Monday afternoon,

9/6/43

Dear Folks,

Here I am again just back to work from a week-end in St. Louis. I didn’t get much sleep over the week-end so you’ll under-stand if the pen doesn’t write in a straight line. I got back into camp here at five in the morning and had to get up at six – so I’m a little sleepy.

I pulled out of here at 5:30 Saturday afternoon and got a bus to Newburgh. There is a Greyhound bus going direct into the city from here but all of the seats were taken when we tried to buy them. Anyhow we rode into Newburgh and got a train into Union Station. It was midnight already when we got in so we spent a few fruitless hours looking for a room. We got tired about 3 in the morning and stopped in by the Y. Well, I finally ended up by sleeping on three chairs which I placed together, using my field jacket as a pillow. Believe it or not I slept very soundly and hated to get up in the morning. I don’t know if you can picture me sleeping on three chair but I have slept in more un-comfortable places. On maneuver you learn to sleep anywhere.

To make a long story short we got up, had breakfast and then I called you up from the U.S.O. The call took only about five minutes which is much better service than at the fort. It was too bad that Dad was out to church when I called but you see I wanted to call before the traffic became heavy. Ma and Helen sounded good as they always do but I missed saying hello to Dad. Next we picked up our tickets for the game at the U.S.O. and then looked for a church. We went to the ball park and found one about four blocks away. We went to 11 o’clock mass and afterwards went to the baseball game. We had groundstand seats and a good view of the two games. The ball-park is about ½ as big as the Yankee Stadium but the place was packed. The games were very good, especially to us fellows who hadn’t seen a league game for over a year. We had a swell time, keeping score, eating ice cream, hot dogs and drinking coca-colas.

The game got over at six and we headed downtown for dinner. As this was my first trip into town for over four months we decided to eat in style. We went to the Statler Hotel but they were all filled up. Next door to the Statler is the Hotel Mayfair which is the next best place. So we had dinner there and it was really classy. A negro set the table and we had two waiters serving. Just like up at Lake Champlain. We enjoyed our meal very much and felt like real gentlemen for a change.

After dinner we returned to the U.S.O. and spent the rest of our stay there – a dance was going on and we stayed there until train time. The 11:59 brought us back to Newburgh and then we took a bus to the fort arriving at about five o’clock.

There isn’t much other news to tell you – there is still a big silence on the furlough situation and I’m getting a little suspicious. It would be just like the army to cancel them for no reason at all. But no orders have come down eliminating them or yet so I’m still hoping I’ll keep you posted as to devlopments.

I’m sorry I forgot about Tom’s anniversary as I would have liked to send a wine or something. The truth is that I didn’t think of it at all. My mind was on my week-end pass at the time.

I’ll close now and hope to see all of you soon. The radio is still playing swell and comes in mighty handy in the evenings. I still take in all the movies out here and am about caught up with all of them now. Bob Hope’s new picture is playing Friday and I sure want to see that one.

Take it easy,

Joe

P.S. Is Ma working on the wagon or on the tables now? I forget which you said.