Friday Evening

December 10, 1943

Dear Folks:

Helen’s letter of the 6thcame tonight asking me if I asked for a new shirt. Thanks just the same but we are not allowed to buy any articles that are issued to us. I have two good summer and three winter shirts issued to me so I don’t need any more. As I told you before all I wanted was a **** to the ****.

The package containing the flashlight, candy and roger blades arrived last evening. Thanks a lot, the candy is good and the flashlight is swell. Roger blades are always good as you know. I have the extra light and blades safely but away. Now I have 23two flashlights-one I’ll keep in my **** bag the other I’ll use. The other one being read now and used to pass the time away. Time doesn’t drag out here thought what with movies every night, letter writing, and listening to the radio.

The past three days have been quite rainy. We have had rain every day and it hasn’t been too warm. It seems to rain quite often during the winter here and never during the summer.

You can tell Aunt Cyrella that I ran into Bill Hancock from St. Mary’s yesterday. He is a sergeant with the 228^th battalion and was acting as coach for carbine firing. You see I was on the firing range, firing the carbine with the rest of our platoon. He spoke to me first and I didn’t know him at first. He asked me if I was Tommy Haud’s brother from **** - Tom knows just about all the athletes in **** ****. Hancock had played basketball with Tom around town. He is a nice fellow and I enjoy talking to him. He was asking how all the Hanley’s were.

Helen will probably be hearing from John soon and I’ll be glad to write to him at his new station. We all like to get mail especially when we are gone. It is something to look forward to and know that the people book home remember you.

Well tonight I think I will go to the movies. I haven’t been to a show all week-most of the time I’ve been writing letters or going to bed early. Our movie isn’t as nice as the money I save. We were paid December 4^th and so far I’ve spent exactly 25¢ to get a haircut. Not a penny more.

So long,

Joe