Spitball Army

We talk about my cats, 15 years old, aged, sickly, how I’ll handle their certain fate. We talk: she, my 77-year-old mother, and I.

Card is titled: “Custer Battlefield and National Cemetary, Montana.”

Printed on back of postcard:

The first stone on the right denotes where General Custer fell, June 25, 1876.  The museum and national cemetary are in the background

Publishing information: Genuine Curteich-Chicago “C.T. American Art” Post Card (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.)

Below is a current photograph of the Custer Battlefield taken at the same spot as the post card photograph.  As you can see, not much has changed.  The site is near the town of Crow Agency; the nearest city to the battlefield is Billings.

Behind the photographer stands the Last Stand monument, erected as a memorial to those who fought in the Battle of Little Bighorn (both George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho force that opposed them).

Approximate playing time: 78 minutes and a duck.

1. The Magic Numbers  “This Is a Song”  (2006)
2. Mason Jennings  “Lemon Grove Avenue”  (2004)
3. George Harrison  “Behind That Locked Door”  (1970)
4. Ian & Sylvia  “Friends of Mine”  (1966)
5. Michael Nesmith & the First National Band  “Joanne”  (1970)
6. Stars  “Barricade”  (2007)
7. Bee Gees  “I Laugh in Your Face”  (1969)
8. Death Cab for Cutie  “Your Heart Is an Empty Room”  (2005)
9. Monsters of Folk  “Magic Marker”  (2009)
10. Spoon  “Take the Fifth”  (2000)
11. James Brown  “Think”  (1960)
12. Mavis Staples  “99 and ½”  (2007)
13. Mayer Hawthorne  “Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin'”  (2009)
14. Holly Golightly  “Tell Me Now So I Know”  (2003)
15. “The Voice of Cheese” from Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention’s Uncle Meat  (1969)
16. Barbara Cook  “Glitter and Be Gay”  (1956)
17. Taj Mahal  “But I Rode Some”  (1990)
18. John Lennon  “John Sinclair”  (1972)
19. Eric Matthews  “Soul Nation Select Them”  (1995)
20. Stevie Wonder  “I Love Every Little Thing About You”  (1972)
21. Merle Haggard  “The Day the Rains Came”  (1969)
22. Jackson Browne  “First Girl I Loved”  (1990)

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_051610.mp3]
Fred FM playlist (16 May 2010)

Some notes on the songs:

• The Michael Nesmith song is a request from Mr. Pinto, who apparently got a dose of Michael N. while we roomed together in college.  Then, I had an LP by Nesmith entitled Live at the Palais but, alas, it is nowhere to be found in my collection today.  Hence, this alternate chestnut, which was a staple on the radio stations of my youth.
• Jackson Browne’s cover of The Incredible String Band’s “First Girl I Loved” was taken from the CD Rubáiyát, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of Elektra Records in 1990.

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed: Richard, Co. G, 2nd Bn., 1st Mar., c/o F.P.O., San Francisco, Calif. Postmarked at U.S. Navy, on 12 Dec 1944, A.M. Envelope stamped on front, “Passed by Naval Censor,” and initialed by the Censor.]

Dec. 9, 1944

Hello Sweetheart,

     I’m sorry, I tried.  I started to write you about an hour ago but I was interupted.  Now, I’m in a very bad mood so I’d better wait until tomorrow.

     Goodnight Sweetheart
     I love you with all my heart
          Pleasant Dreams

• • •

     Here I am back again, Sweetheart.  It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m laying on my sack writting to you.  The writting may not be so good but it should be better than what I wrote above.  I wrote that in the dark.  It’s pretty warm today.  Thank goodness there is a breeze ever now or then.  I spent most of the morning washing clothes. (My week’s laundry)  I’ve still 3 things to wash besides myself.  I hope I get them done this afternoon.

     I received your letter yesterday that you wrote on the 26th of November.  You weren’t any too happy when you wrote it.  I hope you are feeling better now.  I think that when the mail gets straightened out, a lot of things will be cleared up for you.  I don’t know exactly how the folks found out where I was, but they are right.  I hinted in my letters as best I could to both of you.  As far as the cigarettes are concerned, I wrote and told you the same thing I told them as soon as I found out you were sending them.

     As for the letters, I wrote you about 4 days before I wrote them.  So, if the letters tral traveled at the same rate, you should have gotten my address before they did.  It was rather strange, I got 1 letter from them.  Then, it was about 1½ to 2 weeks before I got another from them or the first one from you.  I don’t know what happened.  I do know that some of my mail is lost somewhere.  They took some snap-shots around the house and were sending one in each letter they wrote.  As far as I know, they sent 11 pictures.  They numbered each one and that’s how I know that there was at least 11 of them.  I got the first 4 and the 11th one.  As to what happened to the ones in between, I do not know.  That’s prop probably what has happened to some of the letters I sent to you.  I’ve been writting them and mailing them.  What happends to them after that, I don’t know.  They have passed the censor anyway.  The majority of the mail I get, comes through in 2 weeks time.  However, ever now and then I get an old one.  For a while after I got here, I couldn’t get any air-mail stamps and I wrote quite a few letters and sent them by “free” mail.  Since I get could get the stamps, every letter I have mailed has been airmail.  As to whose mail gets to me faster, it’s hard to say.  It’s never the same.  Yesterday, I got 1 letter from them & 2 from you.  Theirs was dated Nov. 24 and yours were dated Nov. 24 and 26.

