Wilson College - World War II

173 February 22 - Thurs. 4:15 P.M. My Dearly Beloved: I'm so sorry to hear that mail is so slow getting to you - But always remember darling I write at least once each day, and if for any reason I should have to miss a day because I was sick or something I’d have someone write a note for me. I just wish I could pick up the phone and put a call thru to you every day. Just came back a little while ago from playing tennis with Bev up in Carmel Woods. And sweety - I can still hold my own to the tune of 6-2 - not so bad for an old mummy like me is it? I felt heavy on my feet, but it was good to get out and run around a bit. We took Wendy along in her stroller - and she behaved very well, eating zwieback and watching the game from a safe distance. 5:45 Enjoyed reading both Grandfather's and Aunt Bev's letters. I think it would be nice to send her or Alice [pg 2] a picture of Wendy and me, but would you do it? It's hard to write someone I don't know at all. If you still want me to do it, tho, I will. I'm so glad you were able to send something to F. this mouth - somehow it increases my self respect or something to know we can pay off our debt. I had to laugh at the letter I received this morning from M and F. They evidently had had one of their periodic spats and M. was feeling very repentant. She wrote the first part of the letter and told me that she was ‘going to make her peace’ and had cooked all F's favorites for dinner. Of course F. read that, and they added a P.S. saying they were going to the movies together! Do hope your transfer to the Education Department goes thru. The school sounds like an up and growing institution - I’d give anything to be with you and see it all. In one of [our?] long envelopes yesterday Wendy and I sent a package of Easter Egg dye, just in case you can find some [pg 3] eggs to color for the children and have a hunt on Easter morning. It was warm enough today for me to don my bathing suit and undress Wendy down to her pants and shirt for a sunbath. She tans very fast - and her hair will probably get even lighter. I'm so glad she has a complexion like yours instead of mine. 8:15 Oh darling - I want you so much - just five months today since you left Carmel. There is still so much time ahead of us that must be waited thru. Today, as we were driving home from the courts we went by the Jones cottage. I don't think I'll ever feel comfortable about it til you’re home and walk by with me again. Every time I remember the morning you left I get all tied up inside. Our two hours in San Francisco are an interlude entirely apart - 10:20 Dana has just left - I didn't expect her to come up tonight at all. She will be good to have around, because Steve is away which gives us something in common. I won't say anymore about it now, but tell you how it works out as time goes by. Steve is shipping almost [pg 4] immediately and is very glad to go. His new address is Cam Phik Group 4 if that means anything to you. No doubt he will be with some other men we know - and I'll relay any news as it comes in - To bed now darling - one less night for us to be apart- I love you so very much- Bobby

#145 Navy #3247 (Mil. Govt) FPO San Francisco Thurs 22 Feb. 12:20 pm Dearly Beloved, A little tired today, but with a pleasant glow of satisfaction over last night's letter writing and with you more in mind (for I was thinking of you as I wrote Henry and Fran, too) than ever - Today, just to belie what I said in last night's letter, a copy of Life arrived addressed to me and I noticed the termination of subscription date which they always include in the address says October something (’45). This issue is that of Jan. 29th and I must have missed many in between but at least it's being mailed to me and will reach me occasionally. Also two packages from you (and some clippings from Father, Walter Lippmann and Sumner Welles) - books from the library (“Loopy”, “the Country Cousin”, “Dumbo”, an ABC book) which I'll take up to school this afternoon; and Volcanic Isle, Cannery Row, Fleischer's book I'll get down to right away, and Steinbeck's I'll save for the appropriate mood. Meanwhile it's time for me to return some books to you; very likely you’d enjoy looking thru “The Monterey Peninsula” what with having added to your knowledge of the area. Besides that “Barnaby and Mrs. O'Malley” (I do love this little [pg 2] book and would like us to get the one to which it's a sequel sometime) - “Tortilla Flat,” Ehrenburg, probably Dorothy Parker and Helen Coolidge. I am a little embarrassed by my earlier insistence that you mark and make marginal comments as you read books you intend to send me, and by my complimentary promise to do the same. When it comes to doing it on an organized basis, I recognize a little throwback of compulsion in my wanting to do that - an overeagerness to hang on tight to something which can't really be sustained in that fashion, something which must be free to make its own impression by the spontaneous power of the written word and the ideas it conveys. Always excepting especially personal, coincidental, or otherwise striking items, I feel the futility of underlining sentences and paragraphs: it's a form of impertinence if they are really significant and a waste of time if they aren't. That attitude, I know, was implicit in your initial hesitance to mark Ehrenburg and your giving up the chore by the time you got to Belden. The former is an impassioned, forceful book (taking almost every ten pages of it at once over a period of time); you are right in speaking of a sameness to it, and because I do not intend to persist and in one variation my errors by facing myself to read further just for the sake of finishing the book, [pg 3], I'm returning it half-unread. Nevertheless I'm glad to have it in our library: I think of it as a masterpiece of its kind. - I hope you will send Belden along if you have reached a point of staleness - or did you say that you’d finally finished it? Maybe it's on its way. These two packages made remarkably good time, having been mailed Jan. 27th and 29th respectively. I looked for a Blitz cloth but suppose there must be another package on its way with that in it. Spoke to the colonel last night and I think he will approve my request for transfer to education. I should know by tomorrow or the next day. Space in the new Quonsets (which are already begun and will go up fast) has been allocated and I'm a little sorry not to be rooming with anyone I particularly like (Frankel, Ewing, Etter, Mook or our whimsical lawyer Van Koughnett) - it makes little difference, however, as quarters are all close together and there are only two of us in our room, the other being “Coach” Hager. “Coach” is a somewhat pathetic figure - wife died several years ago, he has two grown children and nothing to look forward to going back to after the war, a lieut., he's head of the Dept. of Education and Welfare but the two officers under him do the real work. I don't mean that he goes around weeping on people's shoulders but he has no real interests of his own and is sometimes irritatingly offensive [?] get along with him well enough. (He's the one who speaks Cantonese and ought to be sent where he’d be useful) Love you, darling Warren