Monday
Night[1]
Dear Bob[2] ─
This
is stationery[3]
that is supposed to be on the way to you ─ all packed up in box with books and
a can of pork of beans (sic)[4]. You
should have seen Walter and me at the post-office trying to get that box mailed
to you! We have trouble keeping under the prescribed five pound weight limit ─
we usually don’t completely wrap & address the box until we have the
official O.K. from the postal clerk. Today we had 12 ounces too much and it was
hard to decide what to hold out. First we took out this package of stationery
(I’ll send the remains of it in a separate envelop) but we still had six ounces
too much. Then we opened the package of marshmallows and took half of them out.
The rest of them will probably be a mess when you get them! Anyway ─ on the
third trip to the window[5],
we finally got your box to pass inspection. Hope it gets to you safely now!
There
are three books in it – and I’m glad I didn’t have to hold them out. One is a
request (Crime & Punishment)[6];
another is my own selection (Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad which you
showed enjoy for its ‘travel in Italy’ chapters) and the third is a special
from the clerk in the bookstore When I mentioned I was sending the books I had bought
to Italy – she asked if she might add one to the list as her own donation. She
seemed very happy to do it and thanked me for letting her give it to me. Hope
you can use it all right ─ you should be able to. One of the girls at the
office looked it over and said it would pass inspection. You can guess for a
while about it ─
I’ve
been getting ready for Easter. I’m going to send a box to Bill & John[7] – Walter
and I dyed some eggs and I made some candy ones. They taste awful, but they
look pretty ─ all pink and blue and yellow and green. Easter egg dyes certainly
aren’t as good as they were when I was a child![8]
All I could get out of my red dye was a pale pink egg ─ so I got out the bright
red fingernail polish and now I have a beauty of a red egg. It’s the deep
purple ones I would really like to have! And remember how onion skins[9] would
give such a shiny bronze egg?
I
hadn’t heard from mama since she was here in Hollywood but did have a letter
today. She’s OK, she says, but just hasn’t been writing letters. She said she’s
sent a box to you ─ hopes you soon start getting some of ‘em.
Things
are certainly humming in you section now. It would be wonderful if you could be
coming home soon ─ I’m almost afraid to hope for the chance. We never know just
how to take newspaper reports ─ but we certainly hope and wish and pray for the
war to end quickly and for all you boys to get back home to America.
Take
care of yourself – always-
Lydia
[1]
Monday was the 26th of march in 1945.
[2]
Addressed to: Lt. R. B. Richert
02071698; 99th Bm Gr., 346 Bm Sq.; APO 520; c/o P.M. New York City.
[3]
In a previous letter, Robert had asked for stationery.
[4]
Though a can of this sounds much like an army ration in and of itself, it is
not unusual for a person to get a longing for a very specific reminder of home.
[5]
Anyone making regular visits to the post office can see this still happening
today.
[6]
Robert had requested this in a previous letter.
[7]
Robert and Lydia’s nephews.
[8]
Doesn’t every generation say this?
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