"Jan 3 1943
Jaxonville Fla
Dear Ellen
A belated Happy New Year to you and all. I'm sorry I haven't written before this week as things have sort of been moving fast and furious here. I just returned from Church at the new Catholic Chapel here in the station. As an added gesture I also went to Holy Communion. Not a bad start for a New Year. I have made a resolution to continue this practice here or afar. By the way how do you feel after the holidays? Did they effect you at all? Tomorrow we go on the early shift which means that we gladly and joyously bounce out of bed now at 4:30 A.M. every morning for a month. Oh well, I volunteered for this stuff so I guess I can't afford to gripe. The new Catholic Chapel here is going to (be) officially decorated (dedicated) January 17 by Archbishop Spellman of New York. The sermon is going to be preached by the Rt. Rev. Ryan Bishop of Omaha.
They took a mess of pictures in Church this morning and if I can get a few good shots from the newspapers I'll send them to you. As I have told you before this chapel is really beautiful. It is built along the old California Spanish Mission line and is really nice. The altar floor is marble and the finish is in a pastel shade. The Church flags are hung from the rafters under the roof and give the place an important appearance. The interior really looks like the Westminster Abbey, but in a more modern design. My Christmas mail has slacked off considerably therefore I know Christmas is over. I was swarmed under with cards and I think I still have them all in my suitcase. I was thinking of getting an album and sort of save them for future reference. The ones you sent me are really nice and I liked them a lot especially the messages you wrote on the back cover. I don't mean in the least bit to be unappreciative for what you have done for me but I would sooner get a good long letter from you than all the gifts that money could buy. The letter need not be a fact telling interesting letter but just a letter telling me your thoughts, ideas, plans, etc in which I am so deeply interested. I saw the picture "Woman of the Year" yesterday. It was all right in my estimation but rather suggestive in parts. The picture on a whole was good though. I liked Spencer Tracy. He's a fine actor in every picture he plays in and can almost always be expected to give a good account of himself. We had the stage play here last night, 'You Can't Take it with You' and there were a few cracks in it that the priests here were totally against and announced it from the altar. I don't know how it will react in the main office but I suppose it will have some effect on the USO selection committee here. I didn't see the stage show but was told about it.
---------------I just returned from chow this lovely Sunday noon full of fine Navy chow. I am going to get ready for liberty soon so I'll close this letter soon.
Incidentally I made a speech the other day in welding class and got a 95 for it. It must have been that back home political experience. I have received your watch. Thanks again a million times. I got my pictures from Kay's yesterday and will send you one along presently. Please inform me truthfully as to how you like it. So long honey chile.
Love John
Write again
I like your blue paper - is it pastel or what?"
I was interested to hear that Archbishop Francis Spellman from New York was dedicating the Catholic Chapel. I remember his brother Dr John Spellman, I think he was a surgeon, at St Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, Mass when I was a nursing student. It seemed that people made a big deal that his brother was Cardinal Spellman. My father probably had heard of Archbishop Spellman who worked in the Boston Diocese after being ordained. He was a good friend of Cardinal Pacelli who would become Pope Pius XII. I think the Pope assigned Spellman to St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City when he made him a Cardinal.
My father didn't say how he spent Christmas - he sounds like he is in a great mood compared to being so depressed before Christmas because he couldn't get home.
I wonder what political experience he was referring to?
All my father's requests to my mother to write to him make me feel badly when I think of how I treated Steve Erickson - the first real boyfriend that I had. He had joined the Navy around 1970-71. I remember feeling terrible when he left - I would write or he would call - but eventually I went on with my life - I was in my junior and senior years at BC - I was working part-time at Sancta Maria Hospital - I was going out with friends - I moved into an apartment when I graduated from BC. I grew apart. So now when I am reading how important a letter was to my father, I am realizing how terrible I was to Steve. Everyone loved him - my family especially - my mother thought he was another son. But I thought I wanted something more although I didn't know what 'more' was. So if Steve ever reads this, I'm am very sorry indeed.
I loved that 1942 movie Woman of the Year, and I love Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It was the first time they worked together - they did a couple of movies together - there was chemistry between them on and off screen I believe.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Stevens#ref1199715:
'Woman of the Year (1942) was the first teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and some consider it their best vehicle. Garson Kanin came up with the original notion of having a gruff sportswriter (Tracy) woo and marry an upper-crust political columnist (Hepburn).'
I don't remember seeing the above You Can't Take It With You movie - and didn't know it was also a stage show - although I'd like to see it to find out what the priests were fussing about.
"Jan 6, 1942
Jacksonville Fla
My Dear Ellen,
I received another letter from you today which is really really good. Please keep up the good work.
