Spitball Army

[Letter postmarked on 18 August 1944 at 10 a.m. at Jamaica, New York. Addressed to Mrs. Richard N., Berwyn, Illinois. No return address inscribed on the envelope.]

Aug 17, 1944

My Darling,

How are you sweet, from your letter I gather you are feeling pretty chipper these days – right? Well, I am, too, hon – I am looking forward to the immediate future very much. I feel there is a lot of fun in store for us; fun that we have been waiting for very much – just us being together is a very brght future for me.

I have here your very nice August 15th & 16th letters. You are wrong, hon, I haven’t received all my pay since January. I just received enough money for my needs, hon, and by no means all that is coming to me. Well, hon, I think you can get an evening train O.K., but you won’t get into N.Y. till late on Tuesday because it takes 18 hours to make the trip under any circumstances, you see. Just what friends are these Mr. & Mrs. Pratt to Martha, are they relatives? Does she know them well? Well, now I can piece together, with the help of a calendar, when you are going to get here but I still would like to get the dates from you when you plan to get here, so give me your detailed plans, hey hon.

August 16th letter.
Gee, hon, those jokes you sent me were funny, I certainly enjoyed them. It has cooled off here just a little here but not much, but it’s a little more comfortable. Yes, I can understand what my Dad said about Pullman arrangements. When he thinks of a train, he immediately thinks of a Pullman. You see, hon, it’s been so long since he has had to watch his pennies, he kind of forgets about those things. However, whenever I think about trains, I always think of chair cars. These new reclining seats in these new chair cars are very nice. The only reason I didn’t take one on my last leave was because I just missed one and as I said the one leaving in 5 minutes was an all-Pullman train and all I was interested in was the fact that I had a little over 72 hours and I knew damn well I was going to see you in that time or bust, so I hopped on that train – see? Hon, I find that hard to believe about Martha but I guess it is true – now I begin to understand about her trouble that you have been hinting to me about so much. You go anyway you want to, it’s your money and, frankly, I haven’t a thing in the world to say about how you spend it – and I know that only too well!! I am not saying a thing the way you go – you do what you think is best. As long as you travel with the right company and don’t get in trouble, that’s all I worry about. Therefore, I can’t see what difference it makes whether you have club car privileges or not because that’s the car where young girls traveling alone get in trouble. I could see you worrying about the dinner – yes – but I don’t understand why you are worried about the club car at all. Gee, now I am talking like a husband again.

The important thing to me is that I will soon see you again, hon, and hold you in my arms close to me and kiss you again; that’s what really matters to me, hon, outside of that nothing means much to me any more. You love me and I love you and nothing else in the world matters.

When we are to-gether the world is ours, hon – then I live. Without you I merely breathe and exist until I can be with you again –

All my love –
Dick xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx