May 19 and 22, 1944: Two letters from Anna at home to the brothers. Her husband Eddie has taken on the project of fixing up a sandbox for their daughter, there is a fishing trip to Lake Champlain, and a few friends drop by before resuming their service duties. As usual, little Terry is up to her hijinks.
Spring is on full display in Albany, New York as “Outside everything…is in full bloom and all the leaves on the shrubs and trees are their full size and the world looks grand all green again …the lilacs are in full bloom and they smell so nice. The bleeding hearts are also in bloom…This year we had a lot of blossoms on the fruit trees.”
Anna’s husband, Eddie, who works in the service department at Trojan Pontiac, borrowed a trailer from one of the guys in the shop to haul some sand home for the old sandbox “…that he intends to knock apart and make it over so that it looks like something real nice and when it is painted and fixed.” It turns out that Ralph, the upstairs neighbor, helped Eddie with the project. They “…made it a foot and a half smaller…and boy it sure looks swell now. It is all finished with the exception of one more board which Eddie is going to get and finish…and then make a few seats. Then he will paint it and put sand into it.”
Little Terry continues to be her usual amusing self. Anna writes that “Today…mama was dressing Terry and she picked up her wet gown and mama told her that it stunk. Terry picked it up again and put it to her nose and made a sniffing noise and then threw it away. She repeated the same procedure for me. Terry knows how to say ‘Come on’, so now when she is all dressed up to go out she goes around the house saying, “Come on.” Yesterday the kids were in the yard and then they were going out and she was yelling to them, ‘Come on,” and when Jean came back she grabbed her by the coat, saying, ‘Come on.’
Anna also writes about a visit from Mary and Joe Miller and Eddie Falkowski. Both Joe and Eddie are in the Navy. Joe “…had a five day leave and now he is stationed in Providence, Rhode Island… As for Eddie Falkowski, he finished his training and is a commissioned officer – an ensign –and is ready for combat duty. He finished school in Florida and he has a few weeks off and has to be back June 1 at Norfolk, Va. …He is so tall and slim and he is a good two inches over six feet. He had on his dark dress uniform with a white cap and his wings and shining buttons. He sure looked wonderful.” It turns out that girls of all ages like a sharp dressed man in uniform. “Even Terry liked him and she was friends with him right from the start. She was attracted to the gold buttons on his coat and all his decorations. She brought all of her toys out for him and she even game him a kiss.”
A clipping from the July, 3, 1943 edition of the Albany Times-Union with a photo of Eddie Falkowski. Image credit: www. fultonhistory.com
Anna went to High Mass on Sunday while her husband, Eddie, and the gang went fishing at Lake Champlain. Anna enjoyed the opportunity to “take it easy and do all my work before I went to church, I also enjoyed going to a long Mass because I could relax siting down.” It turned out to be a long day for the gang, who left “after five thirty mass in the morning” and didn’t get home until eleven at night. Anna writes that they caught “…some sunfish and some pickerel” and she complains that”…it was such a waste of gas and time to go up so far north and them come home with such a measly bunch of fish.” It is clear that Anna doesn’t understand anything about fishing.
She closes “Well, it looks like I have given you all the views and news so I will close for now till again. So Long, Good Luck and God Bless You.”