I was just reading over a letter I received from my sister and it's simply lovely - such usage of words. I got two address(es) from her for boys who are miles away in dear old Philly and Spokane, Washington. The fellow in Washington is an old friend of mine, an ex schoolboy chum. After high school he got a job in New York and has been there ever since. He came home two or three times a year to keep in contact sort of. She told me a man dropped dead in front of the parochial school during the cold spell. He was frozen to death. Another kid was killed coming home from the show Christmas Eve. She also delivered to me in written form the glad news that a few of the boys were home for Christmas. One kid docked at Brooklyn Christmas Eve and just made it home. Not bad. Sister I'm jealous as all h---, honestly. The poor guy was almost AWOL as he was stinking drunk when they put him on the train. She got a friendship ring from Joe Walsh and had Rita up to see it. Rita compared it with hers but there was no comment. Rita, poor girl, poor girl didn't get a diamond just a few pictures of himself. What does she want from him? All that gal wants is style and a good display of jewelry. She needed that diamond to strut around and show the girls at the office. If he ever gave her a diamond I'd sho(o)t her and him both. She's just too style and ornament crazy. I'll have to send her some foolish token.
I'm glad you only have one sailor on your mind. Poor Rita got a soldier and marine on her mind now, but she wants now a sailor to keep her happy or sorry or whatever.
You must have been writing in bed with all the ho hums - take it slow and easy. You'll live longer and be a lot happier if you do. You asked me in an earlier letter to keep you informed of the progress of my greying hairs well their doing fine just dandy thank you. I didn't even think of them until you inquired about them. - Athletics be back. - I have now returned from athletics and and am in the pink of health. Slightly bruised and scraped but nevertheless feeling better. I just finished cleaning up. Fred Waring was on a few minutes back and I was listening to 'The Rosary" which by him is really lovely and I do mean lovely. He played a batch of songs dedicated to our Naval Air Station here last Monday night. We listened in as best we could. Harry James is coming on now and maybe I will hear a couple of good tunes by him. We have nothing to do now but do our homework and study. As you know we go to bed at 8:30 which makes us nice little boys. Oh, well I guess I was always a good little boy or was I!
This Sunday by the way is Captain's Inspection and we must prepare for it all week by cleaning up our uniforms.
How is Jim and Bertha making out by the way? And not to miss anyone how is Mother Keohane Rita and Peggy? I have almost forgotten about them but not completely so give them my regards and best wishes.
Until I write again 'adios' ma amigas ma conchita or what have you. I love you too and I'm tired of you telling me either. Just write.
Love Love John"
What was that last line? What is my father tired of?
I've become very interested in the big band era - there were so many of them - I guess that's where the Irish show bands that I danced to originated.
https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/variety/the-fred-waring-show tells us that:
"Fredrick Malcolm Waring (June 9, 1900 – July 29, 1984) was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and eponym of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric blender on the market ...
I found this link - https://archive.org/details/78_ave-maria_fred-waring-and-his-pennsylvanians-glee-club-stuart-churchill-ethelbert-n_gbia0034563/01+-+The+Rosary+-+Fred+Waring+and+His+Pennsylvanians.flac - to a recording of The Rosary by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians.
I think we talked about trumpeter Harry James before - he joined Benny Goodman's band in 1937 but left in 1938 - with backing from Goodman to form his own band, Harry James and the Music Makers. They had a hit in November 1941 - You Made Me Love You.
Here's a link to You Made Me Love You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMaCoxOGXPM
James' band was the first high-profile orchestra to feature vocalist Frank Sinatra, who signed a one-year, $75 a week contract with it in 1939 ($1589 a week in 2022). James wanted to change Sinatra's name to 'Frankie Satin', but the singer refused.
James' orchestra succeeded Glenn Miller's on a program sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes in 1942, when Miller disbanded his orchestra to enter the Army. This is the time when my father was listening to Harry James.
I'm enjoying listening to these old classics. Here is a link to All or Nothing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7klm1GS3v8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1943 reports that also on January 7, 1943 "U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the annual State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, revealing that there were seven million men in the armed services, of which 1.5 million were overseas. and stated that 'I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from the south shores of the Mediterranean.' Roosevelt said also that the bombing of Germany and Italy would continue to increase during 1943, adding, 'Yes - the Nazis and Fascists have asked for it - and they are going to get it.'"
"Jan 8 1943
Jacksonville Fla
My Dear Ellen
For the fourth and maybe the fifth time, I received your gift, the watch, that package. Again I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I am always glad to hear from you honey once, twice or a million times a day so keep it up. I will write as often as I can, so help me. When you keep asking me if I ever got the watch I wonder if you ever read my mail at all. Don't get so excited, remember your blood pressure.
I am not sending this letter air mail as I figure that the last letter I sent to you a day or so ago also mentioned the fact that I received your present.
Keep me informed of the happenings at home, weather, events and the like you used to tell me about when we were out together. There are two radios going full blast here, one playing the soothing strains of Vilia a waltz, and the other has Henry Busse going to town on 'Hot Lips.' One extreme to the other.
Since you usually write lying in your bunk I am reciprocating not that I want to but all the boys here are pressing their clothes for liberty tomorrow. There really buzzing, cousin. Their jumpers pants and shoes get a real going over tonight as they have to step right out spick and span tomorrow. Oh yeah we have a kid here giving out haircuts too. He doesn't do too bad nor does he do too good. But after all its a haircut and a hair cut is a haircut regardless. We have Captains Inspection Sunday and had Material or Barracks Inspection today. The best barracks usually gets an 'E' pennant. We didn't win. Why? I don't know I worked my head off yesterday washing shining and scrubbing. That includes wash bowls wash tubs, decks walls windows window sills nickel plated pipes and chrome plated fixtures. What a job! I dragged myself into bed dogged tired last night at 8:15 promptly. If I could have jumped into it sooner I would have, and you can bet your life on that.
