April 17, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

April 17, 1944

Dear Mother:

Again the week end has gone by and I did not write you.  In fact I am quite a few days behind in writing.

I laid in bed yesterday until late and barely got up in time for lunch.  Received your nice long letter of the 12, yesterday along with a three page typewritten one from Joe.  His letter of course was very interesting.  I have been worn out here lately more of the sudden heat which we have had the three or four day.  We are getting the heat from now on I suppose.  The heat has not been so very hard or anything, only we have had a lot of cross checking etc to do.

You mentioned going to church or rather liking to go Easter.  I did go Friday but laid in bed Sunday as usual.  I enjoyed the sermon very much but liked to have fallen asleep while or before the evening was over.

Did I mention to you previously that I had bought a new fountain pen, a Parker lifetime.  I think that it is a very nice one and have put it away for a while.  I am still looking for a Parker “51” for Dad. They of course are a little more expensive than mine.

We sent off 25 of our enlisted men today on a two months Bond selling tour, they may be gone even for a longer period of time.  And from what I hear the balance will go to Detached Service about the First of May.

Enclosed you will find a clipping which I saved from our storm of a couple of weeks ago.  You may be interested in it.  A couple of the boys got letters from New York with some of the pictures which had appeared in the papers there.  They all gave a nice flowery story of all the damage.

A lot of the boys arrived back from furlough over the week end. And two of them got married while home.  One of them I know fairly well.

I was up to see Sgt Ryan yesterday and I think he is really enjoying the hospital.  He is feeling much better and they have still got his jaws wired which makes it very hard to talk clearly.  He is making all kinds of yarn rugs etc.

I will get all of my Income tax material home to you provided I can get a hold of a blank short form to put this year’s figures on.  By rights you should pay on the amount of interest which you could received as part of the interest on my bank account.  Had you thought of it as yet?

How is Aunt Nina enjoying her freedom now that she is no longer working?

Yes, I want to go to Knotts Berry Farm[1] again for I sure enjoyed it there the once we were out.

The hoodlums are just now coming in from the baseball game.  They have baseball games(s) on the brain now and don’t seem to think of anything else.  They all can spend more money running all the way across town than any outfit I know of.

Well enough for now as I have no more news.

Good Night,

Love,

Stanley

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[1] In 1928, Cordelia Knott's tea room and berry market, named Knott's Berry Place, opened on their family farm.  In 1932, Walter Knott created a new berry, a cross between the red raspberry, blackberry and loganberry. He named it the boysenberry, in honor of his friend Rudolph Boysen..  Two years later, Mrs. Knott began serving her famous chicken dinners.  Since then, more than 200 million guests have visited the park.  The park was acquired by Cedar Fair, L.P. in 1997.  Knott's Soak City, USA, a 13-acre water park adjacent to the amusement park, opened in June of 2000. http://www.coastergallery.com/GA/knotts.html

Dodd Field, Ft Sam Houston

soldiers holding baseball sized hail

ized hail

 

April 10, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

April 10, 1944

Dear Mother:

I had better get this letter written off to you or you will begin to wonder if I am ever going to write you.  We are engaged now in the classification of our enlisted men and that is a huge job.  We are also starting a few more carts etc for a forthcoming inspection this weekend.  It seems that we are no sooner done with one when another one comes along.  I get rather tired of the entire mess since a few of us get all the work and the balance of the company lay around with nothing else to do.

The weather here has taken a very sudden change. Where we previously had a lot of cold damp weather we have the beginning of the extreme heat.  Saturday afternoon when I was visiting Sgt Ryan at the hospital a very sudden lightning and thunderstorm started and it started a fire on the other side of the Post.  And it just poured for a while and after it let up it cleared off and it has been nice ever since, in fact too nice.

Sgt Ryan will be in the hospital from 6-8 weeks.  He has t(h)ree fractures of the face and they have his mouth wired shut for traction.  He tells me he is going to take a vacation while he has the chance.

Received the very delicious box of candy and the attractive Easter card.  The candy is all very good and to my opinion you have not lost your touch for candy making.  The card was very nice. Received cards from Miss Mosher, Aunt Dell, the Chipmans and others.

Also received a nice letter from Joe.  I got the pictures off to them about a week ago.  So very glad to have all of that done. Received a nice letter from Mrs. Matson and the picture back from Jay.

He was telling me about the other friends of Nina’s being there.  He seemed to think that “Duke” had been given the seat of honor at the table but said that it did not bother him.  Don’t repeat this or he may hear of it. So I autographed the picture and returned it yesterday.

