Wednesday 30 May 1945

Dearest Kitten:

You are perhaps feeling like a very neglected wife right now, but believe me it is not because you are not always with me in my thoughts. I love you and miss you so much that I can not express my feelings. Wherever I go or am, there will always be a part of you with me. I have you in my heart at all times, so even though I am miles away from you, you are always there with me.

With the passing of each day my longing and yearning for you continues without diminishing in any way. Yes, I am a very tired & lonesome man right now, who wishes to hell he were home.

I am rapidly running out of patience. All I seem to be doing is waiting for the day when I will be permitted to take you into my arms and tell you that our period of separation is over. When that day finally does arrive, we will be as happy as a couple of kids.

Now to answer your letters #274-5-6-7&8.

All my little surprises for you have been unsuccessful lately. At least I tried and I know that you were just as thrilled as if they had really worked.

Yes, I am still planning on having a couple youngsters. Of course only time will tell, but if I have my way we will have a couple more.

Bobby and Mother certainly get around. I bet Bobby enjoyed the long ride to Ogunquit. I can imagine all the questions that he could ask on a ride like that.

It is odd to read some news about some of my old acquaintances. I hope that we may get the opportunity to go to Ogunquit for a week or so when I return.

You seem to be bumping into Ray & Ce quite often.

So you stopped the children from going to the store. That must hurt them a great deal. A youngsters feel quite big and grown up when they have a penny to buy some candy with it.

Our children must be getting quite big and I miss them very much. I took care of them so much that I miss getting them ready to go out or ready for bed. When I get home, I will have to start all over to get to know them the way that I want to.

You certainly are getting ambitious with your sewing. Pauline is lucky to have a sister that is willing to do some sewing for her. But I bet that she hardly ever wears the coat after you finish it.

But I bet that she hardly ever wears the coat after you finish it.

So Charlie finally made it. Wish him luck for me and that I hope he gets an easy going 1st/Sgt.

If Norman received the Silver Star, he had to be in action. The Silver Star is given for Gallantry in action. He must have done something out of the ordinary.

I am afraid that your prayers are not to be answered.

It was nice of Arthur to write to you and I was happy to know that he asked about me. I always liked Arthur and hope that we may be able to go out together after this is all over.

So the youngsters are getting fresh are they? Too bad I am not there to handle the worse things that they do. I only hope that I may have the ability that my Dad had in handling children.

Lorraine & Ray have had a lot of bad breaks since they got married. I bet they will make up for it though when he gets home.

Food so far has been very good with our outfit. Of course there is always a possibility of a change. We have been very fortunate so far but with all the people of Europe to feed now it may make a difference.

So Mother is going to Ogunquit for the summer? Ogunquit is in her blood you know. She can not keep away from the place. Oh well if it will keep her busy and happy, I guess that it is best for her to do as she likes. She has had to do so many things that she did not want to and pass up so many things that I do not blame her for doing the things that she wants.

I received a letter from Leo today post-marked 8th of April. He sent it regular mail. I also received a letter from Mother and one from Estelle.

In Estelle’s letter she claimed that Andrew was getting his discharge within a week. He is probably a discharged veteran by this time. Estelle is planning to continue work for a while until Andrew has settled in a job that he wants.

Gosh but I love you Sweetheart. It seems like ages since I have taken you in my arms to tell you just how much that I love do you. Just be patient and the day will arrive when I will be back home with my family and everything will be so right.

Well Beautiful I must and say good night to you. Pleasant dreams Sweetheart. I love you.

Regards to everyone and kiss the babies for me.

Your Loving Devoted & Faithful Husband,

Bob

30 May {April} 1945

Dearest Kitten:

Am rather tired tonight because I have been doing some manual labor for a change. This afternoon I took a shovel and helped mix cement for our basketball court. It is almost completed. With luck we should have all the cement poured by Wednesday. It will be an outside court.

We already have a volleyball court set up with lights so that the men can play at night, and a horse-shoe pitching area. Unfortunately it gets dark quite early and it will be necessary to install lights to get much benefit out of our athletic grounds.

In a couple of days I will be sending another box to you. So in a couple of months you can be in the lookout for it. I know that you will like what I am sending.

Letter # 260 came today and my C.O. asked me if you could find out full particulars on how the pictures were put on your stationery. Photography is his hobby and he has been wondering how they put the pictures on the paper. If you can find out for him, he would appreciate it very much.