I intended to study blinker last night for a test today but I didn't study and the test didn't come off. We still had transmissions during study period and I did very well. If I do as good when I take the test I won't worry a bit about graduating or anything else. One of these days I'll send you a message in code and see how you make out when you decipher it. It aught to be real fun. The kid, he's just a kid, 19, sent his girl a four page letter in Morse code. He hasn't found out yet if she has decoded it. It will give you a good hobby or added interest if you are interested. Interested or not I'm going to do it. Woody Herman, remember him, is now gracing the air lanes with a little blues music. Lots of boogie music here too. Sister do I love that stuff.
I got a letter from Rita O'Hara today and she told me about the night you went in town to the show and finally wound up at the Oriental. She also gave me the dope about you coming down to see me at graduation. I will now quote her added remarks. Quote Page 3 at the bottom of the page 'Ellen was saying that she would go down to your graduation if you were not to get a furlough. Hm!!! Velly nice place for heap big wedding. Eh! My. My!' Unquote.
What do you think about that honey gal.
She told me also that Thomas is fine and she had a call from Los Angeles, New Years morning and that it sounded fine. He is looking forward to a furlough. She says 'zavie' or 'gavie.'
Put a furlough pass in front of me and hear what I'd say. Tommy's brother Joe is in N Africa with brother John.
Well got to close now so make the most of it honey gal.
With loads and loads of love I remain
Forever yours
Love Love Love Love John"
(There was a Morse Code message at bottom of page and a note asking my mother to decode it.)
I think it is interesting to hear the kind of music my father listened to - he seems to enjoy different genres. We know he used to love to sing - especially Irish songs - he sang them all over Ireland. I like all kinds of music as well. So here is a link to Vilia:
Here's a link for Hot Lips by the Henry Busse band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0vcw99RjM.
Henry Busse was a jazz trumpeter born to a German Band Family. He emigrated to the US and made his way to California where he formed a band - Busse Buzzards - which was incorporated into Paul Whitman's orchestra.
I hadn't heard of Henry Busse or Paul Whitman so was surprised when I read on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Busse that
"At one point, eight out of the top ten sheet music sales spots belonged to the band. During his peak with them, Busse was earning $350 weekly, while fellow band member Bing Crosby was earning just $150. Busse co-composed several of the band's early hit songs, including "Hot Lips" and (with Gussie Mueller) "Wang Wang Blues". The latter sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc in 1920.
Busse was concertmaster for the Whiteman Band when it toured Europe in the 1920s, and there discovered a song written by a German doctor - Robert Katscher. Back in the States, Buddy DeSylva penned new words and the song's name was changed to "When Day is Done"; it was a hit, and made Busse famous.
While with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Henry Busse played alongside brothers Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey (who later left to start their own separate bands). He played with Ray Bolger at the Chez Paree, a night club owned by notorious gangster Al Capone; Busse ran the house band there and worked for Capone."
A household name during the 1920s, Paul Whiteman led the most popular orchestra of the decade. He expertly mixed together occasional jazz pieces with semi-classical works, sweet and hot vocals, novelties, waltzes, and first-class dance music. His large ensemble featured many of the most technically skilled musicians of the time, he paid his sidemen well, and he was known for always putting on a good show ...
From the start, Paul Whiteman knew what he wanted to do with music. He stated that he wanted to “make a lady out of jazz.” Feeling that jazz, as played by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the many bands that it influenced during 1917-22, was a bit barbaric, wild and jarring, Whiteman sought to develop a music that was more “civilized,” danceable, and connected to Western classical music while also being wholeheartedly American.
At his first three recording sessions, all from August, 1920, Whiteman’s group recorded six numbers that were released ... The music on those recordings and the many to follow during 1921-22 was mostly jazz-inspired dance music. Trumpeter Henry Busse, who was featured on 1922’s “Hot Lips,” was the most prominent soloist and his sound was jazzy although in time his unchanged style would become quite dated. Busse was also in the spotlight on “When Day Is Done” which was Whiteman’s personal favorite of his recordings."
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Woody-Herman reports that Woody Herman was an "American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, bandleader, and singer who was best known as the front man for a succession of bands he dubbed “herds.”
Herman was a child prodigy who sang and danced in vaudeville at age six. Soon after, he began playing the saxophone and later the clarinet. Billed as the “Boy Wonder of the Clarinet,” he cut his first record, “The Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia,” at age 16. After studying music at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a term, Herman became a touring musician, joining the Tom Gerun band in 1929. In 1934 he became part of the Isham Jones Juniors; when it disbanded in 1936, Herman used its most talented sidemen to form his own ensemble, which he publicized as the “Band That Plays the Blues.” The group was propelled to stardom in 1939 with the success of “Woodchopper’s Ball.” More than a million copies of the song were sold, and it became Herman’s theme.
During the 1940s Herman’s band, then known as Herman’s Herd, was noted for its exuberance and technical brilliance. It had its own radio show."
