Dear Folks,
What a day – I have been C.Q. (charge of quarters) since twelve noon and have till 12 tomorrow noon to go. It is worse than being on guard duty because then you have 4 on and 4 off but here you have 24 on. The duties are various, stay here in the office and answer all phone calls, see that everyone signs in and out, look after the officer’s mail, then at 10: P.M. tuck all the boys in bed and see that they stay there and by the time you get to bed its 12 P.M. Get up at 5 and see to it that everyone is awake and up at 5:15. By tomorrow noon I think I will be ready to resign my job. One nice thing is that you don’t have to go sit through a bunch of dull lectures.
I received your folks letter today and it was good to hear from you. I also got the pills you sent me dad, however, I hope I won’t have the occasion to use them. It has been thundering a little tonight and looks like it might rain. We could use a little, it was 110° while we paraded yesterday afternoon. I guess those salt tablets are the stuff because nobody passed out.
All the rest of the squadron are going to a compulsory training film tonight. I am glad I get out that auditorium isn’t the coolest place in the world.
Now to tell you about the weekend. It was really swell. I called the Perkins last week and they told me to call them when Sam and I got into Phoenix but then Sat. morning Mrs. Perkins called and told us not to plan anything for Sat. night. Anyway she came to pick us up Sat. afternoon and we tried to find a room for that night but there weren’t any to be had. Mrs. Perkins took us out to their home and believe me it is really beautiful. They gave us a room with twin beds adjoining bath in fact it would put the Palmer House to shame.
Mr. Perkins gave us an electric razor to use, P.J.’s to sleep in and to top it off he told us from Sat. noon on his 42 Buick sat in the garage so he put the extra car keys in what he termed our drawer in our room.
Sam made a bit hit with them and they want us to stay there every weekend. She told us Sun. morning that she had ordered extra milk for the weekends. That evening they took us out to the country club and we had a turkey dinner on the lawn and afterwards we went to the show, which they already had reserve tickets for. After we came back from the show we sat up and talked till about 1:30 and it seemed that they enjoyed having us as much as we enjoyed being there but that couldn’t be possible. They showed us were(sic) the keys to the house and garage were so we could come and go as we pleased. Mr. Perkins is like you dad, she said it was really the first time he had enjoyed going to a show. He is with the state engineers and she is head of the Arts Dept. at the Phoenix H.S. it is really a high school something like 6,000 students. Sam and I are trying to figure out someway we can repay them but as yet all they have agreed to do is be our guest at dinner sometime.
I sent you $50 there wasn’t any place open that I could get a money order and I hated to carry that much around. Do what ever you think best. If you want to put it in war bonds o.k.
I hope you have a swell trip to Chicago.
Love, Tom
