Spitball Army

[Written to Richard in Oceanside, California.  No return address.  Postmarked at Oceanside, Calif., on 7 May 1946 at 1:30 P.M.]

Printed on the front of the card:

To My Husband [“The stinker” written in ink]
On Our Anniversary

     Ain’t Love Sweet!

Printed on the inside of the card:

The day you asked me that certain query (Will Ya Marry Me?)
I used good SCENTS and said “Yes, dearie” (Smart Girl, Me!)
Your kisses still can turn the heat on (Whatta Thrill!)
You’re still the guy I’m awful sweet on! (Here’s to 100 More Anniversaries!)

Written inside the card by Alice:

I’m all yours

X X X
M R S.

Above the logo on the back of the card:

Football scores alternate with pre-election polling results in my Twitter feed. Some games end at the buzzer; others never stop.

With each basement flood, remains of other lives rise from the ground: toy cars, plastic Madonnas, coal chunks. They never leave.

[Written to Alice in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Return addressed: Richard, Ward 43, U.S.N.H., St. Albans, L.I., N.Y.  Postmarked at Jamaica, N.Y., on 25 Apr 1946 at 1:30 P.M.]

April 25, 1946

Hello Sweetheart,

     I’m sorry but I couldn’t get a letter in the mail yesterday.  Something new has been added.  There are now just two classes of patients in this hospital – bed patients who can’t make liberty and those who are able to go on liberty.  If you are able to go on liberty, you are able to work for it – they say.  So, everybody had to go to the Caddy House to work yesterday.  I went over and told them I didn’t want the liberty and asked if I still had to work.  Well – I was advised to work.  If I was able to work and just didn’t want to, I would have to go before the Captain.  I’m afraid a Captain’s Mast wouldn’t help me get out of here, so I worked.  You should have seen the guys that had to go over there.  There were about 30 on crutches…guys with one leg off – guys that had to use a cane and then had their other arm in a cast – body casts like I had, and a couple of guys with broken necks in body casts.  They expected those guys to work when about all they could do was get around from their ward to the mess hall.  They picked out 10 guys without casts, canes, or crutches and sent them out to load a truck.  When they got to the truck, it turned out that not a one of them could do the work.  Why – they had just recently been operated on.  I wonder that they will think of next.  A Marine can’t even go out of his ward now unless he has a tie on.  The War is over [printed boldly].

I’m afraid somebody has forgotten that this is a hospital.  I’m glad I’m getting out.  The sooner the better.

     They called for me yesterday and I went over to Ward 125 and filed a claim for my pension.  In about 5 or 6 weeks I’ll know what and if I get a pension.  You don’t have to worry about that any more Sweetheart.  I love you Sweetheart.  Stick around.  I’ll be home one of these days.

     Goodnight Sweetheart
          I love you with all my heart
               Pleasant dreams
                    Goodnight Sweetheart
                         x x
                              ‘Nite

x x
   (and is she going to collect!)

[pic]

I. Great Uncle did stunts in silents and shot a man in a cowboy one-reeler, then vanished to the hills like Roy Earle in High Sierra.

II. His nephew, my father, could quote all of Fred C. Dobbs’ lines and shared his suspicious tendencies. Perhaps it was genetic.

III. Dad called him Hobart Humphrey. I’d say “You dirty rat!” Then we’d watch Treasure of the Sierra Madre & he’d set me straight.

IV. The younger of my sisters doesn’t look like Bogart, but she does bear a resemblance to Debra Winger, minus the raspy laugh.

V. Now when I see Bogie wince that way, I reflexively grimace. I fear it’s all over my face, but they tell me it doesn’t show.

Card is titled: “Switchbacks on Pikes Peak Auto Highway to Summit, near Mile 14 near Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs.”

Printed on back of postcard:

This is a free public highway providing a marvelous scenic trip to the very summit of this world famous mountain 14,109 feet above sea level.

Publishing information:  Natural Color Post Card Mad In U.S.A. by E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee, Wis., – DBY.