We shouldn't forget what was happening in the war during this time. According to the website - https://ww2days.com/soviets-prepare-to-annihilate-axis-armies.html:
"Stalingrad, Soviet Union · January 10, 1943
On this date in 1943 the Soviets launched Operation Ring, their name for the action that tightened the noose around the 250,000-plus soldiers of the German Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad (now Volgograd). Operation Ring had been preceded by Operation Uranus (November 19–23, 1942), a one-million-man-plus Soviet offensive targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian forces that protected the Sixth Army’s flanks.
"... on the evening of January 8–9, 1943, Soviet Gen. Georgi Zhukov issued Sixth Army commander Gen. Friedrich Paulus an ultimatum to surrender his troops, as well as those of his Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian auxiliaries. The ultimatum reinforced the Red Army’s stranglehold on the trapped Axis units—that all hope of a rescue was hopeless and further resistance pointless. The Soviets promised food, medicine, and guarantees of safety to Axis prisoners and repatriation after the war. Yet Adolf Hitler, in the safety of Wolf’s Lair, his perfectly camouflaged wooden barracks in the Rastenburg swamps of East Prussia (now in Poland), would have none of it and coldly sent his soldiers and officers, as well as those of his Axis partners, to their doom.
When the Soviets after five months of fighting finally lifted the Stalingrad siege in late January 1943, between 650,000 and 750,000 Axis soldiers and airmen had been killed or wounded, as well as 107,000 captured. (Of the prisoners taken at Stalingrad, half would die on the march to Siberian prisoner of war camps, and nearly as many would die in captivity.) Though Red Army casualties are estimated to have been well over a million (one estimate is 478,741 dead and 650,878 wounded and as many as 40,000 civilians killed), the “Great Patriotic War” had now shifted in the Soviets’ favor and the Axis powers would claim no further strategic victories in the East.
In the immediate aftermath of Stalingrad, the Red Army launched eight winter offensives. After the “catastrophe on the Eastern Front,” Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary that, for the first time, premonitions of downfall and death began to spread in Hitler’s inner circle."
"Jan 12, 1943
Jacksonville Fla
My dear Ellen,
I just received your letter dated Jan 7 and Jan 9. The letter dated, or postmarked Jan 9 had two letters enclosed one asking for mail the other thanking for mail you got but were afraid you weren't going to get. Don't get confused it's only a sentence, a simple one at that.
Hello again it is now Friday the 15th of the month as I pick up where I left off. Since I started to scrawl this scroll things have happened fast and furious. They weren't important just a mess of nuisances. More of those minor details which are daily becoming part of the plot to make us all uncomfortable and miserable. I got a couple of letters from home yesterday which sort of built up my morale. A fellow who used to hang around in the village was ordained and said his first Mass. Everyone in the neighborhood turned out and packed the Church. They were old friends some, others just casual acquaintances. He was well liked and was pretty well known. From what I heard they had a priest from the seminary, yeah, the one in Brighton, the monastery, give the sermon, and oh, how he gave it. He went thru all the lad's escapades and events in his career as a layman and his stay in the monastery plus his other qualifications. He had practically all the women bawling and crying. The full text of his speech I don't know but I do know, due to news from home, that the ceremony was very lovely or have it the feminine way beeeeutiful. All the fellows from my home corners were home on leave and had a chance to see or witness, if you will, this very solemn ceremony in this young man's life. He has two brothers in the army one at a fort in Boston Harbor, the other is down here in Miami teaching school in the Army Air Corps Training School. I knew him very well and he was a swell, regular guy. From home I also got word that Tommy was home on furlough and arrived at 1 A.M. Jan 11 bright and early. Poor Rita. Boo--
She won't be crabbing now about Tommy so if she intends to get married to the guy let her do it now. Why wait! I suppose she crawled all over him and slammed him into the ground for not sending her a diamond at Christmas time. And again maybe she ain't speaking.
I'm glad he did get home though as he has been away eleven months which isn't exactly a weekend in any man's time. I hope he enjoys himself and despite anything you hear I'll almost wager my life that he gets shipped across when he returns. It's not a fact or an absolute surety but a pretty fair idea judging from experience past and present. Please let me know how he looks and reacts etc and etc. You get what I mean.
To keep you informed I am getting just a wee bit stout all over. Must be the food here or the weather. From what I experienced it can be either one separately it has to be both combined. I am also making a habit of smoking a pipe. Most of the guys here have corn cobs but being a gentleman and appreciating the finer things in life I am smoking a long stemmed black briar pipe that I bought at Ship's store here.
Its better than those damned cigaroots I've been shnooking anyway. Please comment. I have to tell you we have a kid whose gone sort of whacky here, due to the strain brought on by worry. His mother was operated on during the week and he cracked. He's been under a constant strain since we arrived. Yesterday I was in the Navy four months and am now automatically Seaman Second Class. Notice after my name S 2/c, that's what it is. - Chow. So long honey.
