Thursday 4 Jan 1945

Dearest Kitten:

This is your husband saying hello again. I want to tell you how much I love you, and how much that I miss you.

Is the moon made of cheese? No.

Can you tell me how long it would take a bow-legged mosquito to walk across Niagara Falls on an inch and a half rope if it takes cold molasses five hours to pour through a half inch hole? No, of course you can’t.

How much do I love you? The answer to that just can not be answered either, because it would take not just a book but a volume of books to put it all down. So I will have to be satisfied to say, I love you Sweetheart.

Received letter #163 and it was funny to read about snow and how cold it is back home, when I am roasting most of the time.

The youngsters are at a very cute stage in their career of life. How I miss watching them. I certainly could enjoy them if I were at home now. My day will come though and the heart ache of this separation will be all forgotten.

Yesterday the captain and I went into town and I bought you a little present. Haven’t mailed it yet because I am having a box made for it.

I am anxious to hear what you think of your presents. I hope that the belt isn’t too long. Despite what I said before, it is made of kangaroo leather, so is the billfold. You may notice that the billfold is larger than those at home. It is because the bills over here are so much larger.

It is cool tonight and is comfortable for a change. I am almost getting used to the heat.

We were stationed at Sydney for awhile and one Sunday morning the C.O. told me that there would be passes for fifty percent of the company from noon until midnight. Sgt. Ryan & Donohoe wanted me to go along with them. At first I did not want to as I knew that we would get into trouble for sure. Finally I decided to go and we took off. The city of Sydney is rather nice and we were looking it all over and trying to find something to drink.

We finally asked the clerk at a hotel how we could get a drink and he said that if we waiting about an hour until 7:00 P.M. we could get drink with our dinner in the hotel dining room. We waited and it was our first experience with Australian beer. It was warm out and we drank quite a bit.

Everything was fine until we hit the fresh air. Wow what a wallop. We were just roaming around looking everything over and time passed on. Came time to return to the train station for the return trip to camp so we grabbed a tram to get us to the station. There was only one trouble, the tram went in the opposite direction. By the time that we got straightened around we had missed our train and had to wait two hours for another one.

At one in the morning we were walking through the station to catch our train and who do we run into but Capt. Harris. The next morning I reported myself and the two sergeants that were with me for being late. He told me to forget it. Whenever I do something wrong I always get caught at it. Knowing this helps keep me on the straight and narrow.

Sweetheart send me all the Cuticura soap that you can get. It will help me keep down skin diseases.

Enclosed is two pictures that were taken a couple of weeks ago. My supply sergeant, Nicholson, and T/5 Paul Murphy. Murphy is the guy that I had to tell that his sister was dead last Xmas day. He wants me to go down to his place for a couple of weeks after this is all over. Please have two prints made of each picture and send them back to me as I want to give them one of each.

Well Beautiful, what did you think of FUBAR circular #1 that I sent you in the last letter?

See what your husband has to do before he will be eligible for rotation. I do not know who composed it but whoever it was certainly had a great sense of humor.

Have you heard the song I want to bivouac with a WAC yet? Xmas night one of the men in the show sang it and did the men enjoy that one.

From my pictures, do you believe that I weigh 177 lbs?

The boardwalk that we are standing on, covers a drainage ditch. We had to build our own drainage system to keep from being washed away when it rains. It took quite a while to build, but was worth it after we got through.

Well Sweetheart, I must close as it is late and there is some work that I must do before retiring.

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

Your Loving Devoted & Faithful Husband,

Bob