Monday.
Mar 12[1]
Dear Lyd[2],
I’m
taking a sun-bath this afternoon the first since the boat trip[3]
even though it’s not so warm that I’m really comfortable in my shorts and the
prone position is not the best for writing.
Some
one (sic) posted a cartoon on the bulletin board I know you’d enjoy & being
unable to send you the original or even a photostatic copy I’ll try to describe
it for you – incidentally I’m passing it on without comment or malice. Well there’s
a frustrated Mother scolding her son and saying “you want to grow up to be president,
don’t you; so your little boy can be a general, don’t you; and his little
doggie ride in airplanes, don’t you - well why don’t you be nice then?”[4]
Stationery
is one of the hardest things to get over here (maybe to stimulate greater use
of V-Mail I think[5]
– I’ve already asked for a big box of air-mail stationery I want the sheets
much more that the envelopes because I have quite a collection of odds& ends
of envelopes. I’m beginning to run short on this stationery I’m using that you
sent me. It takes packages so long that when I have a red-hot request, by the
time it comes, the need or desire for it has vanished, but that won’t be true
of foods or stationery or T-shirts which I also think I asked from you or books
(Crime & Punishment)
Recently
I had the opportunity of visiting two small Italian towns, San Severo and TarreMaggiore[6],
which escaped the material if not economic ravishes of war. I’m neither on was
anything of historical or cultural importance altho the newest building couldn’t
have been less than 150 years old. The shabby beauty and decadent elegance so universal
in this country were there in a more or less pure state – that is the sagging
tile roofs, the crumbling walls, the falling plaster rococo ornamentation and
such ubiquitous characteristics were the result of age & neglect – none of
the gaping 5 story holes made by bombs or the pock-marks of strafing. Torre
Maggiore was once a ducal seat I understand & the old ducal castle still
stands with hardly even a ghost of its former presumption remaining, it now
being a tenement & the moat (dry) an unofficial garbage dump. It must have
been built before the refinements of the Italian Renaissance began – it must
date from a time castle & fort were synonymous because it’s just a massive
square pile of masonry with huge round tower at each corner with parapets, et
el. I think the natives must be as unconscious of the nostalgia & sentiment
of their old stone buildings as they are of their dampness, discomfort & inconvenience.
Love
Bob[7]
P.S.
A
couple more letters just came one airmail dated Feb 26 & one Mar 5 so you
see mail connection between L.A. & Italy altho good are by no means
constant or predictable. Here are my observations: airmail V-mail is the
fastest, V-mail & air mail about the same, may be (sic) V-mail being
quicker oftener[8].
Bob
[1]
Postmarked 14 Mar 19451945 US Army Postal Service with an additional postmark
of MAR 27, 1945 Hollywood Station.
[2]
Addressed to: Mrs. Walter Smith; 1856 Vista del Mar: Hollywood 28, Calif.
[3]
Note sure if this is in reference to transport to operations theater or a local
trip.
[4]
Maybe a reference to command structure, but the humor isn’t transferring to
modern tastes.
[5]
Government conspiracies is definitely not a modern trend.
[6] Torremaggiore.
[7]
Return Address: Lt. Robert B. Richert 0-2071698; 99th Bmb. Gp. 346
Bmb. Sq.; A.P.O. 520 c/o P.M.; New York, N.Y.
[8]
Lydia sent one letter through each type of service, airmail, airmail V-mail,
V-mail, and regular post to see how quickly each would arrive.
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