Love John"
The website https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/casablanca reports what is going on in the wider world:
"The Casablanca Conference was a meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the city of Casablanca, Morocco that took place from January 14–24, 1943. While Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin received an invitation, he was unable to attend because the Red Army was engaged in a major offensive against the German Army at the time. The most notable developments at the Conference were the finalization of Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers in 1943, and the promulgation of the policy of “unconditional surrender.”
The Casablanca Conference took place just two months after the Anglo-American landings in French North Africa in November 1942. At this meeting, Roosevelt and Churchill focused on coordinating Allied military strategy against the Axis powers over the course of the coming year. They resolved to concentrate their efforts against Germany in the hopes of drawing German forces away from the Eastern Front, and to increase shipments of supplies to the Soviet Union. While they would begin concentrating forces in England in preparation for an eventual landing in northern France, they decided that first they would concentrate their efforts in the Mediterranean by launching an invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland designed to knock Italy out of the war. They also agreed to strengthen their strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Finally, the leaders agreed on a military effort to eject Japan from Papua New Guinea and to open up new supply lines to China through Japanese-occupied Burma.
On the final day of the Conference, President Roosevelt announced that he and Churchill had decided that the only way to ensure postwar peace was to adopt a policy of unconditional surrender. The President clearly stated, however, that the policy of unconditional surrender did not entail the destruction of the populations of the Axis powers but rather, “the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people.”
The policy of demanding unconditional surrender was an outgrowth of Allied war aims, most notably the Atlantic Charter of August 1941, which called for an end to wars of aggression and the promotion of disarmament and collective security. Roosevelt wanted to avoid the situation that had followed the First World War, when large segments of German society supported the position, so deftly exploited by the Nazi party, that Germany had not been defeated militarily, but rather, had been “stabbed in the back” by liberals, pacifists, socialists, communists, and Jews. Roosevelt also wished to make it clear that neither the United States nor Great Britain would seek a separate peace with the Axis powers."
"Jan 17 1943
Jaxonville Fla
My dear Ellen,
This is letter no 2 for this day of rest and sweet repose that I am spending here at the Barracks.
I've been thinking lately, no cracks, of things in general about us in particular our future and our present the pleasant memories of the past and the like and I have finally come to the conclusion that something should be done about it to settle the matter once and for all. Do you think in your humble estimation that I would make you a good husband? Do I possess those sacred properties of patience and obedience and do I have the determination, to your way of thinking, to make myself a good provider for you and those who follow? Right now I believe we should get married at our first opportunity instead of waiting till this mess is all over, but when I stop and think for a few minutes which sometimes run into a few hours my mind just jumps back to the thought of waiting for the war to end. As I see it now, if the war doesn't end for five or six more years we'll be old folks when we get married and I'll have whiskers down to my ankles. If we get married now we'll have some fun, limited though it may be to look back upon when the war is over. At this stage I am going crazy seeing these guys down here with their girls and wives having a good time while I moon around with the thought well I got a gal back home waiting for me. So last night I made up my mind to ask you to marry me at the earliest possible time convenient to you. You said you were thinking of coming down here for my graduation well if you do we could do the job then here at our new chapel. It's being done every day. After you have read over the forgoing scribbling please write and after a few hours real concentration on the subject give me your answer your plans and also your ideas on the matter. As you know marriage is not a game you can quit at any time but a firm straight hard career that must be given real thought and due consideration. I have a fellow in my section who married a girl who didn't love him and sure as fire follows smoke they wound up in the divorce courts. He explained his troubles to me and from my own observations I really gave thought to this matter of marriage. Please give me your observations.
Ellen I love you and want you more than you'll ever know. I miss you terribly and long and wait till I can get home to see you. Not meaning to be fresh I'd give a million dollars just to kiss you, no fooling. Don't think I'm mushy cause I don't intend to be.
As for your P.S. in your letter, I don't know if I will get a leave or not, so I don't think I will get one. If I don't you can be prepared for a few more lonely months. If I do well that's different. You see, prepare for the worse and hope for the best. As things stand I doubt if I will get a leave. Well, honey, in letter form I have proposed to you, now it is up to you to accept or refuse. Use your judgement and give it thought. I love you Ellen and I'll do anything in the world to keep you happy. If you love me and are certain you want to get married say yes. If you love me and are uncertain about getting married say no. It sounds easy but ---- Well honey till I get your answer which I hope will be real soon I love you.
Love John"
Wow! My father was 23 when he wrote this letter - my mother was 22. He sounds so serious while in my mind I am thinking of him as a kid. Was it because of the war or because he had been away from home for 4 months or was it just his nature to be able to write down his thoughts on marriage? I suppose they must have talked about it. I don't know - it just seems so mature for a 23 year old. I had just graduated nursing school at 22 and was in my first job. I guess I am surprised at how mature my father seemed - how much thought he had put into asking my mother to marry him. And what about her? Was she thinking as hard as he was?
"Jan 18, 1943
Jaxonville Fla
My dear Ellen,
Yesterday I received from you and you alone four, yes I said four, letters and honey chile did I go for that. I felt like a million dollars and the mail was worth twice its worth in gold. Did I write right? Right! Before opening them I checked the date post marked and read them in chronological order. There were two dated the fourteenth and two dated the fifteenth. Now to go about answering your questions, queries and so forth that go to make up your letters.
