There are fewer letters for February and March 1943 than other months so far - some may be missing - I've included the ones I have.
"Feb 8 1943
Jaxonville Fla
My Dear Ellen
Monday today and a really beautiful day. Tomorrow, we were informed, our wrestling tactics are to be photoed by Pathe News down here. I don't know if you will get around to seeing them but I hope so. Yesterday I made arrangements to meet a boy from home down at St. Augustine but as it turned out I couldn't get a bus nor a train out of this damned hole. I poked around the USO for a while and just when I was about to hit the bottom of the pile wango chango I met another kid from home the first one I've seen since I arrived here. He looked real good and Sis I was the most surprised guy in the world. We hung around chewed the fat and sort of checked over our news and views. This kid is one of twins, his twin incidentally is now at sea in a submarine crew. I got a letter from another buddy at Purdue and he graduates the same time I do. This kid I met is in the Hospital Corp and goes up for his rate this month sometime.
Since I commenced I've been to school all day and am attempting to finish up before I go to bed. I got a letter from you, my sister and my mom. Not bad for a Monday.
See if you keep being patient you shall receive all you ask for. Now for my picture you were patient to a degree thus success. I am sorry that I didn't send it sooner. It could have been done but it would have meant a couple of precious hours delay and a lot of red tape. So I waited. As for your pictures well I'm awaiting. I was glad to hear of Annie's affair romantic as you put it in different words, but dear old Providence shall provide. Tell her that men aren't bad it's just the impression women leave on them reflecting into their own face. Dates here for the boys are scarce too but they manage to get to Daytona and date up a WAAC. Please for God's sake and mine don't join the WAAC's no matter who asks you too. Seeing is knowing.
This is a little secret stuff between you me and the table. The wing leader of my section, his wife is having a baby and he's going around trying to act unconcerned but inwardly goes about his work like a school boy. Sometimes I think he is cracked a little. Ends the gossip.
One of my pals were home but he returned fast as there was no one around. Well I got to make this short as my talking is finished. Adios for the present.
Love as ever John"
I presume Annie is my mother's friend Annie O'Callahan from Main Street.
"Feb 15 1943
Jaxonville Fla
My Dear Ellen,
Monday today, and the start of our seventeenth week in school. Just four more left. We had liberty yesterday and spent most of our time around town. We took in a show 'Star Spangled Review' that had a million and a half top notch show people in the cast. It appealed to me mainly because there were sailors in it. The boat they were on docked and the crew was given liberty. The boy called up his girlfriend and arranged a meeting. When they met wow! She almost tore him apart with her mild display of tenderness. It was OK for my point of view although it was more or less of a musical variety show. Something that is very unconventional in the movies from my own observations.
Before the show we went to our regular haunts in search of steak and sure enough they had it. We were, as you know now, very much disappointed the last couple of weeks when they ran out of steaks just before we got there. My other two buddies went to Daytona to see their WAACS and have now returned safe and sound. They had the town to themselves and had the pick of the flock. Sister in that town conditions are just the reverse from every other town or city in the country. All girls no men. The sailors that go to town there are first choice and by the time they are through picking there's nothing left to take but space. The boys had a date there yesterday but were three hours late. They got aboard a milk train that stopped every half mile on the way down. When they got there, there stood the WAACs waiting with open arms.
I toured the USO most of the night & they put on a pretty good show for us at the hall. I noticed a newer crowd both men and girls and it finally dawned on me that I was getting to be a veteran around these parts. There are quite a few people here from Boston but still no one that I know. The guy who owns the joint where we eat comes from Revere and is pulling his stakes out of here when the war is over. He used own a big restaurant down here but it folded and he lost quite a bit of dough. Now he is back to normal again and going strong. He's a good egg and treats all very good. The place is very clean and the food is good too. We've gone there every weekend since we've been here.