I’m rushing to get as much of my Monday and Tuesday work done via computer as I can, in anticipation of a possible long-term power outage caused by the coming ice and snow storm. All of a sudden, a message pops up on my screen via TweetDeck: it’s a tweet written by @bikeskirt, then re-tweeted by @BrianABarrett. It reads:

I love the term “wintry mix”; it sounds like a great mixed tape or cocktail. I’ll take one wintry mix, please.

Okay, then, Elisa. This is for you. Stay warm.

Approximate playing time: 77 minutes.

1. Grey Larsen & Andre Marchand  “First Snow”  (1993)
2. Joni Mitchell  “Come In From the Cold”  (1991)
3. Elvis Costello  “I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came”  (2009)
4. R.B. Morris  “A Winter’s Tale”  (1999)
5. John Hiatt  “Icy Blue Heart”  (1988)
6. The Kinks  “Stormy Sky”  (1977)
7. The White Stripes  “In the Cold, Cold Night”  (2003)
8. The Felice Brothers  “Buried in Ice”  (2009)
9. Bob Dylan  “Winterlude”  (1970)
10. Fleetwood Mac  “Storms”  (1979)
11. Clare Burson  “Love Is Snow”  (2007)
12. Ron Sexsmith  “Snow Angel”  (2006)
13. Steve Miller Band  “Winter Time”  (1977)
14. Thomas Newman  “Snowplay”  (1994)
15. Patty Larkin  “Winter Wind”  (1993)
16. Josh Rouse  “Under Cold Blue Stars”  (2002)
17. John Gorka  “Winter Cows”  (1988)
18. Rickie Lee Jones  “Bonfires”  (2009)
19. Frank Sinatra  “Sleep Warm”  (1958)
20. Anja Lechner & Vassilis Tsabropoulos  “Tsabropoulos: Trois Morceaux Apres Des Hymnes Byzantins I”  (2004)

This is what Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s Wikipedia page looked like at 1:37 p.m. CST on 8 January 2011. Click on the image if you wish to enlarge it.

As of 2:00 p.m. CST, Rep. Giffords was reported as still being alive. The Wikipedia page had been updated to reflect this.

[Written to Alice in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Return addressed: Richard, Ward 43, U.S.N.H., St. Albans, L.I., N.Y.  Postmarked at Jamaica, N.Y., on 24 Apr 1946 at 1 P.M.]

April 23, 1946

Hello Sweetheart,

     Well, I get I know what my letters can mean to you.  I’ve really been down in the dumps the last two days.  I’m sorry I haven’t written before this but I was so mad and dejected I just couldn’t write.  As I told you yesterday over the phone, I went down to the record office and they told me this coming Friday.  Well, I went down again this morning and nothing more had been done.  They made up Friday’s transfer list this afternoon.  So, naturally, I missed it.  Two weeks my papers have been down in the record office and still the CO hasn’t signed them.  I’m beginning to wonder if I will be home for our aniversary.  I’ll be there as soon as I can.  I love you so much Sweetheart.  You are everything to me.  I was so happy about the cottage.  Now I’m afraid we won’t get to use it very much.  I want you so bad I can hardly stand it Sweetheart.  Waiting is so hard and I’m so anxious to be with you.  I love you with all my heart Sweetheart.

     About the convertible Sweetheart, I’m willing to have any make and any color.  I just want one and I want it when I get home.  I would even take a Ford.  The only condition is that it doesn’t run over $1500 or thereabouts.  I hope you will be able to get that Plymouth you mentioned.  Anything – just so it is a NEW car with a “roll back” top.

     That’s it for to-night Sweetheart.  I’ll write again tomorrow.  I’m all yours.  AND I’m coming home eventually.  I’ll bet on that.

     Goodnight Sweetheart
          I love you with all my heart
              Pleasant dreams
                   Goodnight Sweetheart
                        x x
                         ‘Nite

x x

The moon, plugged-in, illuminates the clouds in the dome overhead. I feel it within reach: my own white and gray Truman Show.