Indiana Oh Indiana

Dear Mom & Dad,

     I haven’t heard from you since around the first, I guess.  Is anything wrong?  Have you heard from Eddie lately?  I hope he gets to come home.  I haven’t heard from him either.  Darn it, I wish we could all come home.  I think we may leave here in December.  They are keeping all of the news about when we’ll get home from us.  We can’t find out a thing.  So far this month I haven’t received any of those stars, so I may have to start getting in these officers’ hair.

     I have been off today, and all I’ve done is lie around.  I don’t get a regular day off anymore.  Until they put another man in charge of the third shift, I won’t either.  I shouldn’t kick, because we don’t have to work hard anymore. I’ll really be glad to get out of this army and get a job again.  I would swing a 16-pound sledge all day to get out right now.  I can’t wait to get a good job again and do a day’s work.  This army would make a bum out of a man if he let it.  Bejabbers, it’ll be a fair day when these “awfucers” go back to selling apples on the street corners, won’t it now?  It’s a sad state of affairs when a body has to put up with the likes of them.  There seem to be more lieutenants running around the landscape than there are privates.  Gee, what will happen if some of these officers can’t get any pencils or apples to sell?

     Well, how is everyone there at home?  Hope everything is alright.  Have you seen Bonnie lately?  You have?  Boy, are you lucky.  I have received four letters from her this week.  Pretty good, I’d say.  I sure do miss all of you back there.  I dream of the day I’ll come home again.  Remember the last time when I came home from England?  We talked until the wee hours of the morning.  That sure was a wonderful day for me, to see you again after such a long time.  How are Jesse & Bee?  Did they answer my letter?

     Well, there isn’t anything I can say about this island, only that it is a heck of a place.  I hate it more everyday.  I’ve been getting along alright and I’m feeling fine, but I still don’t like it.  I guess I can stand it for a little while more though.

     Well, take care yourselves, and write soon.  Bye for now.

Your loving son,
     Elwood

p.s.  Not YOU, Vi.  I’m yer brudder.

Evidently, his sister Violet wasn’t writing often enough to suit him, and he makes a joke about it in this letter.  Any little tidbit of news from home provided a connection that was like a life-line for soldiers waiting to be shipped back to the USA.
 

Dear Mom & Dad, & Vi,

     It gives me great pleasure in writing this letter, telling you that I am practically on my way home.  I’m so darned happy I can hardly write.  Please don’t send anymore packages, because I may not be here to receive them.  We are supposed to be alerted on November 15th for shipment to the states.  The way we found it out was that a major and another man from the personnel office told us.  They said they have seen it in black and white.  It hasn’t come out on orders yet, so it is just in the making.  I only hope that these orders to come out aren’t changed this time.  Anyway, please don’t send me any X-mas packages.  If I’m not home for X-mas, I’ll be home shortly afterward.

     I haven’t written to Eddie lately, because I had hoped he was on his way home.  If they leave him over here, they should be shot.  He has served honorably on that ship in action for nine months, and when that ship leaves for the states, the full crew should be on her.  Sometimes I can’t understand the damned service.  The next time they want this boy, they are going to have to find him, and I’m not kidding.  Eddie has been through an awful lot over here, and he should be the member of the McKee’s crew that’s on duty on her in New york on Navy Day.  He should be entitled to go home before any of us.  He’s been through more in one month than we were in our twelve months in Europe.  I’m still hoping to hear that he is on his way home by now.

     Well, how is everyone there at home?  Ask Jesse if he broke his fountain pen, will you?  Did you find another place.  They must be as scarce as hens’ teeth.

     I just wrote to Bonnie and told her the news.  Maybe I won’t need those battle stars now.  The way it is supposed to work, all men in the 90th Service Group, who have 45 points or more up to V-J Day are supposed to go home.  (That gets me.)  Have you seen or talked to my honey lately?  I sure hope she is getting along alright.  Has she ever gone to the doctor yet?  She doesn’t seem to want to answer that!

