Thursday night[1]
Dear
Bob –
You
are running competition tonight with Case of the Curious Heel, of the Eerie
Series Detective stories – don't know whether to compliment you or not on I'm
coming out ahead. By the way, would you be at all interested in a library of
such thriller–diller books? I'll send you some if you really want them – and
request them.
I'm
so glad that Walter and I finally got your box in the mail yesterday. We had to
repack it at the Post Office because it weighed a half pound too much. Doesn't
take long to get to five pounds – especially when you add a few nails to a box.
We took out a deck of cards, a bar of soap, and some tooth paste – but may be able
to tuck them into another box. We got you some mouse traps[2] – three for a dime so I
got three. They aren't awfully substantial – if they don't work let me know and
I'll send you a rat trap. It practically gives me the creeps to talk about the
darn things – hope I never have any close dealings with them. I wish you the
greatest of luck in getting rid of them. The postoffice clerk was so nice – I
had your letter with me, of course, and I had underlined your “request" so
he could read them easier and he asked me if I was sure I had put in any leads
for the eversharp you wanted. I did – hope you find them. Walter was going
through his suit case at the time I was packing the box and added the
waterproof bag – can you use it? and (sic) also the little leather case that
might possibly fit your compass[3]. The fountain pen is one
Walt has had quite some time but practically never uses, and he was glad to
send it along as being better then a cheap dollar one that might not even survive
the trip. The point of it is sort of out of shape though so it may not be a
prize, after all. Anyway, I hope the box gets to you in one piece.
One
of the girls here at the office has a brother who is just shortly returned from
Italy and she said she sent boxes like mine and they always arrived in good
shape. The Christmas boxes they sent him all came all the way back to US –
isn't there some way you can tell the authorities to turn the box over to
someone else if the original addressee has been returned home? It seems such a
shame to send the darn box all the way back home –. I have been hearing all
sorts of stories about the queer requests you fellows make. One girl's
brotherinlaw (sic) wanted nothing but light globes – they were plumout (sic)
and couldn't get any more over there. I think mouse traps is about as good as
any.
You
have been seeing quite a bit of the old country – too bad it isn't just a
pleasure trip. I'd love to see the Isle of Capri someday and I have a hankering
for Venice, probably because I used to think a honeymoon in Venice was the
quintessence of perfection. Maybe if I could actually see Pompeii someday or
had definite prospects of doing so I could even read Last Days of Pompeii
which I know is on all the approved reading lists. You see as much as you can –
and I'll take my traveling by proxy for the time being.
I
tried to get hold of mamma on the phone tonight but so far have had no luck.
Hubert and Billy are coming this way over the week end and suggested that I
might be able to talk her into coming down. I'll try again tomorrow night and
put my call in earlier and may have a better chance.
Tonight
is my night to get off early and Walter and I are going home to try our luck at
cooking a meal on an electric burner. It won't be the world's best, I know, but
for a change it is good to have your own cooking. If mamma comes down by car
and I'd like to have her bring a jar or so of canned peaches – they are Walt’s
favorites (sic) and hard to get. I sound now like all the sample letters you
see of the home front complaining to the battle front – but I'm not
complaining– I'm just mentioning.
Hi
again –
Got
home from work to find your Valentine waiting for me – a clever idea[4]. Was it your own? But I
can't imagine – the letter written the same day came here three days earlier –
and I thought V – mail was the fastest of all! How and in what order did my sample
letters arrive[5]?
I’ll admit your regular letters come thru a lot faster than I thought they
would. Evidently they are flown across the ocean. I'll bet the box takes the
long way there –
I
finally did get mamma on the phone last night but she isn't sure whether or not
she will come. I hope she does. She says the Fairgrounds is closing up and she
doesn't know just when her roomers will be leaving. She has that darn Boots[6] to worry about, and has to
get placed before she can leave. I suggested she leave Boots with Cornelia and
the doctor and that then she would have no more worries. She knows it, too. At
least she would have no more worries about boots – but she would about Aunt
Beth!
Now
that we have a radio again I have begun to listen to the Hit Parade. LawrenceTibbettt is the singer now – having taken Frank Sinatra's place. He's been in
for a lot of publicity – good and bad. There are no "squealers" in the
audience, such as Sinatra’s a bobby sox brigade. Tibbett really doesn't do
badly – everyone was quite interested to see how he would handle it last week
when he was due to sing Ac – cen – chu – ate - the Positive, E – lim – in -ate the Negative (have you heard the crazy song?) but he did nicely. He
sort of turned it into a negro spiritual and got by with quite a bit of
applause, even Lowell[7], who you know would sing
songs like that when he definitely would eschew any and all popular songs. We
are even beginning to call him ‘Larry’ Tibbetts.
Love,
Lydia
[1] Postmarked
the 18th so using for that day’s blog entry, but second page is
dated Friday 2/16/45
[2] Robert’s
squadron was stationed in tents in a countryside field and one can imagine the
rodent problem.
[3] Robert
mentions the compass in his Feb 5, 1945 letter to Lydia. Blog post of 16 Feb
2015.
[4] One may
assume it is similar to Blog entry 14 Feb 2015.
[5] This is
the letter delivery time experiment that is mentioned several times. Lydia was
testing how long each class of mail was delivered to Robert/
[6] Family
Cat
[7] Unknown
if specific mention of family acquaintance or to a generally known figure.
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