March 4, 1943. A letter from Anna to Dad. All is well at home and Albany is seeing a return of wintery weather. “We are all fine and O.K. including that little angel Theresa Marie. We can’t take her out in the air any more. Last week we had a couple of nice warm days but this week is back with old man winter himself. The weather is cold and below zero again and yesterday we had another snow storm about a foot deep.” She says that in a letter from her brother, “Stanley mentioned …that when he finishes school maybe he will get a furlough and will come to see us. Gee that will be grand. The only shadow is that you won’t be with us to share the grand reunion.” Anna also received a picture of a cousin who is also in the service to add to the growing collection. “Eddie…brought home a picture of Billy in his uniform all colored. He had it taken on his furlough and his mother had them made and gave us one. When you go into the parlor it looks like the army is here at last. Three military pictures on the mantelpiece.”
Gas rationing is still an issue and even getting out for leisure activities involves some thought and planning. Anna relays that “Last Sunday Eddie went fishing. He went in another guy’s car up to the Troy City water supply and they parked their car in the farmer’s garage. He dressed himself up in his everyday clothes like he was going to work and only put on the rubber boots. He said that if he was stopped he would say that he was going out on a job, but nothing happened.” Anna continues, “Today it was in the paper that they would not stop any more people on the roads but that they would use the honor system. They also said that maybe by March 22 they would lift the ban completely.”
Anna writes, “I haven’t anything new to tell you about Theresa Marie”, and then spends the whole next page writing about her. There is all kinds of important news like, “Today she discovered that she has hands and she keeps playing with her fingers and twisting them. She is also starting to notice her feet because she lifts them up and plays with her knees.” In the next paragraph, “When we go to change her diaper boy does she jump around. She throws up her little rear end. Gee it is so cute. It’s so round and rosy and chubby and cute.” Then, “Pretty soon she will also have a few teeth because her gums are red on top and on the bottom.”
Anna shares more details, “Now she can drink …pretty good out of the kieliszek (glass). She makes sipping noises and I keep on telling her that it is not polite to make noises when you eat or drink but she does not care.” Anna goes on in yet another paragraph, “…she is a spoiled little girl. It seems that every time she farts she gets attention. Sometimes when nobody pays attention to her she will just lay there and make the most pitiful noises and goo just like as if she were telling us her troubles. She is so sweet and lovely.” Using a bit of sarcasm, Anna says, “No, we weren’t going to spoil her.”
Anna turns her attention to the matter of vising the Weisses in Chicago. “Mama wasn’t very keen about the idea. She said that she doesn’t mind you visiting them, but be very careful. Do not drink anything that they offer you because they will mix one drink that will knock you out completely.”
Lastly, Anna thanks Dad for sending along a cartoon on Bayonet Practice. She says, “We had a good laugh for ourselves.” She will be forwarding the cartoon on to Stanley.
Sad Sack cartoon on bayonet practice published in Yank on January 26, 1943