The boys in my section just got back from Jax Beach where according to their accts they had quite hilarious time. They stayed at the beach over night and due to circumstances over which they had no control they were forced to sleep six in one bed. They slept longwise and crosswise and any other way they could manage. One failed to show up. He got tired and as they cut thru the hotel he spotted a good sleeping spot and really hit the slumber. Already he has been over liberty twice being drunk on both occasions. He isn't drunk now just plumb tired. He should get in OK. I hope! Well this week is one of my toughest here as we have two comprehensive exams in two subjects one exam in blinker and one in forging (?sp). If you don't get any mail for a few days don't worry I am just studying in an effort to succeed as an aviation metalsmith. Next Saturday I will be an usher at the senior classes graduation. So take it easy honey and sorta say a prayer and wish me well. Take it slow and keep your chin up.
Love as always
John
Love Love Love"
"Feb 22 1943
Jaxonville Fla
My Dear Ellen,
I as you have just passed the crisis in my efforts to succeed here at school. Last Saturday I took and passed quite ably three comprehensive tests to determine for myself and the officers in charge just how much I have learned in my course. The tests also concluded our course in the three subjects and dear girl am I sighing relief. I wrote to you at the beginning of the week in the few spare moments that I had just to keep your spirits up. I received my most mail on my busiest week and most of them requested a very prompt answer. Well I just got around to answering this morning. If they don't like it well ___.
I got a letter from my brother Tom now at dear old Newport and from the text of the letter he is going to kick the stuffing out of everyone down there. He didn't like the food or the station either. I gave him a few tips to help him along. Time the cure of all ailments I believe will cure him too. He was always used to doing what he wanted, as he wanted, when he wanted, and has a very domineering attitude. Being big and rough he was king of his group at school and on the corner. I hope he doesn't do anything foolish until he gets acquainted with the procedure, rules and regulations that govern him now that he is in the Navy. It will either make him a man or kill him in the attempt. He had very little discipline and if he saw anything he wanted he went after it no matter what the cost big or small. He had a very quaint habit of judging people on first sight also, he either liked a person or he didn't like them and he took no displeasure in telling them so either. Many were the times I shook inside expecting him to get slugged dizzy as he was telling someone off in no uncertain terms.
If you think I'm stubborn you just ain't seen nothin' atall. He's as stubborn as a million mules.
I also received a letter from Rita and in her own inimitable manner gave me a detailed schedule of her vacation or furlough with Tommy and gave me an explanation of why she didn't invite you over or something to that effect. She told me she had to make up for a years work that had been missed. She also told me to stay good and stuff of the same nature - that really burns my arm. She told me you were in good spirits but that a furlough would do a lot of good. Well as things stand now I'll see what I can do for you.
As for your valentine I almost forgot it but just in the nick of time I remembered and all was saved. Just like the movies.
Three more weeks to go now so it won't be long now before I will be changing my address to new surroundings - near home I hope.
Things as a whole haven't changed a bit, some life, very little though with the same monotonous grind prevailing. Yours now till the ice and snow leave the north and in closing I extend to you my habitual, so it seems, greeting, I love you. Of course it isn't habitual and never will be. I say it with all my heart. So
Love always
John"
I think my father sounds rather aggravated in this letter - the bit about people wanting a prompt response, but especially his reaction to Rita's letter about staying good, etc. It must have been difficult to be away from home for so long.
Tom was my father's younger brother - he was next after my father. He was the one my mother met first at Rita O'Hara's party - she was talking to him when my father started down the stairs - she asked Tom who he was - and that was it.
"March 4 1943
Jacksonville Fla
My dear Ellen,
Just eight days left of school so I am still in a very very good mood. In fact I'm as happy as a boid in a tree. My marks are all in but as to their relative value I don't know as yet. They will be posted tomorrow. I am writing today hoping you get this by Saturday which I doubt so maybe you will be forced due to circumstances overwhich I have no control to wait until Monday for this letter. The boys around here are acting up a bit, jubilation I suppose due to graduation's short distance, and they are making the most unnatural inhuman sounds ever heard by man or beast. Our long stay here has affected us all in some way or another although it is not noticeable or obvious in the slightest. You know it's an inward emotion or an outward way of showing our joy or feelings good or bad. Some times they get on one's nerves but we don't bother much as during this long stay together we have begun to get acquainted with each other and can sort of sense each others moods and feelings. There a very good bunch and there still going strong.
