Now at the Fort Dix Separation Center in Trenton NJ.
Photo of the “O.D” (olive drab) cap he mentions
3 empty envelopes prior to this letter, return address Fort Dix, postmarked September 17, September 17, and September 21.
Saturday Afternoon
Dear Family,
For this once my weekend letter will have to be written on Saturday instead of Sunday. If you remember, I told you that today was to be my day off so it stands to reason that I’ll be able to write more of a letter today than tomorrow.
It’s nice to get a day off whenever it comes but, of course, I’d rather it be on a Sunday if I had my choice. I don’t like to have to miss church.
Well I’ve finally started getting a little mail. Yesterday I received a letter from you guys and today one from Richard. Just to get some mail helps out on the morale situation a lot. I hope those first few letters I sent didn’t worry you too bad. I did work pretty hard the first day or so and of course everything was new and got just a little discouraged. Working day and night didn’t help either but we oughtn’t have that happen too often from now on.
I guess if I’m ever going to get caught up on the sleep I lost, I should have done it this morning. It must’ve been about 9 o’clock or before when I went to bed last night and didn’t get up till eleven thirty this morning. If nothing too bad happens by the time I’ve been here another week, I should be almost beginning to like the place.
Perhaps it’s true that if I were watching the progress of the garage work it would not seem very fast but every time I’ve heard about it so far there have been a good many changes made. The last time I heard from it you’d just put in the coal house floor. And now the bin is finished enough to put the coal in and you’re ready to start on the stairway. I wonder if you had room to get your Ind. (Ill.) coal in off the driveway or will that have to be moved somewhere else?
I guess Marvin’s slowness finally caught up with him on the teacher situation. It hadn’t been settled permanently in the letter I got but if he finally got a teacher it would be a miracle.
How much honey did you have this time? I expect it was pretty short for a honey crop but maybe it’ll be enough to make some to use at home anyway.
Well I’ve got some clothes to take to the cleaners and they close pretty early so maybe I’d better sign off and get that done. I’ll try to write a little more before evening.
Later
I almost missed the little poem that Mary put into the letter but I got a good laugh from it when I finally discovered it on the back of the page.
I hope that Mother didn’t have to spend too long at the cooking job down at school. That’s almost as bad as doing KP and that can get to be quite some job. I know.
We can wear our OD’s now and after Oct. 1 we’ll be wearing them altogether. I am wondering about an OD cap I used to have. I don’t remember seeing it on my furlough but I’m almost certain I sent it home. It looks like I’ll be wearing GI clothes for quite a while yet so I’d like to have it if it’s still around. It’s almost black in color and I think it has some sort of a lining. Let me know if it’s not there and if it is, how about sending it.
Well I hope to hear from you again soon. Be good and don’t work too hard.
Your son and brother,
Donald