At last you have located me on the map, good, very good work dear gal keep it up. It's not as far away as you at first thought but dear old gal or, dear young gal, it's a long long way from home. To get here I had quite a route to follow to get there. From Boston to New York, thence to Philly. From Philly I proceeded to Baltimore which in turn winds up at the Union Station in Washington DC. From Washington I proceeded to Richmond and there I fell asleep. We stopped I do know at Rocky Mountain and Savannah. I woke up for the day as we crossed the Georgia Florida line. We made a few horse town stops in Florida and wound up 18 hours after leaving New York in dear old Jacksonville the Air Base City. My impressions of dear Jax you should know by know, at least I think you do.
I'd love to have been there to take that walk with you but as matters stand my days of pleasure are over and I am in the apprentice ship stages of really knuckling down to business now at hand. Recollections of the past pleasant memories and future plans tend to make (me) homesick and set the miseries to working on my morale. Compared to the brisk and tingly weather you have up there we are having the hottest January weather on record here at Jax. It's a little over 85 degrees but at present it is clearing up after a rain storm we just had. As for Miss Mac, please stay on the right path and you have no reason to fear her. If you were in her shoes you would do the same thing. Good luck to Hannie and all her good times may she keep it up. Just because your man isn't home, don't you mope around get out and under the sun with everyone else. There is no sense in one of us being isolated the other miserable. Snap out of it and get your hooves hoofing.
This letter I am reading now has a very sweet smell to it powder or rouge or something of the sort. Its odor is strangely familiar. My memories are full aroused now trying to match it. It could have been any one of about a hundred nights that I whiffed that odor. It may be a different brand or trade name but it is I am almost positive the same type as you have always used. By the way what type lipstick are you using now. I hope the taste hasn't changed. Remember how you would cake it on then knock me down in your own inimitable manner and get sort of friendly with my cheeks. It was fun while it lasted. Sunday I listened to Inner Sanctum and did that bring back happy thoughts. The lights out and all - oh well now I'm blushing.
Again I express my sincere wish that Gin will find some degree of happiness in her new escapade if that's what it may be called. Her ex skunk friend has no more since (sense) of loyalty or any other feeling then a dead snake which will be his short coming if he doesn't change his ways in the future. Gin was very very good to that lug and as faithful as heaven itself. Oh gal----
In the near future I will have to write Butch a letter and also drop Peggie a line or two to see how her love affairs are coming along. Since she has slowed down to one heart beat I'll call it her love affair. Poor gal, subjecting herself to all the sorrows and cares of youthful puppy love.
Continued
As to their sleigh riding on Sunday night I am very very jealous. The nearest thing we have down here is an automobile with four flats.
The time here is flying, we are now in our thirteenth week of our twenty week course which leaves after this week only seven weeks or a week of weeks to go. As I write this we have one of the boys roller skating around the floor thus the shaky writing. Just another one of the nuts in our group.
Now I shall break into letter three and if I remember correctly this is the letter that you blasted me, said you didn't, blasted me again, and finally said you loved me. You say some of my letters puzzle you, wait till I get my foot out of my sleeve.
Before and around Christmas I wrote about six or seven letters , and I mailed them all. In them I mentioned at least once or twice the fact that I received your gift but lets not get in a rut arguing over it. You have it you're way and I'll have it my way. As to getting you confused with other correspondence, well honey gal you are my greatest fan and my biggest mail worry. I write to you more than twice as much as I write home which makes things nice. As for other destinations of my literary ability it is only occasional. Your reference to a crack about Rita or by Rita is explained in the last letter you received. As to my temperamental nature while answering it was very good. My head was cool clear and collected and if you took the impression that I was scolding you well I'm sorry. Nothing Rita could say or write would get me angry at you which by now you should understand. As I started to read this letter - it reminded me of the afternoon I was so late at the baseball game. I am glad your not thoroughly puzzled. If you keep seeking ye shall find someone to decode my message. If its a stranger, sis, will you blush and if its a friend will you feel sort of uppish or upsetish. It means I-LOVE-YOU. As for the 'E' we got it after all and every one was happy. They all got weekend liberty for it. If this writing seems weird in spots it's because I am writing on my bunk that has a tendency to move and wriggle every time I breathe.
This morse code I am sending you is very very simple after you understand it. Just go to the library and get a book that has the morse code in it. .- A/-... B/-.-. C/ etc it's very simple. After every letter I have written or drawn a line so you wouldn't get confused. Again I shall send it.
.. / .-.. / --- / ...- / . / -.-- / --- /..- /
I / L / O / V / E / Y / O / U /
do you understand it now. Get a good book at the library on radio or the like and you are sure to locate the code. Well today I didn't receive any mail so I am blue. I'll close out now saying adieu and adios.
John"
In Morse Code my father wrote Love always forever and ever. He also wrote the alphabet and the corresponding morse code.
"This is the code ... as you should know. Take it easy there are a mistake or two here nevertheless its OK for you so far. Check and correct."
What happened to Gin? And who was the lug? And what is all the drama with Rita O'Hara? They mention her more than anyone else. She was one of my mother's best friends, and my father's cousin.