We are having our party Saturday night a purely stag affair which I know will wind up in a drunken brawl before its over. Oh well I think I'll manage to stay sober and vertical thru it all as its my intention to go early, eat hang around for a few moments and then scram out of there as fast as possible.
I haven't received any mail from you for two or three days now it must have got side tracked somewhere along the line. Sometimes when I fail to get mail for two or three days I blame it onto the pony express and stage coach system thru the sovereign States of Carolina and Georgia which gets bogged down for two or three days while the driver gets a little food and sleep. Now I know how you feel when I don't write or when the mail that I do write is delayed. I am being interrupted a wee bit by one of my more moronic friends who insists on continually causing me a lot of inconvenience. He's about twenty years old. I guess that is the reason. He is now writing a letter to his gal and it is keeping him busy with intermittent ejaculations much to our discomfort and displeasure. Well I'll close now to write again Saturday to keep up the good work. Love as usual kid and keep your chin and shins up.
Love as usual,
John"
My father sounds so mature talking about the affect of the weeks he and 'his' men have spent together - the young kid who is 20 when my father is only 23 - their party turning into a drunken brawl while he plans to escape early. I continue to be surprised at how mature he seems - or am I making too much of that?
"March 14 1943
Jaxonville Fla
My Dear Ellen,
I've graduated, received my shipping orders and am patiently waiting to be sent. I went to Mass and Communion for graduation in an effort to give it the added blessing of the Supreme Being. It was a nice affair short & sweet and directly to the point much to our joy as the shorter it was the more & longer the liberty. Quite a few from far and wide came to see the auspicious occasion which added in a way the added snap to things. Now for the rest of the by now worn out news. I am being shipped to Akron, Ohio to learn how to make repair and overhaul a new secret gas tank. All my pals are going to the Pacific Fleet except 10 of us all going with us. By the time we get there you'll just about be getting this letter and that should be St Patrick's Day. Oh how I love that dear old day. The shamrock the parade and above all the Grand March at Hibernian Hall - remember. It all sorta comes back to me now. I love you kid although you at times got me awfully jealous at the hall. But we'll let bye gones be by gones for now. After Akron will come 'secret' and if I am stationed there for any length of time I'll apply for a leave just to make you happy. OK? I only hope it will come thru ok. I went swimming yesterday. The air is as stifling hot the water frigid - just like Fieldston that day. Remember. I bought a pair of swimming trunks also. You should see them. A solid gaudy bold glaring stunning yellow that would blind you at a glance. Boy are they sharp!
I've added a couple of new songs to my repertoire of favorites and I am only hoping you like them too. They are 'Avalon' and 'I wonder what became of Sally' as sung by Bing Crosby which really hit me. They are both sentimental and smooth and I like them a lot. Every time I hear them and 'How deep is the Ocean' I just naturally get to thinking of you. Funny kid but I do. Something downstairs says so, so I go on my merry way just a thinking and a mooding wishing and longing for you but knowing and hoping and praying that you will be there when I get back home.
I'll write as soon as we get there, telephone maybe so keep smiling.
Love you as always
John"
I tried looking up a secret gas tank built at a naval base at Akron, Ohio during WWII, but nothing came up. But I would like to know what was up!
It seems St Patrick's Day was a big day for my father. Had he gone to the St Patrick's Day/Evacuation Day parades in Boston? I couldn't find anything on celebrations in Hibernian Hall.
My father mentions that he went swimming on a stifling hot day and the water was frigid like in Fieldston - do you remember the pictures from Fieldston down near Marshfield? And a bright yellow bathing suit!
Here is a link to Bing Crosby singing Avalon -
I loved Bells of St Mary and Going My Way - Bing Crosby was the star of both - Ingrid Bergman costarred in the first and Barry Fitzgerald in the second. They premiered in the mid 1940s. I wasn't a big fan of Bing's after I read that he was not so nice to his family - especially his first family.
These are the only letters from February and March that I have found so far. Let's move on to April.
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