’m hoping again now that we can relax a little.  How is everyone there at home?  OK I hope.  Tell them I said “hello” and I’ll write as soon as I possibly can.  They get tired of hearing that, I know, but I haven’t even had a chance here lately to write to my honey.  It’s terrible.  I’m going to hand in my resignation to the C.O. in the morning (bfsssk!)

     I wish I had a definite date to plan on getting my next furlough.  We’re supposed to get them when we leave here, and we are supposed to be ready to leave by October 1st.  That’s all I can plan on.  I do know that we are supposed to ship east, so maybe I’ll be able to end up only 400 or 500 miles from home.  Wouldn’t that be swell?

     Oh yes, I’m going to have some pictures taken at the camp photo studio, and I’m going to send you, and Jesse & Bee, and Eddie & Marge, and Vi & Moonie one.  It only costs $6.50 for 6 pictures, 4”X5”.  I’ll go in about next Tuesday or Wednesday, and it will be about two weeks after that before I’ll get them.

     Well, I guess I’ll close for now, but I’ll try to write everyone real soon.  Bye for now.  I sure wish I were there.  Write again soon, and thanks a million for the cigarettes (butts in the army).

                                                      Your loving son,
                                                            Elwood

This will be me in another five minutes!!! (Haak bifssk.)

About John

About John John Bolinger was born and raised in Northwest Indiana, where he attended Ball State University and Purdue University, receiving his BS and MA from those schools. Then he taught English and French for thirty-five years at Morton High School in Hammond, Indiana before moving to Colorado, where he resided for ten years before moving to Florida. Besides COME SEPTEMBER, Journey of a High School Teacher, John's other books are ALL MY LAZY RIVERS, an Indiana Childhood, and COME ON, FLUFFY, THIS AIN'T NO BALLET, a Novel on Coming of Age, all available on Amazon.com as paperbacks and Kindle books. Alternately funny and touching, COME SEPTEMBER, conveys the story of every high school teacher’s struggle to enlighten both himself and his pupils, encountering along the way, battles with colleagues, administrators, and parents through a parade of characters that include a freshman boy for whom the faculty code name is “Spawn of Satan,” to a senior girl whose water breaks during a pop-quiz over THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Through social change and the relentless march of technology, the human element remains constant in the book’s personal, entertaining, and sympathetic portraits of faculty, students, parents, and others. The audience for this book will certainly include school teachers everywhere, teenagers, parents of teens, as well as anyone who appreciates that blend of humor and pathos with which the world of public education is drenched. The drive of the story is the narrator's struggle to become the best teacher he can be. The book is filled with advice for young teachers based upon experience of the writer, advice that will never be found in college methods classes. Another of John's recent books is Mum's the Word: Secrets of a Family. It is the story of his alcoholic father and the family's efforts to deal with or hide the fact. Though a serious treatment of the horrors of alcoholism, the book also entertains in its descriptions of the father during his best times and the humor of the family's attempts to create a façade for the outside world. All John's books are available as paperbacks and Kindle readers on Amazon, and also as paperbacks at Barnes & Noble. John's sixth book is, Growing Old in America: Notes from a Codger was released on June 15, 2014. John’s most recent book is a novel titled Resisting Gravity, A Ghost Story, published the summer of 2018 View all posts by John →
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