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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Somewhere in Australia, Letter #2 May 22, 1944






Dearest Sweetheart
Tonight I hope to answer all the letters that I have received from you so far. It is raining out and it should not be too busy a night for me. Things are beginning to get straightened around so that i should be having a little more time to myself than I have had for a long time.
Some of my sergeants were just in and told me that I had just been elected President of the NonComs Club that we are forming here. It will mean a little more work for me if they were not kidding me. I hope that they were only fooling because I am not very fussy about taking it over, I am in favor of the club as it will give us something to do around here without going into town. If things work out as we hope we will have beer and possibly hard liquor. Alcoholic beverages are strictly rationed over here and in this way we would be able to get it easily and quickly.
If you can get some golf balls, please send me as many as you can get as well as the ones that are around the house. I could get out to play golf, but golf balls are impossible to get. See if Roland (Lemire) can pick up some second hand ones for me. A few pieces of candy would go very nicely along with the golf balls.
By this time Lorraine (Smith) should have had her baby. I am anxious to find out how many and what sex it or they are. Give her my best regards and tell her that I have hopes of writing to Arthur one of these days.
I heard of Cardinal O'Connell's death while we were on the boat.
You sure poured it onto me in your letter of the 25th and I deserved it. From now on I will be a better husband to you and try to write a better letter.
The woman upstairs is probably afraid that you might ask her to take care of the babies and for that reason is keeping from getting too friendly. I am only kidding, the fact is that she is shy. Give her time and you will probably get to know her a lot better.
Of course we have two beautiful children, look who their mother is. They just couldn't help themselves if they wanted to. It will be odd for me to come home from work again and find two beautiful girls waiting to welcome me.
I would give a great deal to be able to taste some of your food right now. Most of our food is fresh except for milk and eggs which are powdered. It is not bad tasting if mixed properly. We get a lot of meat and potatoes over here. The bread is made without yeast I guess. It is heavy as lead. The food as a whole is very good.
Ray would probably wish that he had someone else for a 1st Sgt. if he did have me. It was nice of him to write. I will have to rely on you to keep our friends for us as I seem to lack the ambition or time to write to them. Not very nice of me I grant you, but some day I may do better.
When everything is over and we get settled again, I want to raise a few chickens and cattle. The country is the only place to bring children up anyhow. I do not mean out in the wilderness, but out in some suburban town.
Your new pen writes very nicely. You are lucky to be able to get one. Good pens are hard to get.
I hope that you are right about Tessie's troubles being over. It would be a lot harder for her with two children instead of one. Let's hope that it solves the problem, but you can never be sure of anything under the circumstances.
Glad to hear that Pat has lost so much weight. The Army is doing him some good anyhow. I wonder if it will help his disposition any. He is too old to hope for anything like that I guess.
Trying to take my place as well as being a mother to our children is no fun, but if you do not want them to be spoiled you have to be strict. If you let them have their way too much it will only make it harder on yourself later on.
Send me a picture of yourself, if you have some taken. The last large one that you sent does not flatter you to say the least, and I would like to see if you have been putting on weight since I last saw you, with tears in your eyes, a false smile on your lips, or were you dying to get rid of me so that you could flirt with all the handsome men that you happened to run across?
It is about time that Roland woke up and left that job. Now he can go out and get a decent job somewhere. He was crazy to pass up some of the offers that he had.
Letters # 4 & #5 are still missing. #6 & #7 arrived though.
The pictures of Andrew are very good. Andrew looks healthy enough. The Army sure has toughened him up a lot. Hope for his sake, that if he does go across that he goes in the opposite direction from me.
Send me Julie's boyfriend's address & name. I may be able to locate him.
Your letters have been coming a couple at a time. The letter of the 8th reached me today.
I miss watching our youngsters grow up. I must rely on you to tell me all the cute things that they do and say. You do very nicely along that line but it is still unsatisfactory.
Bobby will have to learn how to fight his own battles if he wants to get anything with the other youngsters. He is still young yet and I do not have any doubts that he will eventually make out O.K. by himself.
Your remarks about moving have me guessing. No doubt when I receive your missing letters, they will explain everything. If you are planning to take a house with Roland and Marion, I advise against it. Stay alone as much as possible. The farther you get from relatives the better off you are.
Well Beautiful I must close but first let me tell you how much that I love you.
Take the number of miles that I am away from you, multiply by the distance from the Earth to the moon, add the number of stars in the heavens and you have a fairly accurate answer.
I could say that I love you with all my heart, but you have my heart, so, all I will say is I love you.
Your Loving, Devoted, & Faithful Husband
Bob
Kiss the babies for me.

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