I didn't know what Inner Sanctum was so I looked it. up on - https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Inner_Sanctum_Mysteries_Singles.
"The anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as, "Your host, Raymond," in a mocking sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score (played by Lew White) punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreeeeaams, hmmmmm?" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow...
"The Creaking Door: The program's familiar and famed audio trademark was the eerie creaking door which opened and closed the broadcasts. Himan Brown got the idea from a door in the basement that "squeaked like Hell" ...
"Guest Stars: Its campy comedy notwithstanding, the stories were usually effective little chillers, mixing horror and humor in equal doses. Memorable episodes included "Terror by Night" (September 18, 1945) and an adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart" (August 3, 1941). The latter starred Boris Karloff, who was heard regularly in the first season, starring in more than 15 episodes and returning sporadically thereafter. Other established stars in the early years included Mary Astor, Helen Hayes, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Claude Rains, Frank Sinatra, and Orson Welles."
Also on January 18, 1943 the first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on the day that Nazi German soldiers began their second deportation from Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. At 7:00 am, 200 SS troops and another 800 auxiliaries arrived at the ghetto and began the roundup of people to be taken to the Treblinka concentration camp. Members of the Jewish resistance organization Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB), led by Mordechai Anielewicz, armed with pistols, worked their way into the crowd of about 1,000 deportees, and, at a pre-arranged signal, emerged and began fighting the Germans. After four days of fighting, the deportations would halt, temporarily."
"Jan 27 1943
Jacksonville Fla
Dear Ellen,
This month is quickly drawing to a close therefore I have only about six weeks, a month and a half or forty eight days left here in this hole of absolute isolation. I will be very glad and full of joy when I pull stakes and ramble from the confines of this God forsaken base. Someday I will be very glad to be back but until that day comes farewell Jacksonville.
I got your pictures and I like your new hairdo. It reminds me of the time you had your hair done about six months ago or was it longer. I am trying very hard to develop a coat of tan on my anatomy but as always when I have a few spare minutes the sun goes behind a cloud and stays there. When it does come out I am cooped up in a classroom with no possibilities of getting the rays upon my very pale body. But since it is part of Florida's advertising to leave with a good tan I must get on the ball and really burn myself up in an effort to keep the Chamber of Commerce in good with the folks at home. The first week I was here I got tanned up quite a bit but it all faded away with time.
As you said in your letter I won't get tattoed no how no where no time. I see the fellows here getting all marked up in town and after they display it a few times they wish they had never had the design or tattoo on them. As for drinking I don't intend to drink ever unless it is absolutely necessary. As for gambling, enough said it's a suckers racket.
There are a few guys here who pull out the dice every once and a while and sort of take a chance on them. Sometimes they win but win or lose they go broke in the end. As for changing, I don't think I've changed at all although my good nature at times has caused me a little trouble with the higher ups. I could really bend down and get the boys under my thumb but as I am now they do good work, no complaints, no kick backs and the like. I intend to stay that way unless I am forced to change by pressure. I am slowly but surely getting peeved at a couple of the wing leaders especially my own. The section leader, as in my case, is in charge of about 25 men. The wing leader is in charge of two sections. My man is slowly but surely getting to be a pain in the ____ neck. At graduation time when they throw us into the pool I think I'll drown him. You see his wife is here and he feels he's a big shot. As far as he's concerned his worries are over. We who have no one around sort of raise hell here at times to keep up our spirits and he gets peeved and puts them on report. I haven't said anything as yet but as you know my temper is slow in boiling but God help him who causes it to boil. -------------- So much for that.
It is now raining like mad, thunder and lightning so I see I am in for a good night's sleep - ho hum ----
As for Tommy and Rita - oh well. This may be Rita's last chance so if she didn't get tied now she might as well give up. I think it was very unthoughtful and ungrateful for her not to invite you over to see Tommy. When I get home I think I'll tell her a thing or two. My picture is all wrapped and ready to be mailed so please be patient and it will arrive safely. I am sending one home also plus pictures of the gang of which you have a few. Well got to close now.
Love ---------- John"
So my father didn't intend to drink "ever" !!!??
My father has not mentioned my mother's reply to his marriage proposal. Certainly she must have replied by now. Maybe she didn't keep all his letters - it sometimes seems he mentions something that we haven't read. And there is Rita O'Hara again! What is up with her!
