June 28, 1943

Monday Nite

June 28, 1943

Dear Mom & Dad:

Tis late & I should be hitting the hay but guess I’d better set down a few words first because it’s been a while since I last wrote.

Just got you letter last Saturday – the one you wrote while up at Squaw Point. Gee, I was glad to hear that you were up there enjoying yourselves, & naturally I was a little jealous. By what you wrote – the fishing must be very good. Like the good ol’ days when Elmer, Daddy, & I used to go out & never miss coming back with a boat load. Dorothy wrote me too & said that you were lucky in missing a spell of hot weather in the cities.

The weather here in Pittsburg is great – days are warm (not hot) & the nights are cook &  just perfect for sleeping. Right now I have my jacket on while I’m writing this letter here on my bunk – so you see it gets right chilly at night.

Am just about flat broke by now – I think I have just about enuff to keep eating regularly for the next two days. We get paid on Wed. so you can see how close its going to be. If I miss a meal or two tho it won’t be a calamity cuz I have a couple of chocolate bars in my foot locker.

Don’t know whether I told you about the fellow I met down here from Mpls. – his name is Roger Loper. It was quite a coincidence because he’s doing duty with the same company as I. We seemed to have belonged to the same Ski Club (Moon Valley) & also went to the same Scout Camp at the same time. He’s an Eagle Scout & a graduate of Engineering School. Roger & I have gone out together on a couple of deals in San Francisco. We’re going in Thursday & do some bowling. Rogers girl is fixing me up with a blind date. I understand she is a graduate of Univ. of Calif. & going to be a teacher so I guess I’ll have to be pretty much “on-the-ball” & watch my adjectives, adverbs & double negatives & stuff like that.

I’m still doing regular Co. duties these days – nothing very exciting. Last week we shipped some men & this gave us some free time, so I just took off a couple of afternoons & went swimming.

Wednesday night & all day Thurs. I was Commander of the Guard – it turned out to be quite a headache. At about midnight Battalion H.Q. called & said that 26 of my guards were on shipping orders & would have to be jerked off guard at once. So we sent them the men they wanted & they sent us replacements. We finally got it all straightened out but things were in a stew for a while. My Sgt. of the Guard was one of the 26 who shipped so that made matters even worse. Inspecting the guard was a lot of fun – the Sgt. & I took the weapons carrier (truck to you) & visited every post at 2 A.M. that night. It was quite an experience – each guard hatted me as I approached & then saluted & stood at attention while I proceeded to ask them a couple dozen questions. Most of the men were pretty scared & got a little mixed up on their General Orders, but naturally I didn’t bawl ‘em out because I remember how rattled I used to get under the same circumstances.

I haven’t heard from any of the boys for quite a while now so I judge they’re on the move somewhere or plenty busy. I sent all of them V letters about 3 weeks ago but if their addresses have changed lately – it’ll no doubt be quite a while before the letters are delivered. Haven’t heard any more from Lee either so he must be on his way across. You see he was scheduled to sail on the Saturday following oure Wed. date. He said it would be somewhere in the So. Pacific.

So far I haven’t heard a thing about shipping out from here, but men are coming in & going out regularly, so one of these days they’ll discover I’m still around & then swish – it’s O.K. with me I could use another change of scenery. Of course it’s nice here because it’s so handy to San Francisco. I really am enjoying that town – lots to do & plenty of places to go.

Well I can’t think of anything else of interest to you so I’ll close. Hope you are both well after your week of rest up at the lake. Don’t forget to write & let me know all about what you did up there & maybe Daddy will want to grab the pen for a few lines & brag about all the walleyes he & Elmer caught up there. Until then – so long.

Love, Dorance