A funny thing happened to me Sunday morning. I am so used to getting up at 5:30 a.m. that Sunday morning I woke up and looked at my watch. It was 5:45 and I jumped out of bed and did not hear any sounds and I rushed up to the Orderly room to see if the charge of quarters was awake, in my pajamas. He was sleeping soundly, so I woke him up and grabbed the whistle and rushed over to the mess hall to have one of the KP’s wake the company up. There were only a couple of cooks in the kitchen and they looked at me rather queerly. Then it dawned on me that it was Sunday. Now, you can imagine my relief. I thought that the night fireman had fallen asleep and that everything would be late. I was so mad at myself that I climbed right back into my bunk and did not get up until 7:00 A.M.

Tell Lorraine for me that Ray will have to load with something better than blanks to even get one much less than triplets. Tell her that I will give her six lessons free but after that there will be a slight charge.

A guarantee does not mean that you can use your fountain pen for a hammer, crowbar, and dart. You undoubtedly will have to pay for a new pen point which is only fair.

Tuesday morning 1 May 1945

Have a few minutes to myself and I will try to finish this letter. I wanted it to go out this morning but maybe it will get out this noon if I hurry.

Enclosed you will find a money order for $10.00 and I want you to use it for Mother’s Day. Get something for both mothers and enclosed is a little note to each of them.

I sure wish that I could obey your last order that you closed your letter with. Do you remember? It was, Come home soon. Nothing would make me as happy as the day that I do reach home for good.

Saturday afternoon I was talking to a sergeant who has been overseas for thirty six months and has just returned from a thirty day furlough home. Despite the fact that he enjoyed every minute that he was home, he wishes that he had not gone. His reasons were very good, the main one being that it was like leaving home for the first time all over and he figures that it will take a good six months to straighten out, he is that lonesome.

Well Sweetheart I must close but not before I tell you that you are my life and my all. I love you so much that it hurts. Give my regards to all the folks & kiss the babies for me. I love you, my Darling Wife.

Your Loving Devoted & Faithful Husband,

Bob

Sunday 13 May 1945

Dearest Kitten:

I love you with all my heart and am only waiting for the day when we will be together again for always & always. Gosh! But I miss you Sweetheart. It is hell to want to be with someone as much as I want to be with you, and to be unable to talk to you on the phone. While I am away & working you are sleeping and vice versa. We can not even share the same nights.

Never mind Sweetheart, I figured out my points and if everything works out O.K., I only have ten more years to go and then I will be ready for a discharge. So far I have 63 points.

Thursday morning I went to Mass and then that night our restriction was off so Sgt’s Nicholson, Pawliski, Litchfield and myself went in and celebrated. What a head I had Friday morning. We hit pub call and after that we went out to a boot leggers and got some wine. After getting the wine we went to a restaurant and had steak & eggs with our drink.

We all got pretty high and had a good time among ourselves. The wise cracks were flying thick and fast and we had quite an audience listening to us. The manager hated to see us go because we attracted quite a bit of trade.

Thursday I wrote to Roland & Marion and John & Ce. It was about time that I did too.

How can I ever forget our first night as Mr. & Mrs.? We certainly had a time of it that night. What with the wind, rain, and your family taking us into Boston. What a night that was huh?

Our basketball court is all finished with lights and all. Sgt. Pawliski & Litchfield are now putting up a big flag pole. It will be about seventy feet in the air when we finally get it up. The pole is in two sections and is very heavy to handle.

Can’t remember where I was the 14th. Probably out with my blonde. Have to give Nick hell about giving my secrets away. Boy, how I would love to have you down here watching over me. Nothing would please me more than to have you around henpecking me.

Buying back the old homestead would be nice, but Mother would be putting a big expense on her shoulders and I can not see how she can do it. It would make a nice place for us to go to in the summer but yet I do not want to get tied down with anything until I find out just what I am going to do after I return home.

Sorry, but I do not play tennis. There are a few boys in the Company that do and for that reason we fixed the court up so that they can play basketball or tennis. Friday night I play basketball for about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes was all that I could stand. Boy was I beat-up.

Holy smokes! What has gotten into Bobby? He certainly is getting into all kinds of trouble lately. He had better straighten up or he will be a sorry lad when I get home.

Careful how you make rash promises. I am apt to hold you to them when I get home and there are times when it is impossible to keep a promise.

How can the young woman upstairs keep from going bugs? She must be funny if she has no other interests other than her home.

Your poor father has taken a beating now for quite a long time. He must suffer a great deal, but he is the type of man that keeps it to himself.

I do not remember of ever meeting Marion’s brother-in-law. Have heard a great deal about him, but I would not recognize him from Adam. Come to think of it I do not know Adam either.

Am waiting to hear from Mother as I am curious to know all the news from Ogunquit. Most of my old friends are probably in the services.

