Dear Folks:
I should be following something more ambitious this morning, but I’m not, so I’ll spend the time writing you a little letter. This is Sunday and it seems like you can always somehow know its Sunday even without a calendar. This is my duty day so that means staying in the office and a good chance to catch up on delinquent correspondence and reading. The wind is blowing like a chilly day in March back in Minatare but the ocean and the sun make the day a nice one. Remember how I used to mention the flowers when I first came here—well, it’s that time of the year again and the island is putting on its best coat.
As the bond drive is carried out with you so is it here. The Army is putting on the pressure to meet certain quotas and at the present the office is pretty busy with these new allotments. The islands have always met their quota well over and I think they stand fourth or fifth in the whole country. I remember when I was visiting the Sisters at the convent, the school kids were having a drive and somehow they managed to scrape enough together to buy several thousand dollars worth. With the preponderance of Japanese I think the islands set a record to be proud of.
I suppose you read of Mrs. Roosevelt’s Pacific tour and know that she stopped in Honolulu on the way back. We listened to her speech from Honolulu and in my opinion there was a lot of it. She must be a great woman.
I finally got off a letter to Dick last night. Geographically we are not far apart but actually it might as well be a couple of thousand miles. In another three months I will be due for another five day pass, and if the next three (months) pass as fast as the last three, that won’t be very long. I hope he is adapting himself to his new conditions okeh and doesn’t get too depressed or downhearted at times. I think they keep him busy enough that he doesn’t have time for that.
I was glad to hear the Gramp bought the place east of town. I’m always in favor of real estate and in addition the farm should offer them about all that they have been wanting for so long. Stopping to think of it, there have been a lot of changes since I left two years ago. New babies, husbands, deals, and the rest that comes with time flying by. And of course these happenings are all the more incentive to get the war over in a hurry (to) find out these things first hand. I sometimes wonder that if perhaps from my letters you catch a change in my attitude or opinions that differed from what they were before I came into the Army. For the average soldier I certainly don’t think that Army life is conducive to initiative or encourages free thinking, and in many cases produces inferiority, but then all this is, is a job.
Last week the band sergeant asked me to play the fiddle with the dance band in a trio of strings, but my usual obduracy has prevailed so far. It would take quite a bit of time for practice etc and that would be in addition to my regular job.
I’m going to call this good for this communiqué—am I an uncle yet?
Love,