I received a card I guess from Muriel also.  The envelope had not even been sealed and she had not even signed her name. Where was her head when she mailed that?

I hope you have received the money orders by now.  I am out on a campaign to save money.

Does Aunt Maibelle have any chickens of any kind now?  She, as you say, will not have patience to keep from working.  She has to keep busy.

I should hear from Marshall soon as he should have received the picture by now.  I suppose George does get very lonesome all by himself down there.  It certainly surprised me to hear of Marshall’s marriage.  I just never thought of him as getting married so soon.  But he of course is old enough.  I am no longer so very young myself.  I guess I judge others by myself and there are a lot of people getting married younger than myself.  Do not let this worry you and make you think I am contemplating marriage now.  Ha! Ha! About half the company here is married and more of them engaged every day.  And the families are quite numerous.

Have Marie and Leland gotten moved into their house as yet?

While mentioning Leland reminds me to ask if the tennis racket of his is still there at the house?  I may want to use one if I can get a hold of one.

Part of our unit is in Fort Worth on a Bond selling mission and I would have liked to have gone but no suck luck for me.  I remain here.  I would like to see Fort Worth.

I imagine that the company will be all gone by the time you get this letter and you will be rather tired.

Not to change the subject but I really like the tie which you sent and it will be a nice one for summer wear.  We are going to start wearing khaki tomorrow, although the wool has not been quite as hot as it was prior to going into khaki last year.  The tie is almost an officer’s color but will go well with my own shirt.

Major Skinner flew to Chicago in the middle of the week and he will be back in two weeks.  He is flying both ways and has a good priority.  He was able to save so much time with the slow and poor trains.

Major Kuhns is back on Detached Service now and most of the others are also gone.  So I guess that we will sit here for a while this summer and enjoy Dodd Field.  Most of us (officers & em) would much rather be here than in India or elsewhere of that type.

Well enough for tonight and thanks again for all the nice things and I will write again soon.

All my love,

Stanley

October 28, 1943

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

October 28, 1943

My dear Mother:

A whole week has gone since last I wrote you and I decided that since it was Saturday and the work is all done, anyway, as far as I am concerned for the week-end.  I spent the entire afternoon running around and working while everyone else got the afternoon off as usual on Saturday.

I received the box of cookies and candy today and I want to thank you for them.  From what I gather Muriel had something to do with it also. Thank her for me. And I shall have to write her very soon.

This morning we got up to a very cloudy and dismal looking atmosphere, but this afternoon it turned out quite nice and warm, and it was quite nice up on the post when I was riding around and everything was all the nice and new and bright colors of autumn, which of course is something new around here for a change.  The country around here is so very beautiful this time of year.  The other day we went out on a short one day excursion into the surrounding countryside where there are some very beautiful oaks and above all some very large and old Wild Pecan trees which are just beginning to shed the largest fruit of the year and we spent the largest part of our time out there hunting and knocking out of the trees, after which time we would sit down and crack and eat them and were they delicious and they certainly have a fresh and good flavor.  Those which have fallen on the ground are never any good for the squirrels or field mice and worms always get them first.

How have the Pea seed which I got for Dad doing or has he as yet planted any of them. They should be very good for this time of year.  Let me know how they are coming along.  Also how are the Cymbidiums coming along.  Did the new leaves ever come up where the one was broken out when I was home.

I suppose Richard Miner is really painting the town red while he is home. He very likely will spend very little time at home and they very likely see very little of him.

I was so glad upon receiving your Air Mail today to hear of how well Aunt Nina is getting along.  It would be awful for Uncle Bill to go real bad now along with the rest of the trouble that they have now.  I would really like to see them settle down and get a home of their own and take things easier.

Tomorrow I am planning on going to the post Chapel to hear some more organ music and a soloist of some kind which should be very good.

Have you as yet seen the pictures which were taken while out at Miss Mosher’s.  She said that she was going to send you some copies and I was just wondering.  They really turned out very good.

The other evening I did take time out to go to Mrs. Tedesco’s house and help them make some masks and mine turned out quite well.  Gladys is staying there with her now until she moves into her own home again.  You asked regarding Lt Tedesco’s grade.  He is a 1^st Lt and awaiting to become a Captain.  He is in the Chemical Warfare Service and is Chemical Officer for Tarran(?)t Field, at Fort Worth, Texas.

Yes, I received a very nice letter from Nelson and he writes quite nice letters.

