August 10, 17 and 20, 1944: Dad writes a few relatively short handwritten letters home, noting that he is “very short of words.” Summer is starting to wane at Topeka Army Air Base as “The days around here are warm and the cool evenings are a wonderful relief.”
As he is writing the letter on the 10th it is his “regular day off”. He lucked out getting the day before off since he was CO the night before. Things are “a little slow” so all of his work is caught up. He comments that “No sooner the work comes in, it goes out without unnecessary delays and as little red tape as we can get away with.”
Dad has a few complaints about T/Sgt. Drucker, who is not even in their group who tries to tell him what to do. Dad writes, “I listen to him and do things my own way unless he has a good idea which as yet he hasn’t had. For instance, 2nd Air Force has to have a report from a base but the base addresses it direct to us instead of 2AF through us. He advised me to send it back to the base for proper submission but I sent the report on to 2AF in order to save time on the deadline and sent a separate letter to the base on how to properly do things. This way no replies have to be made and the matter ends up right then and there. I ain’t bragging but I just want to let you know that I’m interested in getting this War over in a hurry so’s we can all get together again soon.”
Even though Drucker can be a pain around the office, he does have some redeeming qualities as Dad notes in his letter of the 17th. “Drucker used to be in a jewelry business around Chicago and he secured some wrist watch bands, sterling silver and gold. He sells them for $6.50. I got one of them (silver) to wear home… The wrist watch bands…sell for $12 at the Santa Fe jewelry shop in Topeka and I’ve seen it myself. I think I’ll send the band home so I’ll have it for after the War. If Eddie will want to wear it, he will be perfectly welcome to it.”
Dad is once again occupied with the weather, stating that they had “another Kansan ‘special’, rain, wind and free lightning. We had good weather in the daytime, and rain around 11PM to about 1 AM.”
Dad also writes that he notified his boss that he wanted to take a furlough in the coming month and is sure that he can “swing the deal that way.”
As the 20th rolls around, it is a Sunday and he is alone in the office. Most of the letter is concerned with commentary about things that Anna has written about from home. He notes that his cousin Eddie Morawski got a “lucky break” being stationed so close to home after being injured on Guadalcanal, and that he sent his paperwork in to request a ballot for the upcoming November election.
We also get another weather report from Topeka where “…it is raining outside in a drizzle. It is not a thunderstorm, only some droopy clouds with intermittent rain. It is nice and cool for the 4th straight day…and you can just about feel fall around the corner.” He also notes that “It’s almost 11 AM now but it looks like 9 o’clock at night with the dark rain clouds above.”
He wraps up “…it seems as if that’s about all the news from here and I better finish my Physics Lesson on which I haven’t worked on since last Sunday. God bless you all!”