Thurs. July 11, 1940

Dt., Mich

Dear Pauline-

            I received mother’s gift, your letter and your bawling out all the same day.  I don’t see no reason to get all wrought up, cause I have not written for a few weeks.  Didn’t I tell you in one of my letters not to have anyone send me any clothes?  The folk’s intentions are well meant and I appreciate the gifts and their thoughts, but their taste and mine differ.  I hope you don’t make the mistake of trying to buy Frank’s clothes, or he is liable to slug you.  [Regarding] the shirt I received, the sleeves are too long and the collar is too large.  I am going to try to exchange it at one of the stores here, otherwise I’ll send it back to you.  In regards to my birth record, I mailed it in to Mrs. Moore as requested and as yet have not been notified to appear to discuss the matter.  I have been thinking the situation over and I’m almost certain that I will start using our right name.  There will be some inconvenience no matter which name I decide to take.  If I keep the name “Savastone” I have to go to Probate court and have it legalized.  That costs money and time, and if I use “Sevastonek” that also takes time to get straightened out such as appearing before the social security office, income tax, unemployment insurance office, and a few others.  I’ll let you know at the last moment on what I decide to do.  In the meantime I want to discuss your problem about your birth record.  What do you intend to do?  You say you received your birth certificate from Harrisburg and that the names, dates, and places are all out of line.  Say, why don’t you, Mary, and Luke go to church and get your baptismal certificates and drop around to that Notary Public the same woman that made out my affidavit?  Explain the situation, and give her the full details.   Tell her that the midwife that attended the births made a mistake; that she took it upon herself to fill out the birth applications.  If all of you do not attend to this matter now you may some day regret it.  It’s not what you know, say, or think.  You simply have to get your birth certificate correct so they can put it on file in Harrisburg for future reference.

            I am working part time now and there are rumors of a lay off soon, so I may be able to take a visit home for Labor Day.  As for you coming here for your vacation, don’t be silly.  You know the position I’m in.  I have a little dinky room and no car to take you around to go some place where you can enjoy yourself.  The summer racing meet has just ended and the nags have sent me to the cleaners as usual.

            Here’s a good one: The owner of the restaurant that I eat at shows me a ticket where he bet five dollars on a horse to win.  The horse runs second and pays $21.00 to place, and he sobs about his hard luck.  When I get home I’m glancing over the race results, I see his horse run second all right, but the judges placed him first.  They disqualified the horse that won the race for rough riding on the jockey’s part.  When I see him next night I tell him he got a winner and his ticket is worth $80.00.  He turns pale and I thought he was going to pass out, [because] he says he threw the ticket away.  By the way, I made bet with Mary on the Billy I own fight.  She won and I sent her a dollar and four extra dollars to buy the old man a gift for Father’s Day.  [Please find] out if she received it, because she never answered.  She’s either too busy to write or her arm must be in the sling.  Our unemployment insurance money is still being held up.  Henry Ford turned down a 2 million dollar order for airplane motors.  Packard motor car has the contract now and are waiting for their engineers to give the O.K. to go ahead.  Our firm may build the war tanks.  A kid wound up in a hospital the other day in a bad shape.  He was feeding a polar bear peanuts, and a cop had to shoot the bear in the snout to jar him loose.  The kid’s arm and side is torn to shreds.  Jack Dempsey’s in town, he’s fighting “Bull burry” a wrestler Monday night.  The fights in the bag, I’ll bet burry takes a dive in about the third round.

            I met a fellow from Soho the other day.  He is the brother of the guy that did the Steve Brodie off the 22nd St. Bridge.  His name is Alex Bhickhe.  He was a middle weight champ in the army, been fighting in Honolulu and the west coast, [and he] just come in from Frisco.  It’s the first time I seen him since I left home.  He used to hang out with big Tom, Mike Burke, and me.  Maybe you have seen him around.  Well I don’t think I can come up for another round, so give my best regards to all.

Your bro,

Pete