Wilson College - World War II

My thoughts are with you darling. All our love. Love Bobby Wendy Johnston

37- (May have skipped a no. let me know) Monday Oct. 23rd 8:10 My dearest darling:- Read through the papers you sent tonight loved ‘Sad Sack’ - half of one of the pages of the paper was torn out (Oct. 3rd) Am sending you tomorrow ‘This World’ from last Sunday's paper. This afternoon Marge took us for a drive to the point - the water was a lovely aquamarine color - Wendy sported a pink ribbon and looked very festive. When we got back we had ice cream cones, and then went to market. Wendy loved the Purity, as soon as she is able to sit up will put her in the top basket when we go shopping. Today for the first time she reached for your fountain pen - clutched it in her fist, and then put it in her mouth - will be a good teething toy if I keep it tightly closed so that she doesn't [pg 2] get ink all over herself. Am going to send you an EFM birthday message tomorrow - hope it goes through. Will be thinking of you every minute and remembering the fun we had last year - wish I could have baked you a cake. Where did you and Henry play golf? Didn't get your stationery, but promise to get it tomorrow. Am listening to ‘Sherlock Holmes’ the radio is such a help - especially at night. The reception is the best we've ever had. Listen to the news at 6 each morning while I feed Wendy. She hasn't slept last since you left - for some reason she wakens anytime from 3-6, tho I never feed her before 5:30! Haven't any idea why, unless she has been sleeping too much during the day. I have been going to sleep at 10:45 and sleeping til 10:00, but with Wendy awake more now, I'll have to start getting up earlier soon and putting in a real day. Can you picture Wendy at 9 months creeping, pulling things off tables etc. as Jeff does now? I can't. Wendy and Jeff are awfully cute together - Jeff jabbers, and Wendy answers in a very lady like fashion - smiling very coyly sometimes with a finger in the corner of her mouth. Well, my darling, to read now and then [shnoofies?] I love you - Bobby [Shnoofies?] - sleep Jo jo - bathroom Mrs. Wigglesworth - Wendy 23/44 Lunch with Warr ‘on the hill’ then to the C.C. C.U. game - followed by dinner at Wayne's - then on to Fran Mahoney's and roommate's party at the May's apartment.

#30 Monday 23 October 5:30 pm My darling, (This one's hardly for [s?] sweetie-but give her a kiss for Daddy) I would like so much to be able to describe the circumstances in which I currently find myself, but unfortunately censorship regulations forbid. Have just started, incidentally, a duration diary to help keep track of time (which flies miraculously) and of what's in it, by way of supplementing my letters. I'm not particularly interested in the technical details (which the enemy would like to get ahold of) of the things around us, but rather in events and reactions which are restricted now mainly because of their timeliness. I initiate the practice with no particular relish for writing things down either, other than in letters to you; on looking back over the past month and its myriad experiences recalled sometimes too vaguely, however, I thought it might be worth the effort. I've promised you a letter on Henry and my conversation with him. It's a subject which deserves a lengthier treatment than I can give it just now, but this may be my last opportunity for any more than a 2-page letter for the next week or so, a certain amount of work having loomed large on the horizon. So I begin, with the promise (or caution) that it won't be an end to Henry, since he - or our intercourse - furnished the stimulus for ideas to occupy a part of my leisure for some time to come, and probably he'll pop up in a letter every now and then. I hope you won't grow tired of the [? ] We talked, as I've said before, about many things beginning and ending, mine or his, with impersonal ones, of most immediate interest to you I'm sure-as to me- are little personal notes about him and Jean. Henry met Jean at a dance or a party and was engaged to her three weeks later. He liked her well enough at first sight to ask her for a date (he was used to having dates at the time, and sort of tentatively or casually going with two [pg 2] or three girls); on the date he decided that she appealed to him particularly but didn't get excited about it; then after another date or two it hit him. He recalled that his conversations with Jean were intimate from the beginning, tho always of course with that certain reserve. They simply liked each other, talked endlessly and frankly, found that they shared many views and impressions (This occurred principally at a dance or a party at first, and he spoke of having a wonderful time at a rather bad party.) When they had been out two or three times and Henry had suddenly made up his mind, he went to see a friend of his whose family and Jean's expected him to marry her - to inform said friend of his own feelings and he assured that there was no tacit engagement between them. The same evening they both called on Jean together -just a friendly, casual call - but Henry had had a date with her, and she was furious (so he learned later). When they left he called back and asked if now she would come out with him alone for awhile, but she wasn't used to going out at 11 pm and said she was going to bed. That left Henry feeling rebuked and uncertain. Nevertheless he had made up his own mind and the next time they were out shortly afterwards (I think it was the next time) at some cheap little restaurant, Henry asked her something like would she consider marrying him? To which Jean forthrightly replied (can't you hear her voice?) - “Henry, I’d love to marry you!” From that point on they were inseparable, and despite family set ideas and misgivings, triumphant. Perhaps this is a dull, everyday boy meets girl sort of narration as I retell it, but knowing Henry and Jean fairly well you can probably reconstruct the picture. It was a very pleasant one as Henry reconstructed it for me with quiet relish and a nice twinkle in his eyes. (We were sitting in the sand between swims at the end of a pier on a private hotel-owned beach near Waikiki). I don't recall how long it was before they were married, but the interim courtship seems to have been a mutual affair. Their [pg 3] [following pages - only small, torn pieces left]