June 15, 1944
Dear Parents,
This is a day for great celebration. Not only is it your wedding anniversary but we also get considerable time off because of Infantry day. No doubt I’ll have more time to really celebrate than you. We scrubbed up everything last night but they really got kind hearted today. We went to a lecture this morning for about an hour and then we get the rest of the day off except a couple hours this afternoon for a parade. I never expected anything like this to happen.
I also have some pretty good news to tell you about my ear. I went to the clinic yesterday afternoon and they gave a pretty thorough examination. Although he knew there had to be a hole there the doctor said he was unable to see it. When I first went to the dispensary the doctor there didn’t look very hard and he found it so you can see there is no need to further worry. I myself had noticed that the secretion had almost stopped in the last few days and this morning it seems not to be running at all. I am supposed to go back over there next Monday just for a check up.
I was sure glad to get a letter from you yesterday. I was very glad to get the pictures but there is only one of them that I am willing to claim. In most of them I look scared and my uniform looks messy. In the ones with Daddy and Mother I look like a skinny, drawed up rail. The one with Jim is alright because you can’t see me. The one with Richard and Mary isn’t too bad but the one I really like is the one with Richard. It was taken far enough away that you don’t notice too many faults in my uniform and then I don’t have that old poppy sticking out of my pocket. I think the way I am standing also helps out. That is the one I want you to have prints made of to give away. I’m going to send most of the rest home and they can be hidden as far as I’m concerned.
I’m glad to hear you are coming so well with the honey house. Maybe you can send me a picture of it one of these times. I wonder if Daddy has gone to the factory yet.
I hope the preacher you had Sunday can be hired and that he proves to be satisfactory.
I have run across a couple of new stamps. I think there are a couple of more new ones out – maybe you’ll run across them.
I hope to get some reading done today – especially in the Sunday School papers. I’ve not had hardly any time to read at all for a couple of weeks. We go out on the range again this Sunday so I’ll have to rest hard today to make up for time both past and future.
Maybe I’ll think of something else before night.
Lots of love, Donald
Evening,
Well I got a letter from you this evening. I hope Daddy gets along alright with his job. I want to hear more about it.
We had our parade this evening and it just about fixed us. We stood for about an hour in the boiling sun and several men passed out from the heat. I was going to go to a show tonight but I feel so shot that I am hitting the hay. You can see from the way this paper is wrinkled how I I am sweating. I had a letter started to Uncle Floyd but I’m not even going to finish it tonight.
I like it quite well for you to paper my cigar boxes and I did get the box from the Ladies aid but I haven’t even got letters written to my relation let alone to them.
Goodnight with love, Donald