Spitball Army

I live in the Crestwood neighborhood of Birmingham. There is a movie theatre down the street from me called The Edge 12. I can walk there from my home, if I so desire. This theatre has twelve screens. They frequently show films of great merit. They also show films for everyone else. We all get to choose.

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

Three new films have opened at The Edge 12 this week:

[Read more →]

Guitarist, composer and musical archivist Ry Cooder’s upcoming Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down features some elegantly simple cover art that is one of my favorite album covers of the last few months.

[Letter postmarked on 11 August 1944 at 1 p.m. at Jamaica, New York. Addressed to Mrs. Richard N., Berwyn, Illinois. No return address inscribed on the envelope.]

Aug 10, 1944

My Dearest Darling,

How are you sweetheart, I sure hope you aren’t as warm as I am. Well, hon, at long last I finally received some of you wonderful letters I have been waiting for. I received your August 2nd letter, which was a honey! Yes, hon, hearing your voice was a thrill for me also, for sure. I know I will be home for at least a month, hon – red tape is all that is holding me up. I am glad Nadine can get some use out of your dress, hon – tell her I would like to see her wedding. I sure am glad Mr. Johnson feels that way about your being with me when I do get home, hon! Tell him I really would enjoy meeting a good man like him, hon! What did you mean, hon, Ellen didn’t know anything about anything about marriage? Do you feel that you do – ho ho ho. I sure don’t feel like I know any thing about it. Where did you pick up all your experience, hon? Ha ha. This was a wonderful letter, sweet. August 3rd letter. War job workers schedule – the schedule is very true of some workers, hon, but not very funny! It certainly doesn’t represent you, sweet, not at all, you little hustler. Sometimes I get so mad at you working as hard as you do. I don’t know where I am now myself, hon – that is, on the map. All I know is that I am somewhere on Long Island and it’s all mixed up. August 4th letter. Happy day, I sure am mad at the telephone people for fowling my anniversary call to you up, but you weren’t home anyway, right? Yes, hon, I know your intentions to telegraph me were good and I appreciate it and I hope you know that my intentions to telephone you were good – believe me, hon – you can ask the nurse & tell people if you don’t. They will tell you how mad I was when I couldn’t talk to you that day and was I ever burning and stomping ground here, hon – the air was perfectly blue all over where ever I was, for sure!! Someday hon, you will realize how lucky a girl you are to still have a husband, for sure, hon. I refused to die out there on that raft because I loved you too much to leave you – not even death could separate us at that time. That’s all I could think of as I was slowly bleeding and freezing little by little. “I can’t die now, what would my honey do if I did. I love her too much to die!” I was bleeding profusely in 4 places – 2 in the head, and I was froze from my waist down and still all I could think of was you, sweet – that’s how much I love you. That was a beautiful thought in your telegram, hon – I loved it and it’s just like you to think that and that’s why I wouldn’t leave you. August 7th letter. I’ll bet Ed Music will have a big head on him now, for sure. I’ll bet those pictures were interesting! At times, I get so impatient waiting to get home to you, I would like to jump out of my skin, sweet. Yes, hon, I sure feel sorry for Dot Spretzma and Marge – they are both nice kids. August 8th – the last of your letters. I would call you on the telephone every day, hon, but I don’t want to buy the Bell Telephone Co. – do you? Ha ha – I think we have ½ interest now, right? What do you mean, hon – “You hope Nadine isn’t as tough as you was.” I can’t see why any girls would be afraid to get married – tell me about it more – draw me a picture or something, hon. I hope I have time to write to-morrow.

I love you
Dick xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Card is titled: “Moonlight on the Beach, Myrtle Beach, S.C., GB-1 Bayard Wootten.”

Text of written message:

Dear Bill,

Forgive me the picture tis my only postcard & I suppose my [indecipherable] the beautiful!! – Though I was at M.B. earlier in the season I didn’t have time to mail my cards or even write them for that matter.

How are you standing the heat of the Capital City? Life here in Huntington is wonderful. Mary Anne is up with her Aunt, too. I [ends here]

Publishing information:

A Carolina Made Post Card. Published by Delta Drug Co., Myrtle Beach, S.C.  Advertising Service Agency, Charleston, S.C.

“M M good, M M good, Campbell’s chicken soups are M M good!”

Approximate playing time: 64 minutes.

