April 13, 1943. A letter from Alex Kosinsnki from back home in Albany. I’m not definite on the relation between Alex Kosinski and Stanislaus Kosinski the Choir Director. However, based on a quick Google search result which turned up information from the 1940 census it looks like he is the son of the Choir Director. He has received words that Dad will be shipping soon. “They don’t seem to keep you in any one place long enough to take root.” He asks, “Are you following in your brother’s footsteps as far as the type of work is concerned?”
It looks like the choir is losing a member as “Regina is…going to live in Boston after she marries a shavetail in May.” Yes, that word had me running to the dictionary too. Apparently “shavetail” is slang for a newly commissioned officer. He also notes that the Easter Mass is “practically finished and we are holding 2 rehearsals a week to finish up Easter songs and things for 40 hours devotion.” He asks how Easter preparations are going in the Army as he jokes “Is you gang being issued new bonnets for Easter?”
In other news, Kosinski notes, “My position here terminates July 1 and I have been doing much correspondence with the idea of joining the Army Air Medical Corps” but in the end “accepted a teaching position at the Medical College in Albany”. He notes, “I shall enjoy the work very much” and “you fellows won’t have to salute me yet.” Even so, he may eventually end up with an Army assignment as “the way they are hollering for doctors to join up with the Armed Forces, I may get in yet.”
Apparently this letter is Kosinski’s second try at writing a letter to Dad. He notes, “The letter I just finished started out as one for you, Anthony. But I wound up by talking about the State of Washington and decided that it was your brother who was stationed out there and to simply change the heading. I think I should do much better if I wrote a general sort of letter, made a carbon and sent you each one; in that way I wouldn’t be mixing you up.”
Prior to closing the letter, he references Teresa-Marie as he asks, “Whose baby do you rock to sleep these days now that you don’t have to worry about your sister’s baby?”