September 13 & 16, 1943. Two letters to the boys from home. Albany is in the grips of the in-between season when it can get hot during the day and extremely cold at night and then it is cold and rainy the next day. Anna explains that “through the night the weather gets cold and chills the house and then it is cold in the house and hot outside [during the day].”
The baby continues to have teeth come in. The latest was “one of the upper ones on the left side of her gums. She kept on crying nights…and last Thursday or… Friday…later in the day the tooth came through.”
They also bought a rocker with chimes for the baby that plays Rock a Bye Baby when it is rocked. It didn’t take the baby long to learn how to use it. Anna writes, “she swings back and forth and sings in her own way and it is so cute to watch her – even daddy has to laugh when he saw her in the rocker.” Anna says that they paid $7.95 for it (roughly $110 in 2015 dollars). With the shortages due to the war, Anna writes that “you can’t even buy the things you need never mind toys.” She said they also saw a push cart for $15 ($208 in 2015 dollars) that was made of wood, even the wheels. Anna observes “ordinarily you could buy a steel one for that amount.”
Anna asks specifically about Stanley and mentions that they have not heard from him in over a week. She says, “I have already started to pray for safe passage for you across the ocean….We try to think for the best but there is always the fear and doubt because we have been expecting you to go across so many times that whenever we don’t hear from you we think that you are already riding over the waves to other foreign lands.”
In her letter of the 16th Anna mentions that the previous day there was a War Bond Sales Rally on the capitol steps in Albany. Several movie actors and “Guadalcanal War Heroes” were there to get the crowd excited. There was also a special luncheon held for those who bought bonds starting at $18.75 that included an opportunity to meet the celebrities. She writes, “Albany sure is getting important now that the war is on.”
Anna describes a War Bond Rally the was held in various locations around the Albany area.
A link to local press coverage of the event is here.
In other news from the neighborhood:
- Frankie Raszkowski has been drafted. He took his physical and expects to leave for Army service in three weeks.
- Paul McCann has been discharged from the Army. As Anna explains it“…he was always sickly and the Army got tired of putting up with it.”
- “Jr. Dyckman is home on leave from the Navy. …he is very slim….he looks handsome.”
As Anna prepares to close her letter she becomes reflective and writes, “I remember last year at this same time I started to expect Terry. I was afraid that she might be…born a couple of week before time… This year we have a little tiny lady almost walking. A couple of more months and she will be running around the house.”