A couple of short letters from friends back home. April 30, 1943 from Anne McCann (nee Moran), and May 1, 1943 from Stanislaus Kosinski (aka: The Professor or the Choir Director).
Anne asks when Dad expects to be home on furlough. With her new husband now in the Army, Anne notes that “I spent a rather lonesome Easter, but when I thought of how bad it might be I offered a prayer of thanks that our towns and cities are still intact and that we still have some freedom.” As far as her husband Paul is concerned, he “has been made a member of the military police in Camp Beauregard, Louisiana.” She writes, “I can’t imagine he is doing any clerical work. He always disliked it, but he says in the Army, one gets hardened to doing things he would never have done at home, and I guess he is right.”
She notes that Paul says it is very warm in Louisiana and that it “could be compared to our mid-summer” in Albany. With no sunscreen widely available in the early 40’s, Anne notes that her husband “is as brown as a negro already” and wonders, “how he will look in the real hot weather.” She closes her letter to dad writing that “everyone was asking for you and wishes you luck.”
Stanislaus Kosinski notes that the first day of May in Albany is “very windy and cold, but it won’t be long when we will get plenty of warm weather.” He writes to Dad, “I am sure you are becoming more soldierly every day, in mind and body. You no doubt get enough nourishment there without need for counting rationing points. I recall with pleasure our periods of relationship and how different matters are now. I certainly miss you and Stanley.”
He apologizes that he has “been very busy during Lent and could not answer your letter sooner.” He goes on to provide an overview of the choir’s program for the recently passes Easter Season. “Our Easter music went very fine. We sang Polish Easter carols at the 6 o’clock mass. At the high mass we sang our new mass and a Gregorian Credo. As it is already May we shall discontinue our Easter music with this Sunday.”
He closes, “You have my best wishes for your health and happiness as always.”