Lt. Col. Carlton J. Cook

Ord. Sec., Hq. M.B.S.

A.P.C. 600 N.Y.C.

Sept. 10, 1943. Letter # 5

My Darling Jeanette,

All is well as usual, dearest, now that my cold is over or about so. How have you been this fall so far dear—no colds or anything else, I hope. Also are all our families all right? I suppose by the time you get this Dorothy will have had her baby and I surely hope she gets along all right and has a girl since she wants one so much. How is your grandmother now? I suppose it is getting a little cooler there now, although it is just as warm over here.

Yesterday I received another letter from you, darling, --your # 17 of August 29^th. It was as welcome as ever and I surely appreciate your writing to me so often. It seems to keep us much closer together for me to receive your letters so often telling me what you do each day and telling me of the events at home.

I am glad “Stars and stripes” is arriving regularly now. I think some of the articles in it are quite interesting about our troops in the various places. There are probably quite a few articles about little interesting events that never appear in the papers at home, and that give you a closer insight in events over here.

I won’t worry about your working too hard, but I hope that you all get someone else in the office to help you out before long as I can well imagine that you are very busy there now. You asked about Brunet’s being on their vacation and here also. As I wrote you, I think, only their two daughters went to the mountain resort. Mr. and Mrs. Brunet stayed at home. Their daughters were there for about a month, I think. The one whom they went to visit is in her forties and has several children. Her husband has a large farm near Algiers, and a winery.

Have you seen Stanley yet or isn’t he home on leave yet? Has Joe Sullivan had any more leaves lately? How I wish that I could get one and come home, but no such luck I’m afraid. However if by not having leaves, we can help to get the war over that much quicker over here, then I am more than glad to forego any.

I suppose by now you have finished paying up the mortgage on the house. It doesn’t seem possible at times that it is all paid up in six years time. That is one thing we shall not have to worry about although we shall still have to save enough for the taxes and also for the income taxes, each month. They will probably stay high for many years after this year. Are you going to start a savings account soon? If so, you might as well start it in the First National Bank, where we have our checking account. Then if we want to change any money from one account to another, it will be easier to do. Keep me informed, please dear, once a month what our balances are in the checking account and the savings account. You hardly ever write what the checking account balance is each month. Next month I shall send you another $100, I think, as I shall not need it.

While on the visits with the unit, I wrote you about last week, we went over to see a winery in operation. They had quite a few Italian prisoners working on the farm. They seemed to be quite a good bunch of fellows, very friendly and polite. Most of them saluted when the other officer and I went thru the winery. One who spoke French showed us thru and explained how they make the wine and the various steps. It was a large place. The storage vats for aging were very large, almost as large as your bedroom and there were a hundred of them.

Well see, I’m getting to the end of this sheet so must say good night. I took part of this afternoon off, took a bath, got my hair cut and rested and read for a while. All of my love to you, dearest.

Carlton