Spitball Army

“It’s pronounced igyooAHN’ah,” she tells me. “Not igWAHN’ah.” I immediately regress to the shame of my WorSESS’tershyer past.

[Letter addressed to Mrs. Harry V. C., c/o Mrs. J. W., 20 Block Street, Dundee, Scotland.  Return addressed to Cpl. Harry V. C., 33428766, 1409^th A.A.F. Base Unit, E.D.A.T.C. A.P.O. 741 c/o P.M., U.S. Army.]

England
Feb. 16, 1945

Dearest Mary:

Just a couple more lines Darling to let you know that I am well and getting along as I can with out you.  I am sorry that I did not write to [you] last night Darling.  I hope that you are well and getting along all right.  I only hope that I am up there with you in a few more days.  It seems like a year since I was up there last.  I never missed any one so much as I do you Darling.  I was looking for a letter from you today Dearest, but none came.  I hope that I get a couple tomorrow.  The last one I received was wrote on the eighth.  How is every one up around there now, Darling?  I hope Jimmy is over his cold now.  Darling, when are you going to let me know if you will get off from work when I am up there?  Please Darling, let me know if you can.  How is your Father getting along? or haven’t you had any more letters from him?  Dearest, we will see if we can get what we both want when I come up this time.  It will not make any difference what kind we get will it, Darling?  I only hope you know what I am talking about.  Do you?  Dearest, I only wish that I could be there with you right this minute.  I would like to hold you tight to me, and just feel your sweet lips on mine.  Darling, how are you and Anna getting along at your jobs?  Do you have lots of work now?  For the last few nights, I have been finding out what it is like to work both day and night.  That was the reason I did not get to write to you last night, Darling.  I did write a letter to Mom.  I had eleven letters from her so I thought I better get started answering them.  Darling, have you had time to see any good shows?  I have been to two here on the base but I can’t think of the names of them now.  I would like to see a good movie again so when I get up there this time we will go and see one, Darling.  Well, how is Alex getting along?  Does he learn as fast as you and Anna did?  Darling, I heard the song again tonight and it made me miss you more than ever.  Do you hear it very much up there?

I guess I am the last one here in the barracks writing tonight.  Hank and Werth are in bed already.  Have you saw Betty since Hank came back from up there?  I wonder what she thinks of Hank getting his stripes taken away.  I know about how he feels.  I just hope that I don’t do any thing to lose mine.  I want to get more in place of losing them.  Kenny has made a stripe at last.  He is still out in the same place he was.  I suppose he is seeing a lot of action by the sound of the news broadcaster.

Darling, I am hardly able to keep my mind on what I am writing tonight for thinking of you.  I miss you so much, Dearest.  I am hoping this was is over soon so we can be together all the time.  Darling, tell Mom and Jimmy that I think of them both a lot.

All my love, Darling, forever.
I will be with you soon.
Your Loving and Lonely Husband
Harry.

Q1: Where were you born?

Q2: Describe your taste in sexual partners using colors.

Q3: How close – in inches – is the nearest Starbuck?

Twelfth of 20 watercolor picture/postcards from the postcard book titled: “Official View Book, A CENTURY OF PROGRESS EXHIBITION, Chicago, 1933.”

This card pictures “Old Heidelberg Inn, restaurant and rathskeller for World’s Fair visitors” at the 1933 World’s Fair held in Chicago, Illinois.

The accordion-style postcard book’s cover:

When asked – and sometimes, just voluntarily – I have said that I don’t like the flute. This is despite the fact that I have had good friends who are flutists (not “flautists,” mind you, because those are people who make flautas), and they have all been and continue to be stellar people, as far as I can tell. I suppose that there was something in my past that drove me to hold this judgment against flutes, much like my mother’s relationship with the color yellow [upcoming run-on sentence alert!], which she insisted so often throughout my earlier years didn’t look “good” on me that I almost believed her until I wore my favorite yellow long-sleeved dress shirt in her presence once in my later years and stunned her with my handsomeness so much that she was driven to utter “But I thought you hated yellow!” In short – with regard to the flute – I have been a fool, and that is not an insult to my dear mother.

This playlist was springboarded by my recent fascination with the album Kaputt, by Destroyer. The song, “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker,” is a pop mini-symphony that features a terrific lyrical flute melody, one that I first thought was played out live in the studio, but after thirty or so listens have come to believe is an elaborate loop. I still love it. And the repeated hearings of it made me wonder about other uses of the instrument in popular recordings (as opposed to the plethora of classical and jazz recordings that feature a flute). My preparations for this playlist uncovered enough music to fill several playlists, to my surprise.