     Boy, they are starving us to death over here now.  For instance, I didn’t get up for chow this morning, and this noon I had one salmon patty, one spoonful (one helping) of rice, and two pieces of jelly bread and a cup of coffee.  The salmon I had to throw away, because it tasted spoiled.  The rice I couldn’t eat without fixing it up some way, so I put sugar on it, so what I had for dinner was a helping of sugared rice, two pieces of jelly bread, and a cup of coffee.  I’m just waiting to see what we have for supper.  I’ll know in another half hour.  This has been going on for a week now.  Maybe it’s just that they don’t want us to get too big for our clothes, aye what? Well, I’ll close for now.  Write soon.  Be careful.  God bless and watch over you.

Your loving son,

  Elwood

For Vi…………………your loving brudder
                                  Cesspool

For Vi…………………No remarks

For Vi………………….Write me a letter.

For Mom & Dad…….Make Vi write!!!

Even after the war officially ended, there was still sniper fire in the Pacific, alluded to in this letter my Dad wrote in September of 1945.  Renegade Japanese soldiers remained for months on Guam, where sniper fire, though much reduced, was still a threat from some wooded areas and caves.

Dear Mom and Dad,

     How are the best mom and dad in the world getting along?  I hope you are both OK.  Have you talked to Bonnie lately?  When you call her again, tell her I said “hello.” I sure do miss her.  Do you know how she is getting along? If she is having a hard time being pregnant, I know she won’t tell me.

     I wrote to Jess and Bee, and to Eddie the other day.  So far, I have received only one letter and got it today.   It was from Bonnie, one that she wrote on August 9th!  That’s over a month ago.  Boy, was I happy when I received it.  It’s such a sweet letter.   Maybe now my mail will start coming to me regularly.  Boy, Mom,  I know how you feel about being asked to send me things I need, because you told me when I got home the last time, so would you please send me that Pop-Ade you had in the fridge?  It’s terribly hot over here, and believe me, a good drink like that would really be wonderful.  If you don’t have it anymore, please don’t go out to get any.  I know it is hard to get.  I asked Bonnie to send me a couple of tee-shirts, a mirror, and a set of guitar strings.  Oh yes, I’ve been trying to remember what it was I wanted.  Would you get me one of those transparent cigarette cases that George has at his cigar store?  I guess that’s his name.  Anyway, it is one of those cases that you put the while pack of cigarettes into.  The top comes off the case.  I had one, but I’ll be darned if I know what I did with it.  It’s nice to keep cigarettes in, because it’s so very humid here, and the smokes stay fresher longer in a case like that.  That white case with the gold finish you gave me, Dad, I left at home this time, because it’s too good to bring over here.  I don’t want to use that case until I become a Mason.  I remember you used to carry that case to the lodge, and I want to carry it too. 

     I’m going to try to save $50 here.  It won’t be easy, because I’m sending almost all m money home to Bonnie.  If I can save it, I’ll try to send it to you.  It will be coming out of the money I’ve allowed myself for rations.  Please don’t tell Bonnie that, or she’ll make me quit sending her $100 a month, and I know she needs it.  I can surely do without candy and stuff in order to save about $5 a month extra.  At that rate, it’ll take ten months to save the $50.

     I have a higher point average in this squadron due to my other tweleve months over seas.  The average for this squadron is 45 points, and I have 48.  I sure hope I can be home when the baby is brought into this world.

     I had a swell dream about Eddie last night.  I dreamed I met him here, and we spent a whole evening together.  No one will ever know how much I miss Eddie.  I’ve worried so much about im since you told me what Jack Ralph said about Eddie’s ship being attacked by the Japs.  Now that the war is over, I’m not worried so much.  If something were to happen to one of us,  I had prayed it would be me.  Now I know Jack Ralph was wrong about Eddie’s being wounded, thank God.

     I guess I’ll close for tonight.  There isn’t much I can write about this place, except to say that I think I told you about the Jap sniper here in the area not occupied by Yanks.  Well, a negro fellow went in there day before yesterday and never came back.  He was found shot dead in the area, where evidence of a Jap camp was also found.  I figure I won’t ever need to go in that wooded area, as I’ve never lost anything there and have no business there anyway.  If two men travel together in that area, the Japs won’t attack them, because if if one is shot, the other will kill the Jap.  We’ve all been trained to react instantly.  But a guy who goes there alone is sure to be killed.  A Jap will pick a spot where he can see anyone coming his way and will lie there for hours without even moving.  He lets the enemy move and give away his position first.  Anyway, don’t worry.  I won’t be going anywhere near there.

