Monday, January 9, 2012

April 11, 1943


April 11, 1943

My dear Mother:
Here it is Sunday already and I had planned on having a letter written to you already but if it isn’t one thing it is another all the time and how the time does fly and I wonder where it has all gone.
It hardly seems in one way that I have been in the army over five months. And in another way it seems that it was ages ago when I last saw you, also quite a while ago that I was a Barkeley.  Does it seem very long to you?
Today is a very bright day outside and very likely the hottest day we have had this season.  In fact it is much too warm to do much of anything. And we are not yet allowed to wear our suntan’s although tomorrow is the day from what I hear.
This morning I went to church and after church decided to spend a little money and go out to eat.  I went out and waited and waited for a bus and stood there nearly for a half hour.  Then decided to take a bus back to the Fort SH and then walk from here which was not quite as close but better than waiting. And of course I was full dressed blouse and all and when I finally got there I was all worn out. I ate at a French restaurant called La Louisiane and they surely had very good food.  Shrimp cocktail. A very large delicious piece of fish, water cress salad with a very good dressing and some very good iced tea which I sweetened with powdered sugar and a very small amount of lemon.  And  the atmosphere was a charming one, huge fireplace which of course was not burning today. Large French mirrors and some small but beautiful crystal chandeliers in fact seven of them in all.  There was a small family reunion at the table next to me.  They were from California and evidently the two boys, one a 2nd Lt and the other a cadet are stationed here in San Antonio.
Then there was one girl and evidently the daughter and the father and mother.  They had a champagne cocktail toast and he also ordered a bottle of something that they kept in a bucket at the side of the table.  The waiters were all French and it made them entire scene complete.  I should be very much ashamed of myself I guess for eating out when I could very well eat here and save my money.
The sermon was very nice this morning. The minister spoke of the things that go on at home while the boys are away and he sure hit the nail on the head.  It is the Travis Park Methodist Church and they have a wonderful organ and during one pause they played “Ave Maria” and how truly beautiful and how serene the church was then.  Across the street is Travis Park which is named after one of the Alamo heroes.  And the park is coming out now in all its Spring beauty, beck of violets which really bloom add a very nice fragrance to the air and the pigeons are quite tame and simply are in flocks.
The entire city is beginning to show signs of Spring.  Today I saw ranunculus mixed amongst white and pale blue German iris lining each side of a garden walk.  Ranunculus seem to do so well down here.  No wonder we used to sell so many of them by mail order down here.  You should see the blue bonnets, wild verbena and wild primroses around here in the vacant fields.
The domestic verbena is coming out quite colorfully and beautifully now. I went through the Alamo gardens this morning and the flowers were quite abundant including some very beautiful pansies and the water lotus are now coming to life again.  The other evening I walked down to Salava[1] Creek and truly beautiful it was.  All green and the wild water lilies (yellow) are just beginning to bloom.  The creek is very likely fifty feet wide in some places and was running quite full because of the small type of hurricane they had here the night before.
There are some good sized fish also.  We also came up on some very pretty mallard and white ducks which were out swimming around.  They made the scene quite complete.  It shall provide a nice place to spend some restful evenings and perhaps some decent writing where we don’t have so much noise.  So you may have some better letters in the future from me.
Well we are having a real shake up in the Surgical Dept. Capt Rosenbaum has been transferred and the other captain also.  N fact now we have none of the original officers here now.  And one of the other majors here has take over and has started a general cleanup which will either keep me here unassigned and given no ratings or otherwise and still a student instructor.
Most of the other boys whom I have been with at Camp Barkeley had had leaves already etc.  and here I still am.  I may be making a mistake which only time can tell me.  What do you think and recently we had a small rumpus over one of the small single rooms.  But I guess I can stay where I am for another month. They will have to order me to move before I will say anything more now.  I have said as much as I am going to and if they forget alright.
They have a brain storm idea of running the school in two shifts and they have already double decked the beds downstairs in our barracks which makes about 100 men in my barracks now which also makes my mail clerk job the biggest in the school which of course shall take more of my time than ever. We now have to have mail call outside because the barracks is too small.  What a grand mess this is, and is going to be in the future.
My classes starting tomorrow show signs of being very promising but what the new student instructor is going to be like I cannot tell.
That Georgian that I have spoke(n) of was sent to Fort Lewis Washington with five others.  Maybe if I had been going this time I would have gone there also.  It would be very much more to my liking probably than this hot sticky mess.  They even sent some of them to California this last time.
Muriel in her very placid way did not even acknowledge receiving my letter.  Can you imagine that, of course it is just like her as you very well know.  But it may have had some effect on her and it may be still be stinging which may be the reason she did not wish to mention it because she may want to forget it.  But I shall keep at it in a different way.  Did she show it to you or did you read it otherwise.  I was wondering what her comments were, if any.  I got some very nice Easter cards the other day and shall have to get them addressed soon.  Most of my correspondence is caught up with now and I shall write oftener and a few unnecessary letters now and then.  The days here are nice and long but of course the change in time makes it that way, that is between here and California.
Soon I shall send a box of letters home and also your cadeucius[2]. What do you need for Easter?
I am afraid that I will have to renew my bond allotment because they have messed things up somehow in changing officers or something.
I am enclosing a couple more pictures which you may like to see and the balance shall come next time I write.  I wanted to show them to Mrs. Tedesco since she took them.
By the way how are the in-laws coming by now? There is an awful scowl on my face in one of the pictures.
I close hoping you at home are well and happy.  How is your arm?

Love from your son,
Stanley

[1] Probably Salado Creek
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)