I do love the fact that a flute part can be just as effective as an accent to the sonic weave of a song (“So Far Away,” for example) as it can when it is the featured instrument (in this case, “Heard It in a Love Song” and “Goin’ Up the Country” are the first to come to my mind). I also feel that this is one of the strongest playlists that I’ve tossed up here, in terms of listenability, and I attribute that to the flute’s versatility and beauty, which I have maligned for decades.

For that, I apologize.

Approximate playing time: 78 minutes.

1. Jethro Tull  “Living in the Past”  (1972)
2. The Guess Who  “Undun”  (1969)
3. Aretha Franklin  “Until You Come Back to Me”  (1973)
4. Seatrain  “Flute Thing”  (1973)
5. Beastie Boys  “Sure Shot”  (2004)
6. Canned Heat  “Goin’ Up the Country”  (1969)
7. Love  “Orange Skies”  (1967)
8. The Association  “Windy”  (1967)
9. Destroyer  “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker”  (2011)
10. Josh Rouse  “James”  (2003)
11. Simon & Garfunkel  “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright”  (1970)
12. Van Morrison  “Everyone”  (1970)
13. Carole King  “So Far Away”  (1971)
14. David Bowie  “Moonage Daydream”  (1972)
15. The Marshall Tucker Band  “Heard It in a Love Song”  (1977)
16. Donovan  “Sunny Goodge Street”  (1965)
17. Cat Stevens  “Katmandu”  (1970)
18. The Beach Boys  “Feel Flows”  (1971)
19. Van McCoy  “The Hustle”  (1975)
20. The 5th Dimension  “Up Up and Away”  (1967)

Some notes on the songs:

• Practically any Jethro Tull song could have been included here, as we all know that the group’s front man Ian Anderson is a flutist. “Thick as a Brick” would have been my second choice.
• Listening to “The Hustle” while preparing this post, after many years of Disco-free bliss, inspired me to pen the following #CNFtweet: “The Hustle” on MP3: 99 cents. The irreversibly grounded sensation one gets while dancing to a disco song as it fades out: free.
• I don’t usually do this (pointing), but I’d like to point out the snaking tango performed by the electric guitar and the flute in “Feel Flows,” by The Beach Boys. It’s not at all a sound typically expected of that band, and it’s a stunner of a moment.
• Now I’m hungry for some flautas.

You can also listen to this playlist in a slightly different form (Seatrain’s “Flute Thing” is featured there in a 7:53 version, instead of the much shorter 3:21 version that’s featured here) on Spotify. Here is the link.

[Letter addressed to Mrs. Harry V. C., c/o Mrs. J. W., 20 Block Street, Dundee, Scotland.  Return addressed to Cpl. Harry V. C., 33428766, 1409^th A.A.F. Base Unit, E.D.A.T.C. A.P.O. 741 c/o P.M., U.S. Army.]

England
Feb. 14, 1945

Darling Mary:

Just a couple more lines to tell you that I am well and getting along the same as always.  I did not get any letter from you today, Darling, but I have the letter you wrote on the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th to answer now.  I got them all straightened out, Darling.  I was sure glad to get them.  I only wish that I could have been up there with you, my precious Darling, but it could not be helped.  I only hope that nothing happens to keep me away from being with you this time, for Dearest I miss you so much.

Well Darling, I am going to start answering the first letter now.  Do you get any time off at all when I am up there, Darling?  Please let me know if you do, Dearest.  I guess I know how you felt when I did not get there when I was supposed to, Darling, for I did not feel any too good myself.  I only [hope] I don’t disappoint you this time.  I am starting to answer the second letter now, darling, so I guess you will know what I am writing about.  I hope you do any way, Dearest.  I read the letters the way I was supposed to, Darling.  You just write them any way at all for I am good at figuring letters out or I would never understand what they write from home.  I guess I will have to catch that mouse for you when I come up.  That is, if you haven’t scared it to death before I get there.  I have been chasing them around here in the barracks but so far they keep out of reach.  I am glad to know that you received Mom’s letter allright.  Darling, I only wish that I was there with you now, darling, when you was writing this letter to me.  You better get all the sleep you can Darling, for I haven’t seen you for a long time and I want to catch up on the kisses that you sent me.  Darling, some one might come to visit you some time.  I only hope that this war is over before very long for Dearest, I never missed any one before in my life like I do you.

