Partial letter. Pages 3 & 4 got separated – (see March 30, 1944 – pt2)
March 30, 1944 – Thursday Eve
Dear Folks,
Here I go again. I’ll try to answer some of the questions that you have asked me and get them off my mind as well as using them as something to write about.
To start with I got my first Tribune today. It was Monday’s paper so I missed about two weeks of them. I believe that the last paper I got told of Gertie Young’s death. You don’t need to send me all these papers but I would appreciate any important clippings that I missed. As for your letters I have received all of them since the 23rd but I haven’t got the one you sent before you knew my address.
Dady asked if I have gained or lost since I have been in the army. Well I haven’t been on a scales since Sept. 13 but I do know that I weigh more than I did then. I am not a fatty yet but my pants that were issued to me fit pretty tightly around the waist. The pants with 30” waist fit good in Sept. but just before I left Benning we were issued some cotton khaki pants to wear for work and a 32” waist wasn’t at all too big.
Here is my advice on what Dady should do this summer. I once thought that the bee jo was great stuff but I have about changed my mind. It is awful hard work and not too pleasant at times. If you decide not to take it again don’t worry about it and just think of yourself as being better off without it. The Aladdin deal sounds alright to me and if you couldn’t do the work there will be plenty of farm
work or even papering to do.
It has been raining here for the last couple days and it has given me just a little bit more reason to like it here. Back in basic we would work out even in a cloud burst but yesterday afternoon we had classes inside so that we wouldn’t have to work in the rain. At least they give us a fair chance to keep well. Of course, we will be out in a lot of bad weather before this is over but there is no sense of going to extremes at the expense of health.
It cleared up this afternoon and we had an unusual class in airplane identification. We had a couple of classes in Benning on this but it was mostly from pictures and we didn’t get too much from it. But today we went out about a mile to the airport and saw the actual planes. We didn’t get to see them on the ground but they came down to 25 feet or less for us to get close ups of them and they did a lot of performing to show us their stuff. Boy some of them sure have got power.
I wonder what the chances of you getting my watch fixed are.
Well I’m pretty sleepy and I think I had better do a little reading before I turn in.
Love, Donald