Well Beautiful, I have run down so I will close. I love you so much Sweetheart that it is not funny. It seems like years since I saw you last and I can not get used to not having you around. I seem to be lacking something all the time, and that something is you.

Give my regards to everyone & kiss the babies for me. I love you, my darling wife.

Your Loving Devoted & Faithful Husband,

Bob

8 May 1945 (Tuesday)

Dearest Kitten:

The news was very gratifying this morning. Everything is all over in Europe, so now they can concentrate on the Japs. If we do not watch out, I will be home before you know it, I hope.

Today being VE day we went under a forty eight hour restriction to camp. The authorities were afraid that the soldiers & sailors would go wild and wreck the city, so they are keeping us out of the city until the excitement dies down. In some ways it is a good idea but the men are pretty sore over it. This was one day that the men wanted to celebrate.

Received letters #262-3 & 4 so I will attempt to answer them before telling you how much I love you. Today I also sent a box home. Be careful when you open it so that you do not scratch the contents. There are two leather wallets inside that I plan to keep for myself providing you do not confiscate them.

You are fortunate that Barby likes Lorraine so much. She may be able to keep her some time when we want to go somewhere during the day without the children, which will not be too often.

I bet that you were happy when the dentist told you that your teeth were O.K. It is best not to let them go too long. Then if anything goes wrong, you can have it taken care of right away.

Despite the fact that I was slightly high, I did not fall once while roller skating. I was quite surprised at myself. My ability to ice skate certainly helped out, but I could not do the things on roller skates that I used to on ice skates.

Letter #261 was a pip. I am afraid that I can not do as well. You are fortunate in that you can write about our youngsters. I have a lot of youngsters but I can not write about them.

I wish that you could get your hands on me even if it were to beat me up. There would be some consolation in being near you at least.

Barby is certainly a hard luck youngster. It seems that in every other letter you are telling me how she has hurt herself. Poor kid, I wish that I were home so that I could rock her occasionally. My time will come and I hope that things turn out the way that I want them to. You are going to have a lot of patience with me as I am going to do a lot of studying to educate myself so that you and the youngsters may always be proud of me. I have a fair amount of intelligence but I need a lot of mental training.

Ce. & John certainly have their troubles. Give them my regards and tell them that I will write at the first opportunity that I get.

Did I ever tell you how much that I loved you? You have, I know, thousands of times but I can not help but tell you over & over again. For it is the truth, I love you very much Sweetheart and am only waiting for the day, when I may take you in my arms again. What a day that will be Darling, and let’s hope that it may not be too far distant.

Well Sweetheart, I must close and go to bed so that I may dream of you. You are always in my dreams as well as my thoughts.

Give my regards to everyone & kiss the babies for me Sweetheart. I love you.

Your Loving Devoted & Faithful Husband,

Bob

Thursday 3 May 1945

Dearest Kitten:

Here is your husband again, trying, not very successfully, to put in writing how I feel toward you. Putting it down on paper is so cold & impersonal.

I love you so much Sweetheart that plain words can not explain my true feelings for you. It needs the personal touch for me to do justice to my love for you. Today is a very lonesome day for me for some reason. I miss you very much.

So Mother spoiled my little surprise. Oh well, you seem to be just as happy over the whole thing and as long as you know that upon rare occasions I think of you and home.

Mr. & Mrs. Gagnon must be very happy to have Fred back home again. He looks good and healthy anyway. For his sake, I hope that they do not send him back over.

Wow! Letter #261 is a beaut. Thirteen pages is more like a manuscript than a letter, but did I enjoy reading it.

How do you like that? He is my son when he does something naughty, huh? How do you get that way? Bobby needs his pappy to straighten him out, I know. Nothing would please me more than to be able to train him and start laying the floor work of his character. It is at his age that children start to mould their character.

Most youngsters have very good memories. It is only after a number of years when there is so much to remember that a person really shows a talent for a good memory.

You do not have to tell me that you will do your best as I know that you will. Just try to be patient until I can return and take over some of the responsibility of raising a family.

Julie was very fortunate to receive so many nice gifts. She deserves it any way, after all that she has to put up with. Tell her that I hope it is triplets.

Mother deserves a vacation, but I bet she wishes it could have waited for warm weather.

What has gotten into Eva? By all means take her up on it. Not only will it be good for you, but the children will enjoy it also. I hope that you have a good time.

Uncle Sam must be scrapping the bottom of the barrel if he is getting ready to take Nibbs & John in to the service. It is no worse for them than anyone else.

As much as I wish that I could write some more, I must close. Regards to everyone & kiss the babies for me. I love you, my Darling Wife.

Your Loving Devoted & Faithful Husband,

Bob