     Bye for now.  Be careful.  Write soon.  God bless and watch over you.

Your loving son,
  Elwood

Dad was a handsome man, and he couldn’t help the attraction felt by women he encountered along the way during the war.  The fact that he shared with his parents this particularly innocent female encounter says a lot about his good intentions and also his sensitivity to how his wife Bonnie would react to any kind of correpondence between him and the Seattle lady. Based upon Dad’s having met Nadine from Michigan and Bonnie’s reaction to that guileless meeting, Dolores might really have caused some problems for Dad had the news been received by my mother.  As it turned out, there was never, to my knowledge, any further problem from Dolores or her machinations through any more correspondence.  I can imagine, however, that the possibility worried Dad for a while, even after he returned home.  He adored my mother and wouldn’t have upset her for anything.  Fortunately, she adored him too.

Dear Mom & Dad,

     I just received a letter from you and believe me, I sure was happy to hear from you again.  Mom, I’m glad that youre going into Billings for a thorough check-up.  I hope you’re all right by now.  You were really lucky to have won $50 at bingo.

     In this letter you have enclosed a letter from Dolores Wartham of Seattle.  I had forgotten about her.  She is a girl I met through Fred Seacrest and  Bill Puckett and the boys in Santa Anita.  I hadn’t known her very long when she claimed to the boys that she more than liked me.  She said (and I’m not bragging) that she liked me because I was clean and the quiet type. I had told her all about you and Dad, but I also told her about Bonnie.  She used to force her way into our bunch when we were all out galavanting and then hang around me.  Of course, I was with her only in the crowd, but I didn’t tell my honey, because I knew she wouldn’t like it, but what is a guy to do?  She asked for my address and yours, so she got it, and after she had written me a few times in England, I wrote to her.  Why she said my letter was so sweet, I really don’t know, unless it was because her letters were all HELLO and GOODBYE.  I did write one good, long letter telling her about England and the army air corps.  Anyway, I’m glad you didn’t tell Bonnie, because she might not ever understand.  I’m not going to write to Dolores, because if she writes back after I’m out of the service, the letter will come to my house.  If you hear from her again, just throw the letter out and forget about it.  

     EVERYTHING happens to me.  A girl named Nadine in Michigan used to like me too, and after Bonnie and I were married, Bonnie found out about her and cried herself to sleep for a whole week.  That is why I won’t mention this to her.  And don’t think that Bonnie is too jealous.  I feel the same way about her.

     Well, so much for that!  How are you both?  Boy I sure wish I could see you, but it won’t be that long before I do see you again.  If the latest rumor is right, I have a chance of being home for Christmas.  Don’t tell Bonnie, because if it isn’t true, it would break her heart.  I’ll know in a couple of weeks for sure.  The rumor is that all men with 50 points or more will be home for X-mas.  There are so many rumors flying around here, that I don’t know if there are any  I can actually believe.

     I received nine letters from my honey yesterday, and one of the letters had the sweetest little baby booty in it.  It is pink, trimmed in white, and had a little pink silk ribbon on the right side.  I guess it’s for the right foot.  In another letter there was five dollars, and another one had two dollars.  Bonnie is sure a sweet kid.  I don’t know what I would ever do without her. I’ll write to her again tonight.  She told me in her last letter that she will be moving to Jean’s, but she didn’t give me the address.  I guess I’ll just have to write to her mother until I get it.  Today I didn’t receive any mail.  It’s 4:30 now, and I just came back from this afternoon’s work.

    I guess I’ll close for now.  Keep writing.  I need your letters.  Bye for now, and God bless you both.

Your loving son, 
   Elwood

p.s. I just found out that it was only a rumor about the 50 points.  I still think I’ll be home when my baby is born.  I pray I will, anyway.