I know it might be a lot of bother but Dearest will it make too much difference to us?  I think we will get used to it.

Darling, I think you are wrong.  That would be too close together to suit either of us.  Don’t you think it would be, Darling.  I think a little bigger steps would be a lot better.  Darling please forget about Harriet.  Just think about us.  Don’t you think that would be a lot better, Darling?

I see what you mean, Dearest.  I know it would make a lot of difference if I was back up there but, Darling, let’s try it anyway.  I think we would be a lot happier.  I will be with you some of the time.  Darling, I am glad you write like you do, and I don’t think you are silly.

Well precious, here is the answer to the last letter now.  I think I have answered all the questions in the other two.  Haven’t I, Darling?  Just as long as I hear from you, Darling, and know that you are allright is all I care, Dearest.  When you are busy just write what you can.  I am glad to know that you are getting my letters all right.  I get all that you send me but some time it takes about 7 days to get here.

Well Darling, how was the show that you and Anna went to see?  Was it worth seeing?  You are right, Darling, when you say I would sooner sit in front of the fire place with my Loving wife on my knee.  It is all right Darling to go to all the shows you want to as long as I am not there.  When I am there with you Dearest I want to [be] where I can hold you tight and feel your lips on mine all the time.  I would of liked to have been there and saw you when the mouse was running around.  I don’t believe I could of helped from laughing.

Does Alex still like his work there, or has he just started.  When you see him tell him that I said Hello.  Tell him I might see him around up there some time.

Well Darling, I guess I will have to close for this time.  Tell Mom and Jimmy that I am thinking of them.  I will write to you tomorrow.  I will be looking for a letter from you tomorrow.  All my Love and kisses Darling.  I hope and pray that I will be with you soon.  I miss you so much that I can hardly stand being away from you, Darling.

Your Loving and Lonely Husband
Harry.

Toast = roast – r + manic – mania + t – c + a = bread + toaster + electricity = breakfast. Just add coffee.

Lawnmower churns a snowdrift of fallen dogwood blossoms into uneven layers of makeshift hoarfrost. Winter: it just hangs in there.

[Letter addressed to Mrs. Harry V. C., c/o Mrs. J. W., 20 Block Street, Dundee, Scotland.  Return addressed to Cpl. Harry V. C., 33428766, 1409^th A.A.F. Base Unit, E.D.A.T.C. A.P.O. 741 c/o P.M., U.S. Army.]

England
Feb. 9^th 1945

Dearest Mary:

Just a couple lines to let you know that I am well and getting along about the same as always.  Darling I hope that you are well and getting along fine.

I did not receive any letters from you today Darling, so I suppose that I will receive a couple tomorrow.  I am sorry I had to disappoint you the other day by not getting up there but, Darling, it was not my fault.  I am supposed to have my pass on the 19^th of this month, and Dearest, I will be there for sure then.

Darling, how are you getting along at your new job?  Do you like it better than Draffins?  Darling, do you know if it would be hard to get out of the job that you have now?  Let me know if you can, Darling?  If you can be sure and let me know as soon as you can, I can get you a job here for about two pound ten a week and I know where there is an apartment that I think I can get.  If you can get out of your job be sure and let me know and I will try and get the place to stay and the job.  But Darling, don’t quit where you are till you let me know so I can get things fixed up.  I will tell you more about it when I get up there.  Dearest, I love you so much that nothing seems right with out you close to me.  I would give any thing to be up there with you now.  I still can see you the way you looked when I was up there last.  I only wish I could love you in my arms now.

Dearest, I have the order all ready for what we both want.  Darling, I think we will be the happiest people in the world when it is filled.  I guess I will have to watch out whose neck I break.  So Mary Darling, I will only order one at a time.  I like any name you say, darling.  I think all three that you said are wonderful, and it will be a wonderful time when there is something to go with them.

I received another letter from Mom today, Dearest.  There was a lot of snow back there when she wrote but I suppose it is all melted by rain.  Mom said to give you her love and to kiss you once for her.  I don’t know if I will have time to or not.  I will be busy kissing you for my self, don’t you think so, Darling.  I am only writing a short letter tonight, Darling, but they are big pages.  Please Darling, let me know about the job as soon as you can.

I am going to have to say good night now, Darling.  I hope and pray all the time that we can be together soon.  All my love, Dearest, for now and forever.

Your Loving and Lonely husband
Harry.

I had to start today’s bleary-eyed morning off with the Beasties on the car radio because sometimes it takes takes takes a lot.