Wed. night.

Dear Folks,

I hope you will bear with me and the typewritter,(sic) but between the two of us things don’t seem to be going any too well. I received your letter today as well as one from Dad. You had alot of questions in yours so I guess I can answer them. I had heard that Mary was present when Bill got Zoe’s flowers,^[1]I don’t know who Mary and Bill are, or the circumstances of the flowers. however, I haven’t heard from her for some time maybe it is because I have only written her once. Zoe is having exams now, I don’t know when she starts summer school.

About Mr. Alert, the fellow that was going to jump off the cliff. As far as I know he is still in the hospital, at least he hasn’t been back here.

I am glad you like the stationery, but it wasn’t so very expensive. One hundred sheets and envelopes for 2 dollars.

To explain the merit system: a gig and a demerit are the same thing and if you get more than five gigs you get your pass taken away and have to walk and hour tour for each over. For doing something extra special or doing something better than usual you get merits which will cancel gigs and therefore lets you go in to town when you wouldn’t ordinally get to.

I told you about that bunch being shipped out to Santa Anna ^[2]Santa Ana Army Air Baseawhile back, anyway we heard today that 40% got washed out because of eyes. Thats a lot bigger than the usual percentage, maybe now we will get some decent lights to study by.

Having something like that happen to the first bunch out of here doesn’t help the C.O. any especially when he is bucking for a majors commission.

I am about decided to invest some of my government earned money in an 8mm movie camera. Do you think it would be foolish? There are alot of things happening that I might someday want to recall. Several of the fellows have them and I can get one for around $35. with a 3.5 lens.

Dad had very favorable reports on Karen but said that you (Elaine) looked a little thin. I have heard that many ties before and probably it was because you had just got over a cold. I hope you are all well by this time. I have been trying to get rid of a cough for the past three weeks but it is really hard to do down here. You get so hot and sweating and then go in to the dinning hall and have to sit right in front of a water air conditioner. Dad also said that Cleda behaved fine on the trip but wasn’t much better than usual when she was home. Dad is planning to come out here in the near future, maybe he mentioned it to you. He gave me three dates to pick from so I guess he is all set. It seems like an awful long way to come just to see a person for 25 hours but it will be good to see him. I also got a letter from Bob Lake and he is in Hawaii and has seen Bill Fichthorne who is now a Sgt. (poor guy) ^[3]I don’t know anything about either of these two men.

It really sounds like Karen has mastered everything there is. I should be able to expet a letter from her anytime now, don’t you think? From the poem “Traffic Jam” that you sent I can picture the apartment pretty well. I guess it won’t be long till you will have to start putting everything that is loose about three feet off the floor. I wish I were there to go on a picnic with you and I would still insist on pushing the buggy.

This is getting to be too much of a letter for me to write, and beside that I have some Navigation to do yet tonight.

Say Stan I thought you would be about through studying by this time. What’s the trouble, are you taking the course over again? We aren’t so tough here in fact after running three miles we hardly have enough energy to go on our pass. (I have my fingers crossed.) For all we know they might be going to make paratroopers out of us.

Goodnight—–

Love, Tom