     There’s just one more thing (I think) that I have to straighten out.  It is about writting Jude and not Harry.  You’re all mixed up.  I got a letter from Harry and I answered it.  I have not heard from Jude and I have not written him.  Now, doesn’t that make you feel better, Sweetheart?  That’s the way things are.  One more thing I just happened to think of.  I wrote 1 letter to each of you aboard ship.  We couldn’t mail then until we got here on the island and I think I finally threw them away.  I’m not sure.

     Now, I’m in a mess.  There aren’t any more questions to answer and I can’t think of anything to write.  I don’t want to close my letter at this point, but it looks like I’ll have to.  There is one thing I hope you will always understand and never have to question.  That is my love for you.  I love you Sweetheart.

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

…at least not very much.  Because, if I did, this might be me.

Yardwork day, excavating rocks, daydreaming. He piles the stones into a cairn, pretending the yapping mutt next door lies beneath.

In my opinion you commit an error. Write to me in PM, we will communicate.
Who to you it has told?
In my opinion you are not right. I am assured. Write to me in PM, we will communicate.
Just that is necessary, I will participate. Together we can come to a right answer.
Let will be your way. Do, as want.

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed: Richard, Co. G, 2nd Bn., 1st Mar., c/o F.P.O., San Francisco, Calif. Postmarked at U.S. Navy, on 5 Dec 1944, A.M. Envelope stamped on front, “Passed by Naval Censor,” and initialed by the Censor.]

Dec. 5, 1944

Hello Sweetheart,

     I’m sorry I’ve neglected you so long.  I’ll try to make it up to you and do better in the future.  O.K.?  We’ve been having a lot of fun around here the last week.  In case you didn’t know or I haven’t told you, as a Co. clerk, I work in the 1st Sgt’s. office.  In here live the 1st Sgt. & Co. Gunny Sgt. – the 2 highest ranking non-commissioned officers in the company.  They run the company in other words taking orders from the officers.  Well, last week, Top and Gunny went home.  Now, we have two new men out of the company in the office.  They aren’t new men in the company but they are in the office.  A Pfc. [drawn symbol] is acting 1st. Sgt. and a platoon sgt. [another drawn symbol] is acting as Gunny.  1st Sgt. is [third drawn symbol] and Gunny Sgt. is [fourth drawn symbol].

Now is that clear.  You have to understand that to get full benefit of the situation.  Well, the platoon sgt. doesn’t like the idea of the Pfc. ranking him.  He’s stubborn and rather hard-headed.  So, as it seems to me, he is going out of his way to get the Pfc. in trouble so he can get that one more stripe.  There is going to be a big show-down one of these days.  Then things will really start happening.  I thought it was coming today, but it didn’t quite materialize.  It started, but the end is still not in sight.  The officers picked the logical men (according to their capabilities) and put them in the jobs.  That’s the main reason nothing too drastic has happened yet.  The Pfc. is doing his job and that’s exactly what the other guy doesn’t like.  He thinks he should know about everything that goes on in this office.  However, this is the 1st Sgt’s. office, and it is supposed to be exactly that.  The 1st Sgt. is supposed to handle all administrative details and any men that the platoon sgts. bring in to him.  The Gunny Sgt. is supposed to handle the men in the field but he has nothing what-so-ever to do with the office.  The platoon sgt. doesn’t like that, however.  He wants it all.  As I said before, the Pfc. does his job and it makes the platoon sgt. very unhappy.  It burns him up.  I’m in a funny position.  I’m on friendly terms with both of them, and they both tell me all about it.  They tell me all their troubles and then I usually have to give them my opinion.  If they ask me, I’m going to give them my opinion whether they like it or not.  I hope they don’t ask too often, or I’m going to loose somebody’s friendship.  I’m getting a big kick out of it all just sitting on the sidelines.

     Another thing that has kept me busy is the receiving of a another group of replacements.  I have to keep the roster strait and things are in a slightly confused state.  I haven’t got it fixed up yet.  I won’t be able to for another few days.  I’m really having a lot of fun.  That is both truth and sarcasism sarcasm.

     I’m running out of time as usual, but I’ll try to finish before I quit.  One of the dogs on the island had pups.  So to get rid of them, they gave one pup to each company in the battalion.  We got a little brown and white male.  He’s the cutest little pup you ever saw.  The bugler has been detailed to take care of it, so he sleeps in the same tent as I do.  He has a little box with a skivie shirt as padding.  He’s a smart little pup.  I don’t know who trained him, but he was house-broke when we got.  Well, anyway, he goes out of our tent.  I’ve only heard of one complaint about that.  That came about when he went out of our tent and into the next one to _ _ _ _ relieve his mind.  It was pouring down yesterday evening and he decided he had some business to tend to.  So, he climbs out of his box, wades across the drainage ditch, does his duty, and then jumps the ditch back into the tent.  Boy, was he wet when he got back inside.  He was the perfect little gentleman though.  I wish you could see him.  It seems like He spends most of his time sleeping it seems like.  In telephone conversations, to distinguish “G” Co. from “E” Co., they call this “George” Co.  So, the pup’s name is “Sack-time George.”  How do you like that.  I could tell you about a lot more little episodes with “Sack-time” but I’ll save those for my other letters.  No kidding, there will be other letters, and there won’t be so much time in between.  I promise you that.

     Goodnight Sweetheart,
          I love you with all my heart.
               Pleasant Dreams.
                    ‘Nite
                         x x

On the ‘favorite book’ shelf: a pre-publication copy, two First Editions, one autographed volume, five paperbacks to give as gifts.