"Jan 30, 1943
Jacksonville Fla
Dear Ellen,
I just got your letter and again I am in a rare mood. I feel very good indeed. To top everything off our barracks won the 'E' therefore we have special liberty from Saturday afternoon at four till Monday morning at nine thirty. We worked scrubbed and scraped everything within reach and sight. This joint was spotless for inspection. Before I close this letter I will have to resort to a few athletics with my bunk mate here who is shaking the bunk as I write. Most of the fellows here are going to good old Daytona Beach to pick up some WAACs who have taken over the town in a big way. As for me I don't know just what I'll do, maybe sleep maybe eat but I'll do something anyway. I am sending my picture along too just in case your interested. Included here also will be a postcard picture of a few of us that I just had taken in town Saturday. They or it didn't come out bad at all but that dark fellow in back is not as dark as he appears. He's a boy from my home town. That forlorn look on my face is due to lack of food. We were on our way to a good steak dinner when we had it snapped. All the boys are from Massachusetts New York and Pennsylvania. We are all Yanks no rebels here. I'm glad you had a good time at the party of your sailor friend, keep it up. Got to go to calisthenics now. Be back shortly. Just returned from athletics and am now ready for study and bed. One of my men here is getting married tomorrow at the chapel and we sort of threw a little fun his way. At first we made out a report slip with enough demerits to restrict him and keep him on the base for the weekend. He got the scare of his life, his knees trembled and his teeth rattled for a while. Then he was called up to the shack for a package. This also was a plant. He opened it in sort of stupor and found a few women's unmentionables and in the middle an envelope. The assortment stunned him, women's apparel and an envelope. Stunned he opened the envelope and found fifty bucks the boys here in the section collected for him. Further stunned he thanked the boys and was promptly told that the report slip was a fake. Hearing this he almost collapsed from relief. We held him up so maybe I can now go to a wedding tomorrow. He is a Lutheran and the girl a Catholic, both hailing from Brooklyn. He's as happy as a lark. He doesn't know it yet but under his mattress on his bunk are placed to make things more uncomfortable, twenty four Coca Cola bottles empty of course. We all hope he sleeps well tonight and wish him all the luck in the world on his venture into a new field of endeavor if you wish to call it that.
From one extreme to the other the fellow we had here that went crazy is now in the Navy hospital in Washington DC undergoing final tests on his mental condition. We all hope he passes OK as it would ruin him for life to get a Medical discharge due to insanity. He sent us his very best wishes for success hear and points unknown.
He was a swell good natured kid and I pray to God he'll return to us sane and sound. All he needs in my estimation is a few months rest. Well I just heard Fred Waring dedicating his program to the Navy at Oklahoma A&M. You see chick I almost wound up there. Well got to do some studying now as we have a few tests here tomorrow. My average for the week is a shade under 90 to be exact 88.9. This is my average, I think when I figure it out, for the course. So take care chick and keep your chin up.
Love and more love, John"
My father added in Morse Code: "ANSWER SOON HONEY"
"Jan 31 1943
Jacksonville Fla
My dear Ellen,
Sunday is here again and I am continuing my policy of writing to you on this day of rest. It is a wee bit chilly out well cold enough for coats and sweaters. It wouldn't be cold to you as you are accustomed to the cold up there but here it gets pretty warm for a week or two and then bingo it gets chilly raw and very damp. Tomorrow if things work out correctly it should get a bit warmer and this cold spell will slowly move away. There is hardly anyone around and everything is peaceful for a change. A good comparison for this place is a big rush for street cars on a weekday and the small percentage on the weekends. I went on liberty yesterday with very good intentions of going to Daytona Beach. We hit town and bounced right down to the bus depot. But as usual when I think of anything about four million other guys think of the same thing. The buses were all sold out and so were the trains. Soooo we roamed around for an hour or so and then we had some chow. As usual we opened up with an order of spaghetti and meat sauce topped off with a great big, thick, juicy steak which covered the platter. As an added attraction the lettuce and tomato salad with French fried potatoes accompanied the steak. The steak was really tender and done just right so therefore I made short work of it. As dessert we, or should I say I, no we had apple pie ice cream and coffee with a nice big cigar to top off the affair. Three of my buddies decided to bum to Daytona so my pal Lonero & I hit the beaten trail about town. We dropped into a music and record shop and moseyed around with a few records especially Tommy Dorsey's 'There are such things,' which is I believe the current favorite around here. If you haven't already hear it soon its OK. After a little jaunt around town we journeyed to the U.S.O. and played five or six games of real fast ping pong to sort of aid our digestion. Again I ventured into that enjoyable task of eating this time chocolate pie and ice cream which I downed without effort. Finally went to the show and saw 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' with Jimmy Cagney. Its the life story of Geo M Cohan as you probably know and for my money its the best picture I've seen here or anywhere for a long time. All the old songs 'Give my regards to Broadway,' Little Nellie Kelly, 'Mary's a grand old name.' All brought back memories of you and home and all the things I've missed so much. Its really swell kid and I recommend that you see it and pass along your opinions. After the show we went to the Catholic U.S.O. to the dance. No dance. The band somehow or other couldn't make it. Mixed up signals in the transportation problem. We met another kid from our class and we played a very strenuous game of rummy and exchange card tricks for the rest of the evening. We took in a midnite show 'Life Begins at 8:30' which is really funny with Monte Wooley and his sarcastic remarks. We ate again before we returned. I slept well got up early ate a hearty breakfast went to mass ate a very good dinner, fried chicken, and now feel happy and contented for the present. Tomorrow we go on the late shift and should just about graduate out of here when the shift changes again. Class 3 graduates Saturday. Class 4 in four weeks and we graduate in six.
So loads of love honey gal and keep the fires aburnin.
Love & Love always - John
I / L / O / V / E / U
.. / ._.. / _ _ _ / .._ / . / .._"
Here's a link to James Cagney singing Yankee Doodle Dandy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKeYS1P9j1c.
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