Also while there she showed me the new additions to her set of silver (Sterling) which she recently got.  She now has a complete set for twelve and it is the “Chantilly” pattern which I think is very pretty.  Have you ever seen any of it?

Were the guavas (feijoa sellowiana) the same kind which I brought home from school a couple of times?  They always make very good jelly.

Well the news which I have has just about run out so will close for now and will write again very soon.

So good night for now.

As always,

Your son

Separate sheet inserted in the envelope:

Here is one of those separate sheets.  Your mentioning the letters of Florence.  As always she knows more than anyone else about someone else’s affairs and why she is told by her father is more than I can see.  He certainly puts up with a lot from his other two children.  And of course as you stated Marie and Leland buying an $8000 home.  Of course as you say they still have to keep up a front.  And I am beginning to think that he is just as bad as she is.

Maybe they can take care of Grandpa for awhile now and take him off your hands for awhile as well as some of their junk which you have had for years.  And when the git moved in you be sure and stop in for Sunday sinner a couple times and make sure you are very tired when dish washing time comes.

Of course she will very likely have to have a maid along with the rest of the things.  When they get through they will have quite an expensive affair out of it.  Well I could go on all night on this topic so will close.

What do you think of the Blue lining? 

December 1, 1942

From Pvt Stanley Safford
US Army
Co A 62 Med Tng Bn
Camp Barkeley
Texas

December 1, 1942
Dearest Mother:
I have been trying to get a chance to write you a little ever since Thursday, but have not been able to get around to it although did get one mailed to Marshall and Frances and was sure glad to get them off.
I also was in hopes of finishing something to send you for a wedding anniversary present but could not find anything within the limits of this place then today thought of a telegram but the only place is at the other end of the camp about three or four miles so I want you to go out to a nice place for dinner and a show and I will pay for it. Yes I am quite rich. We were paid yesterday and I got the large sum of thirty-seven dollars and they were all brand new ones so I will therefore send some money home if I can get to the post office some evening before it closes which is seven. I am usually through eating about six fifteen then we have mail call at six thirty then I usually wouldn’t be able to get down if it takes as long to call the mail as it did this evening. I missed dinner this evening to get a haircut to avoid having to stand in line an hour or so after dinner and I told him in good plain English what kind of a haircut I wanted and I believe I got it because the other boys in the tent remarked upon what a good one it was compared to some that some of the others have gotten.
We had an exceptionally large meal this noon and it was quite good but a little greasy so I could afford to miss this evening as a lot of them do to avoid getting stomach ache as I had last night, we don’t do much so a heavy and greasy meal is quite often too much.
The reason for only 37 dollars is insurance for two months – November and December, $6.50 each month - I put down the proper things on the insurance policy only was not sure of the birth place and after thinking of your middle name I got the idea that it might be Helen but I am alright on it now. And if you will send me Dads birthplace, date etc I may need it.
The process of paying us here is quite a procedure we one at a time come before a first lieutenant who calls the last name and we answer with our first and middle initials, then next to him sits the company commander who has a few stacks of new bills in front of him: ones, fives, tens and twenties, then piles of silver all new. We salute him, he counts the money on the table before him, we bend over, scoop the money into our hat, thank him and walk on to the next lieutenant and assistant who is there for the purpose of collecting for the laundry the awful price of four dollars a month but I have not sent any in as yet but will this month because I do not have time to do my own and will put the extra time into writing or something of that kind of course they have to take it 200 miles to the laundry.
I just had to tell the bunch of Mexicans at the other end of the table to shut up or get out, the bunch of dirty monkeys get in here and start chattering and jarring the table and making a lot of noise. They sure could get rid of a lot of them here to suit a lot of us.
Well perhaps the most sensational news of the week was what took place Friday. I was called before the company commander who is a first lieutenant for a promotion. And was I frightened and nervous! Because I couldn’t imagine what he could want me for until the first (..) told me it was regarding officers training, so when I walked into the tent I expected to find him and probably one or two others but instead there were six or eight first and second lieutenants flanked sitting in chairs each side of him. I had to walk to the desk, salute, then stand at attention and answer his questions then when the interview was done I had to thank him then salute again then make an about face and walk out being till under the steady view of all in the room. Have not heard anything of it yet and may not until the end of the tests and then maybe not then. In fact I am beginning to wonder if it would interest me of course it would mean 6 more months here for me.
We have been out of coal here for two days so I got my hands dirty this evening trying to get a fire started and it didn’t want to start too well.
