March 14 & 15, 1943. Dad writes home. Before receiving Stanley’s letter with the news that his brother was shipped to Salt Lake City, Dad writes, “I hope that Stanley gets to an air base near Albany unless they intend sending him to officers training school.” He is also enclosing post cards “of the Mississippi and the points of interest which you pass on the way to Savanna from our camp.” He notes, “The Mississippi up here is not as muddy as down south…The river is just like Coveville and quite clear.”
Post card image of the Mississippi River from the Bluffs at Mississippi Palisades State Park near Savanna, Illinois.
He puts the family on notice that “Theresa-Marie is going to receive an Easter present which will be on its way this Monday. It’s a “bunny” doll as I call it. Let her play with it and if it gets soiled you can always clean it. I wonder how she will look with the rabbit under the covers with its ears sticking out. With it I send all my love.”
To his sister he says, “To tell you the truth, Anna, the girls on an average between Albany and this part of the country are certainly nicer and shapelier and now I know what Stanley meant. However, I’ll wait for a Polish one which perhaps I’ll get in Albany. Please keep the above in the house because I don’t want to get in hot water with the Albany St. Casmir’s parish girls.”
He also notes that many of the other servicemen in his camp “just eat and sleep…and don’t care for church.” He also observes “If everybody had some religion Europe would have never given to dictators and there would be no dictators.”
Dad gets a letter from Stanley on the 15th and learns that his brother is now in Salt Lake City. He writes, “It looks as if Stanley is just going further away from home.” News from Anna that his cousin Billy is studying Radio hits him as expected. “Boy, what I wouldn’t give to change places with him. I still don’t see why they don’t give it to me. I will start to bother them within a week as we are about halfway through with this course.” He notes that he had another test today and that he is passing all of his tests. “I pass them just the same wishing I was getting that what I wanted and not what I got put in. You get generally two choices and then they come around with a 3rd choice and that is theirs.”
He continues, “I hope from the information I have given you above you don’t get the impression that I am way low down, because I am not. Whatever does happen I watch myself quite carefully and you may be sure that with the help of God I will come home safely. Whenever I get good-for-nothing thoughts when in bed at night I think of Theresa-Marie and how she acted and smiled and looked and I…fall asleep peacefully.
He also recalls, “Yesterday in the P.M. me and Joe Damusis were walking around and came around the chapel. We heard organ music so we went in and sat in the back while the fellow just kept on practicing. About ½ hr. later he left so we met him just before leaving the chapel and told him that we enjoyed it for we both had been on a choir and had an ear for organ music. He said he was preparing for a concert…which he was to give this Thurs. at 7 P.M. so I and Joe Damusis are planning on going there and listening to him,”
He signs off, “I guess that is about all so God Bless You and keep you and may He watch over Stanley.”
Post card image of cliffs overlooking the Mississippi at Mississippi Palisades State Park near Savanna, Illinois.