Aug. 13, 1944

Darling,

Once again it is time for one of those Sunday letters that I am supposed to outdo myself on. Well Darling I don’t know about the letter part as my whole heart goes with every letter to you but I am glad to see another week go by. They call add up till I’ll be coming home + that is all that is on my mind.

It is sprinkling out a bit now but that is all the rain we have had all day. After the daily torrents we have become accustomed to this is very unusual. Maybe the monsoons are finally breaking. Well due to the incomplete condition of our tent I was glad it did’nt rain however I do miss the cooling breezes that accompany every storm.

Our roads are still in terrible shape + we have been hauling + spreading cinders on them to provide better drainage but it is too late. Also the cinders are much too fine to be of any practical use. This Indians sure burn their coal up. They would undoubtedly swoon if they could see the clinkers the fireman on our railroads throw out.

Glad to hear Gram is feeling spry again. She must be if she walked that distance. She always sounds unhappy in her letters so I can’t tell much about her one way or the other.

Which brings about the subject of my Dad. What in God’s name is the matter with him anyway? All anybody ever tells me is that he is tired from overwork. I readily agree he is overworked + has been for a long time but has’nt he enough time to write his only offspring one letter before this damn war is over? Is that too much for me to expect from him? I think not! I don’t mean to sound petulant or childish but it hurts. Never received much affection from him nor did I expect it but you know how much he means to me. Mom frequently writes how proud of me he is but if that alone does’nt influence him enough to write my contention is that he has no claim to be proud of me or anything else. Have started 3 letters to him + finished one but after thinking it over I always rip them up. I will not write another! Well so be it.

As for the pinocle games I have had to discontinue them as writing letters takes all my spare time. I don’t mind in the least however because as long as mail is coming in with news etc., it is like talking things over with you + the rest, when I write to you. As for playing any when I get home I doubt as I intend to occupy my time with much more important things. O.K.

Well Darling this is no made up excuse but the fellow whose pen I have borrowed wants to write some letters himself so ----.

All my love Sweetheart

Warren

P.S. I managed to borrow another pen. This time it was or rather is Mill’s pen. He hardly ever used one anyway. Well let us continue.

Am going to start of right this time though by assuring you Happy Dear that I completely adore you. That is what you were waiting for is it not. I am so accustomed to loving you that I forget to mention it sometimes.

Well quite a thunderstorm has just started up. The heavens are really splitting wide open. Makes me remember how you used to run into my arms when the thunder began to boom. Of course you were’nt too afraid of them but enough so to make it very enjoyable for us both. Never could make up my mind whether you were putting it on or not but I was sure that I was having a swell time.

Darling your old man has come through with another scheme. He hopes it is a prosperous one. This is not exactly new but my execution of the idea had’nt been tried to my knowledge, back when I was amongst the living. How would you like to own a tourist business? As I said before there is nothing new the idea but I would like to put up pre-fabricated cabins or rather minature homes as I prefer to call them. By pre-fabricated I mean house that are built in complete sections elsewhere + brought to your particular location + assembled. That is the coming thing is house building. Would like to find a scenic spot in New England where I could lure the summer + winter trade. Be situated so there would be plenty of skiing + skating as well as swimming, boating, etc in the summer. My contention being that folk are attracted by new + unusual type of cabins I would like to design them myself. If I could acquire some books containing foreign architecture of different types I would probably get some ideas on a replica of some little foreign village. A Swiss hamlet would be appealing. Complete with a little eating place of the same type. With a pre-fab layout we could always pick them up + move if the first location did’nt prove satisfactory. Also if you were successful with the first venture you could cheaply + quickly make up another little village. Well Hon I cannot explain it + enumerate all my ideas on paper but I am convinced it would be a paying proposition. Am very much afraid though that the lack of necessary capital would make this venture impossible at least for a while after I got home. Well perhaps I’ll turn up with an idea yet that we can handle financially. At least we can always fall back on Bethlehem Steel to support us.

Darling I think I have rambled on long enough for no so ---.

All my love,

Warren

[There are images in the top left corner of each sheet of paper; Warren has written next to each one.]

[Selling Fish] Have’nt noticed much of this but after seeing the debris floating in the rivers + harbors here I would’nt eat any fish if my life depended on it.

[Milking the Cow] More damn propaganda. These people never have had a cow that would give milk.

[Picnic] All I can say Darling is this still looks like more propaganda.

[Street Beggars] Guess I have said enough concerning beggars in the previous letters.

[Washing the Cows] They have a species of water buffalo here that they have to wet down at least once a day or their skin would crack in the intense heat.

[The Wayside Barber] The itinerant barber plys his trade anywhere. They usually shave a man with no lather or lubricant. Brr---.

[Across the Bamboo Bridge] These are some rickety contrivances. Don’t dare to use them myself for fear they will not hold me.

[Pulling the Boat on the Canal] What a tedious, back-breaking job. These fellows pull large boats + barge for miles up the canals for perhaps I suppose a trip.

[Wood Cutter] Done as primitively as everything else they do.

[The Cooly] This is the most common type of labor in India. Sure are handy for carrying duffel-bags etc. Cows carry extraordinary weights on their heads if someone will put it up there for them.