We have had ice a couple mornings. We got up this morning and it wasn’t bad but we had no sooner gotten to the classes (?) in the tent when clouds gathered and a strong cold wind came up and we would like to have frozen before we were brought into the mess hall.
And by the way while I am on the subject I want you to send me a pair of gloves, fleece lined if possible. I have lost one of the poor kind they gave us and the cold seemed to come right through them. Most of the workmen here working on the new buildings wear those hats usually checkered with flap down over the ears and gloves, then watch them trying to work with all that. No wonder the buildings are not done.
I have not been into Abilene as yet and perhaps may not go but once if then. From what I hear it is not much of a place. I may go just to see what it is like.
As to what they do for amusement around here, well most of us either study or write and the rest gamble and for no small stakes from what I hear. One of the boys here won 140 dollars yesterday. Of course it was pay day and much to my astonishment I went to the lavatory this morning at 2:30am – I have not usually gone until 6:30 and when I opened the door there they were in there, gambling and no small crowd either. There is usually four or five crowds in there gambling and the rest of the oakies standing around the fire completely fill the place so anyone else can not get in. They have two companies using a one company lavatory now and company B is all from Alabama or somewhere and if they are not peculiar looking bunch and they are continually having to give them inspections on finger nails with bath etc because they don’t keep themselves very clean, and they for amusement play a banjo and sing some of these awful songs of Texas plains and the tent right in back of us is full of a bunch that hog call etc all hours of the day and night. Quite enjoyable with their very good English along with it.
We have some very interesting persons in our company also two or three of them they have sent to the asylum already and a lot more of them could be there with them.
There is one that is one of the filthiest people I have ever seen. It actually is in crusts on him and his mouth hangs open and his nose runs continually and in class he asks questions about something entirely or about two classes late. He almost made me sick at the dinner table today. He had messed out everything within reach then he had a piece of meat left on his dish, then he proceeded to offer it to each one of us at the table telling us that it was a shame to waste good meat that had not been touched.
Then we have a seven day Adventist in the same tent with him who is a vegetarian and will above all not do a thing on Saturday. Then there is one person who is probably fifty years old and was perhaps a drunkard previous to here and they found him drunk on the field today and perhaps as I have not told you this county is dry – not even beer – and come to find out he had been working in the kitchen and he had gotten hold of a bottle of pure vanilla and drank it ha! Ha! And was he drunk!
And we have quite a few others also.
I am enclosing a sample of the notebook paper I would like you to get for me. I got it there on Central at Vests(?). The only place I have been able to find it and also will you send me a notebook of about seven by nine or approx. only not one of the large ones (loose leaf of course and perfectly a loose soft cover and get quite a lot of paper for each of them.
Speaking of the camera – do not get too cheap a one or of course too expensive. I have seen too many of the cheap complicated ones sent here that do not work after a short time.
Joseph kept harping on what he could send me in his letter so I will ask him if he wants to get me one of those small atlases showing all countries etc. but I would like you to send me a map of the US.
I sure enjoyed and appreciated getting the newspaper clippings and if you get any more on the African of French situation would you send more (of) them. They may come in handy.
We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner and I had a short spell of homesickness when they had a couple boys play la Golondrina[1].http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX7Dikxmt3U It reminded me of home for some reason. The meal was just as the menu you sent me.
I am enclosing a couple clippings clipped from a Fort Worth paper, one dealing with the Balkan 2nd front. The first of any mention I have heard of it and who may be backing it.
I received a nice card and letter from Miss Mosher. I wrote her first sometime ago. The mail I sometimes wonder if it leaves here and comes in as promptly as it may. I also wrote Matson’s some time ago but have received a note from Mrs. Moore whose letter was mailed the same time I mailed Matson’s. I do not quite understand. Glad to hear that they got it. I will write another letter very soon and tell you more about myself and answer some of your questions in your letter before last and as you said I am full of figures and loads of news and elaborate latin names of bones etc and nice long names for some army terms.
If I get my picture taken, do you want it in a garrison cap (with the bill) or the other skull cap type? I do not have one of the first and I will have to have time to buy one. But there may be a chance I will get home after the first of 43. I will also try and get something for Muriel and send her. I had better be closing now for it is getting late.
Good bye with lots of love,
Stanley
[1] MEXICAN SONG CREATED BY Narciso Serradel Sevilla, 1862. (1843-1910), a native of Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico, was both a doctor and a composer. During the war against the French Maximiliano, Serradel fought against the French Imperial troops alongside General Zaragoza. He was taken prisoner - and deported to France. He is most famous for his popular song of farewell, "La Golondrina." The song is often thought of as "traditional."