February 15 and 17, 1944: Two letters from home. The boys get a debrief on Valentine’s Day back home, Anna and Eddie take the baby for a visit to relatives in Cohoes, and there is more news about the baby.
With the 14th being Valentine’s Day, Anna writes that Eddie “brought home a two pond box of candy for me and I hope I don’t get sick eating it. I am trying to take it easy on the box but if I let my will power get the best of me the two pounds would have been eaten all up yesterday.” Baby Terry also got three valentines in the mail. “They were from Rita and Eugene and she liked them. She even gave one of them a bath in the toilet bowl. I saved them for her and pasted them in her scrapbook because they are the first ones which she received in her little life. They will be like souvenirs.”
Apparently, Stanley has asked the Anna get some film for him. Anna writes that she “made the rounds in our city but no one has them. I went to Young on Central Avenue and she told me that she sold the last few yesterday… Anthony says that he has two rolls which he will bring home with him when he comes home on furlough…maybe Anthony will be able to get another roll here because in some stores they have film but they keep it only for service men. They get first choice before civilians.”
Anna also tells of a visit to Aunt Tessie’s house in Cohoes. Uncle Leo, who is on leave from the Navy, was there “and he made quite a hit with Terry. He let her play with his shiny buttons on his uniform…she even smiled very nicely to him. She wasn’t afraid of him.” Anna says the dinner was “pretty good”.
On the 17th Anna writes, “Well it is now only a few days before Anthony reaches us and his destination called home. I hopes that he recognizes us because after all it’s been half a year that he has seen us last. As for all of us I guess we could recognize you boys after twenty years.”
There is news about the baby’s antics too. “Baby Terry has learned to say Burp. In her language it is Bup. When Terry would burp after eating I would say ‘Baby burp’ so now she knows and every time she burps she says ’Bup’. What makes us laugh is that when either mama or daddy or me make a burp we just look at her and wait and she says Bup. Also when she makes a fart she says Bup. I guess she must think that whatever kind of noise she makes no matter what with is called Bup. Anyway, it makes us laugh and the first few times we just didn’t laugh but practically howled.”
When the baby isn’t a source of amusement, she is a source of mild consternation. Ann writes about a set of arm rests that she crocheted for the chairs. “…Terry likes them very much and all day long she keeps on pulling off the pieces…and wipes up the floor with them and chews on them and carried them around the whole house. Mama makes her take them back and put them on the chairs. She understands because she takes them back and lays them one by one on the chairs the way they should be. Then when she finishes with them she just goes and pulls them off again and the same routine goes on and on until we…give up trying to tell her what to do.”
Anna wraps up with “Well, I guess I have covered all the news on the homefront and also all the gossip.”