September 21 and 24, 1943. Two letters to the boys from Anna at home. It seems that all around Albany she is seeing young men in uniform and women with babies. She writes, “Today we went out on the avenue for a walk and as usual there was a big parade of baby carriages.” She specifically mentions:
- “Steve Miskiewicz was in our church and went to Communion. He is still a Corporal.”
- “Helen Korzatkowski’s husband is in the Army…he is home on furlough now because I saw him and her today.”
- “…the photographer Mikkelson…is in the Army and is a Lieutenant… His wife is also going to have another baby because I saw her on the Avenue today and she looked pretty big.”
- “I saw the Joe Brunelle twins – Virginia Hedinger’s babies and they have …his blue eyes.”
- “William Burrell is home on furlough and he is a Sergeant….in fact he looks handsome in his uniform.”
- “Eddie Falkowski was home this week but he went away today. So did [Joe] Miller…”
As for Anna’s baby Terry, Anna mentions that she will hit the eleven month mark on the 25th of the month. The baby has been using the rocker that they bought for her. As Anna describes the scene, “We figured that she was all set and there was absolute safety in letting her rock in it, but we didn’t notice when she started swinging too violently and the rocker went over and she fell and the rocker on top of her and she slid…to the edge of the linoleum in the dining room on her forehead. Boy, you should have heard her yell. I think that she was more frightened. We kept on consoling her…” (Jumping ahead a few letters, Anna does mention that Eddie fixed the problem by extending the rockers with additional pieces of wood.)
In other baby news, “She can stand up by herself and stand by a chair or hang onto something but she cannot walk by herself without any support although she can walk like a veteran when you hold her by the hands and she almost keeps on pulling you because she wants to walk faster.”
Anna mentions that they also had another blackout drill. She writes, “I guess we must have them every month because it seems that we have one of them, every few weeks, and they have it everytime it is time for Terry’s bottle. …it only lasted ten minutes but…before the whole thing was over it was a half of an hour. As I always say that if they honestly hurried up and won the war they wouldn’t have to have any of those blasted affairs.”
Anna mentions to Dad “…by the time you get this letter you will probably have our pictures. The took a long time to get to you…” She continues, “Isn’t it funny how the nephews of Uncle Sam all think that I am still a young girl when they see my picture? Eddie says that for him I will always be a young girl. Nice thought, isn’t it? When they see the picture of you and me Ant, right away they notice the way the wind blew my skirt. Agnes asked me why the dress was blowing up and I said that ‘Don’t you know that the army is standing with me?’”
A photo of Anna and Dad when he was home on furlough in August of 1943. “When they see the picture… right away they notice how the wind blew my skirt.”