1. Perry Como  “Magic Moments”  (1958)
2. Thelonious Monk  “Monk’s Mood”  (1947)
3. Pete Seeger  “Mrs. McGrath”
4. Don Covay  “Mercy, Mercy”  (1964)
5. Elvis Costello  “Miracle Man”  (1977)
6. Donovan  “Maria Magenta”  (1973)
7. UFO  “Mother Mary”  (1975)
8. Suede  “Metal Mickey”  (1992)
9. The Soundtrack of Our Lives  “Mensa’s Marauders”  (2009)
10. Graham Nash  “Military Madness”  (1971)
11. The Mamas & the Papas  “Meditation Mama (Transcendental Woman Travels)”  (1968)
12. Jeff Finlin  “Moon Man”  (2006)
13. The Doors  “Maggie M’Gill”  (1970)
14. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown  “Mama Mambo”
15. The Bottle Rockets  “Middle Man”  (2006)
16. Athlete  “Modern Mafia”  (2005)
17. Pink Floyd  “Matilda Mother”  (1967)
18. The Rolling Stones  “Memory Motel”  (1976)
19. Billie Holiday  “My Man”  (1952)

[Letter postmarked on 8 August 1944 at 12 midnight at Jamaica, New York. Addressed to Mrs. Richard N., Berwyn, Illinois. No return address inscribed on the envelope.]

Aug. 7, 1944
U.S. Naval Hospital
St. Albans N.Y.
Ward F54

My Darling,

Gee hon, but it’s wonderful being so close to you again – that alone is more than money can buy. I have told you most everything over the phone, but I have a lot more to say. I would go on talking for 30 days, I have so much to tell you that I really don’t know where to start in this letter to you. To-day I received the two michraphones you sent me and all of those fine jokes – that was very thoughtful of you, hon, very nice. And did I get a big thrill when I read those articles in the michraphone about you, I just got chills up and down my spine. No foolin’, hon. I was a little disappointed, though, when I had no letter from you yet – gee, hon, how long am I going to have to wait?

Gee hon, I have been going from morning till night trying to get all of my business fixed up, but what a big job it is. Everything involves red tape and it takes so damn long. I finally get paid after 6 months. Now I am working on my sea-bag. I will have to wait till August 10th for that. Then I have to make out papers & papers for my personal articles that I lost and it all involves so much red tape. Then the only thing that has developed on my medical case is x-rays and the reports haven’t come in on those yet, so you can imagine how long it will take for things like that. They should have many more Drs. here, for sure. I will have to wait in line for a long time before the man ever gets to me. I have talked to him for about five minutes and it all added up to nothing. Hon, I hope you know how much I would like to see you but I guess we will just have to be patient but I surely feel the time will come when we will be able to spend 30 days together all the time and I am hoping to get a shore job. Now, mind you, hon, those are just my hopes. If you think praying will help us, hon, you had better start in right now because it will take a lot of prayers. However, hon, I hope you know how lucky I am to be here at all. My Mother wrote me that Margie Thomas’s new husband was killed in France. That’s lousy because Marge is a nice kid.

Hon, there is no doubt in my mind that this will be the craziest letter you have ever received from me but I became so used to writing V-mail that I don’t know how to write one of these civilized letters any more. (Just now, I received a letter from Addie and my third from Mom since I have been here.) Again I say how anxious I am to see you once again, hon, but it’s better if I take my time about getting home. I feel that the longer it takes to get me home, the longer I will be home. I go to a movie every night here, but outside of that all I have to do is think of you. I am thinking of you so much. These Navy nurses you read so much about are one big pain in the A–. I would rather have one good chorpman in Ireland any day. If I don’t write every day, you will know. I am so damn busy trying to get straight –

All my love, hon –
Dick xxxxxxxx

I live in the Crestwood neighborhood of Birmingham. There is a movie theatre down the street from me called The Edge 12. I can walk there from my home, if I so desire. This theatre has twelve screens. They frequently show films of great merit. They also show films for everyone else. We all get to choose.

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

Three new films open at The Edge 12 today:

[Read more →]

She picks it up, rifles through a couple pages, then tosses the AARP Bulletin across the table. I implore, with a quizzical brow furrow.

“They used to be for older people, but now…” Her words dangle out there.

“What?”

She whispers: “Obama…” It trails from her, as a curse.

[V-mail addressed to Mrs. Richard N., Berwyn, Illinois. Return addressed to Richard N., c/o Fleet Post Off. Envelope postmarked 3 August 1944 at 6:30 p.m.]

July 30, 1944

My Darling,

How are you sweet, good so am I. As I expected, we had no mail again to-day. Let’s see now, what can I tell you. I can tell you that I am just sick about the fact that I can’t be with you on our first anniversary, that’s for sure, hon. When I was led to believe that I would and then was let down, it makes it harder to take than anything. I sure would never have said a thing about it to you, but I sure believed it. I will say one thing, hon, that if it is at all in my power that I have to be away from you again, I will never let it happen. Hon, our life sure isn’t what it should have been, but we sure will make up for lost time at the first opportunity, right? That fact of the matter is, this life I am living now, I am just an empty heartless shell. I am only living for the future, not the present. In fact, I don’t really live unless I am with you, as I have said before, I am merely existing. That’s why I miss your letters so much. Again, I say I am so sorry we can’t be together August 4th, hon, but guess there is nothing I can do about it.

I love you, hon, and always will forever.
Dick