July 20, 1943, A letter from Anna at home in Albany to both Dad and his brother. Anna writes that their friend, Joe Miller, has finished his furlough and is on his way back to his station with the Navy. Anna writes that she was sad to see Joe go because “For some reason or another Joe seemed like a relative of ours going away- maybe it’s because we know him so long… I held back my sad feelings as Joe was kidding around and laughing when he said SO-LONG not GOOD-BYE.” Anna also says that Joe left her husband Eddie with a few words of advice. “Joe told Eddie not to let the draft board take him and Eddie said that to please Joe he would still be here after the women and children were drafted into the army.” Anna notes that Joe has two stripes on his uniform sleeve “which means he is a Seaman 2nd Class something like a Pfc. I guess.”
It looks like baby Terry is getting better at walking with every passing day. In Anna’s words, “all she wants to do is walk. She isn’t satisfied any more when we hold her on our lap.” In what seems to have become a nightly ritual when Eddie comes home from work there is a play session and a walk about the house. “He parades her up and down and through the house… The two of them look so funny. First you see a big ass sticking out and two big feet under it. And between the two big legs you see a little tiny ass and two tiny feet which are trying so hard to keep up with the two big feet.”
Anna writes about a little game that Eddie plays with Terry as they are walking around the house. “When Eddie walks with her he says, “One, two, three, four, HALT!!! And he keeps it up the whole time until she gets all tired out. When Eddie keeps on saying one two three four he steps with his feet according to the words as if she was marching and the baby keeps up with him – big feet and little feet together in steps. She takes steps as wide as Eddie’s and keeps right up with him.”
In other news Mama spent some time building supports for the tomato plant in the garden and tying the tomato plants up. Anna reports “The plants look swell, so green and strong looking…This year mama planted the garden in the middle section of the yard where we used to have only flowers. The vegetables seem to be growing pretty good because there they get more air and sun.”
It’s just another night in the Murawski household on Orange Street. At one point, while Anna was away from the typewriter, mama had the baby on the chair and let her get her hands on the typewriter. The results are below:
Baby Terry gets her hands on the typewriter and sends a little message to her uncles.