March 28, 1943

Dear Mother, Dad,

Greetings from the Isolation Ward! Now please don’t start to worry because I’m perfectly alright and am feeling fine. Now I’ll unravel the strange story of how I got here. I have had a bad cough all week so I got some medicine from sick bay for it and used it all up. Then Friday night I went back for some more and as soon as I walked in the door they stuck a thermometer in my mouth and looked at my throat and said “Building I.” My throat had been a little sore but I thought it was from coughing so much. Anyway they brought about 15 of us over here with seventy other girls who all have sore throats. The nurses told us yesterday we would be here three days as there was an epidemic of strep throats which lead to scarlet fever. They have taken the worst cases to the hospital and they are giving us wonderful care. About every half hour the nurses come in to bring us pills, take our temperatures, spray our throats and bring us fruit juice. They wake us up all night long to go through the same routine, but they surely treat us swell. Yesterday I had breakfast in bed. Imagine in the Navy! Today I feel like a million dollars and it’s so beautiful out, but worst of all today was to be my first liberty and I have to be quarantined. However scuttlebutt (gossip) has it that next weekend we will get liberty Sat and Sun, so I hope that is correct. I’m going to try to make some sort of arrangement with the girls.

We started wearing our uniforms Thursday and I still feel awfully silly when I salute. I suppose that’s just something that takes practice.

I’ve forgotten when I wrote you last but I’m sure I told you about my working in the Personnel Department. The work was most boring. I’m sure glad I won’t have to work with sailors much. I think they are the laziest things. About the latter part of the week about 15 or 20 Waves (P.O. 3/c) came in to replace the sailors, of course the sailors will stay on a while to show the girls the ropes. All the girls were disgusted with them and kept asking them if they ever did anything. One of the fellows was kicking about having to work nights so one little cherub piped up with “Well if you worked in the daytime you wouldn’t have to work nights.” I surely liked those girls. They had just come up from the yeoman school in Georgia, they said it was very nice, that they were served at tables with white tablecloths + napkins (unheard of here) and they were housed in colonial mansions. Milledgeville, the town where the college is located, is quite nice according to them. I certainly hope I will be sent there.

A whole bunch of new girls came in last Wednesday. The most of them are Marine’s Women’s Reserve. The uniforms are really rather cute according to what I’ve seen the officers wear. I wish to heavens the Wave Officers uniforms were more different than they are. When they aren’t wearing their hats the only difference is the stripe. Well, yesterday I was sitting here writing and an officer came in without her hat and asked me a question. I glanced over my shoulder and just seeing the top part of her body I answered her question + returned to my writing, as there are always a couple of pharmicists’ mates running in here with something or other. Well I felt about this [drawing of a small person] red face big when she started out of the room and I saw her stripe. She must have thought me awfully rude.

Yes dear, I’ll have my picture taken for you but won’t promise it while I’m here as I don’t know when I’ll get the time.

I thought that Bob Hope picture was scream especially when he thought that woman had taken a doped drink + all the time he was the one being doped. Gosh I sure could go for a good picture now or a radio program. I miss my radio + phonograph horribly.

I think it would be grand for you to get away for a while. New surroundings and new interests certainly give you a lift and I think that’s what you need. The girls both told me how happy they are to know you are planning a trip. Even if I’m not here I think you should come this time and not disappoint them again.

I had my typhoid shot last Tuesday and didn’t have any bad results except a sore arm so that’s ok. Yes some girls have gotten very ill, but Miss Bosier warned us before she left our company that when we got our shots we should drink lots of water so we did, and had no trouble. The bunch of girls Helen is in + Helen were awfully sick after their shots but it was discovered later that it was from the food and not the shots. Don’t say anything to Mrs. C. if she doesn’t know. Helen may not have told her.

I surely would like to see the sweet peas. Flowers are as rare as men around here.

Thanks for the clippings. We girls laughed at the articles saying we could spend our money on orchids. What in the world would we do with an orchid. That calendar certainly was slow coming, a quarter of the year is over all-ready.

I’ll write soon again, please don’t worry about me, I’m ok.

With love, L.