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Richard to Alice: 12 June 1944

February 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed: Richard, Plt. 622, R.D.M.C.B., San Diego 41, Calif. Postmarked in San Diego, Calif., on 13 June 1944 at 8:30 PM.]

June 12, 1944
8 P.M.

Hi Sweetheart,

     I feel sure that you have my letter by now.  And after tonight, I think you should stay home more than ever.  I just came back from a pre-rating test in radio.  I think I did fairly good on it.  If I did, I should be sent to school for 10 months and come out with a rank of technical sgt.  One of the many schools is in Chicago.  I’ve had enough time to day-dream enough to think that I might very possibly be sent to Chi.  How would that be?  Pretty swell, huh?  I think that if you just stay put for another 7 or 8 weeks, I’ll come to you instead of you coming to me.  I wouldn’t get to see you out here anyway, so you better save that money.  I’ll see you after boot-training.  How’s that?  OK?  I hope.

     I’m sorry Sweetheart but I’ve got to run now.  I’ll write more as soon as possible.

     Good night Sweetheart.
          I love you with all my heart.
                    x x
                         Pleasant Dreams.
                                   ‘Nite  xxx
                                        x x

[And, on the back of the page:]

I love you.

Richard to Alice: 12 June 1944

Tags: Richard & Alice

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Casey // Feb 27, 2010 at 8:32 PM

    OK, I’m stupid. Are you writing these or are they some historical documents you have found? (But I think I’d recognize your writing…)

  • 2 spitballarmy // Feb 28, 2010 at 1:02 AM

    Hey, Casey.

    I WISH I had the creative powers to conjure a series of letters like that. No, I didn’t write them. I collect and transcribe correspondence from this period. I’m interested in American cultural history of the WW2 era. I started doing this with a batch I found as a kid – you can read about that here: http://spitballarmy.com/?page_id=177. I hope you can follow this new batch (I’m only seven letters into it). I don’t read the letters until they’re transcribed and posted here, so we’re all discovering them at the same time. Please tell your interested friends about them. I keep a running narrative of the Richard/Alice letters at a main page on this website, which has links to each letter in the series in the chronological order of their appearance in the overall story: http://spitballarmy.com/?page_id=6713.

    There it is, in a nutshell. Thanks for asking about it!

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