Saturday Evening, 6PM
September 30, 1944
Hello Folks,
This is a pretty childish thing to say but I am almost homesick enough to cry this evening. I don’t know why I should feel so now but such feelings come over you once in a while. I never have been homesick to the point of being sick but it sure is a strong feeling sometimes. I suppose even if I weren’t in the army I would be away from home attending school somewhere but even there I get home once and a while.
Since it has been quite a while since I had a furlough, I haven’t entirely given up hopes. I think if we stay around for another month I might have a chance. Otherwise is next to impossible. Let’s hope and pray for the best. It sure would be good to get home again.
I suppose one of the reasons why I think of home quite a bit now is because of the weather now, especially our evening reminds me of home. It doesn’t get quite as hot as it used to and the evenings get almost snappy. Every time I am out just about dark or soon after I find a funny sort of feeling coming up inside me and my mind wandering back.
Well this has filled up a letter space and I don’t want you to think too much about it. You know that it often helps out just to tell your feelings to someone. I don’t know a whole lot to say tonight anyway and if I hadn’t just rambled a little this might have been a pretty flimsy letter.
I haven’t heard from you since I wrote last but I did get the box at noon today. Thanks a million; you sure look after me. And here’s something you probably won’t believe. Before I began this letter, I got started reading the S.S. paper and didn’t get stopped till I had read it clear through. I like it a whole lot better when I get them this way, one or two at a time. For one thing it means getting something oftener and then they don’t pile up on you. You have a feeling of having something you are anxious to read rather than having something hanging over you that you should get read.
I believe I told you that I was going to be on a regimental supply detail yesterday. Well it turned out to be a fairly easy day. I was assigned to a crew of four or five that worked on a truck. We cleaned up one of the supply buildings and then in the afternoon we went over to a warehouse and brought back a truckload of stuff. It was a lot easier than I expected and I didn’t even have to put in too long a day at it.
I don’t know why but for some reason or other they seem to think, all of a sudden, that we need to have a lot of hikes. We spent all morning today hiking. I guess we’ll get back into the swing of things good and proper if they keep doing things like this.
We had about an hour of classes this afternoon and then were given a chance to catch up on some of our work. We can’t send laundry now that we are leaving so I had a good bit extra to do along that line. I couldn’t get my underwear and other white things very white but at least I got the sweat out of them. I also cleaned my rifle and intended to sew some stripes on my OD shirts but never got around to it. We are going to wear OD’s and aren’t even taking khakis with us so we must be going north from here.
How did the football game come out yesterday evening. I hope everything else is coming along at least as well as usual. I guess I’ll sign-off now till later. – DVT
Sunday Afternoon
It’s a funny thing how one day you feel one way about a thing and the next day you feel different. If any day last week had been like this it would certainly have been a miserably hot day. But since it is Sunday it is a beautiful sun-shiny day. The sun woke me up this morning about 8:30 by shining in my eyes. So you can see that I played lazy again. If I were home it wouldn’t be nearly such a great sport to sleep in every Sunday. But here because the rest is needed and for lack of anything better to do, it seems the proper way to spend Sunday morning.
I finally got up and went to church. This was World Wide Communion Sunday so I suppose you had communion services too. We had a larger crowd at our services than we usually do – about twice the usual number but still the chapel was only about half full.
After church I intended to at least sew on at least one pair of stripes but I just couldn’t drive myself to the job. If it weren’t for that I would be pretty well caught up with things I’ve got to do this week-end. So instead of doing that I read a story or two in the Reader’s Digest.
For dinner today we had one of the best meals we’ve had for a good while. I guess the part that made it exceptional was the chicken. We usually have chicken on Sunday but today you could actually eat it for once. It wasn’t as good as mother’s but most of the time I think they try to fry what must have been four or five year old roosters. Instead of fried chicken turns out to be the poor grade of shoe leather.
[The following page seems to start out of context – perhaps a missing page?]
…of them laid back. If they ever get to be a problem to me, I’ll let you know.
We got into your cookies this morning so they are just about gone now. I see they have a few walnuts in them and I wonder how the walnut crop looks this year. I really like those little hard candies you’ve been sending. I can keep them stuck away and they come in pretty well when I feel like I need a little something in my mouth. It’s sort of like coming into the kitchen and saying “Mother, is there anything I can eat?” That’s one of the many things you miss in th army.
Thanks for the clippings, I always have been glad to get them and they just help out with the news. Don’t be afraid of sending too many of them.
I wonder what you are doing today. If it is as nice there as it is here it would be a great time to just get into the car and go somewhere. I wonder how you gasoline supply is. It’s been quite a while since I’ve heard anything about it.
Well for lack of any more news I’ll sign off for the present. Good luck to all of you.
Love, Donald