Somewhere in Belgium

September 11, 1944

Dear Mom,

            I have a few spare moments to drop a line – at the present I’m separated from my unit – they have moved to and I stayed behind with 4 other enlisted men, two nurses and a doctor to take care of the patients we have that cannot be moved at the time.  We’re cooking for ourselves and really having quite a good time.  There is a fair sized town near here and several of us went there yesterday and had a wonderful time.  We took the nurse to a beauty parlor to get a permanent and I took my radio to be fixed (-the condenser went band).  Later we shopped around and after a while an old fellow came rushing out and dragged us in his house, where all the family ___ us profusely and toasted us with wine – gave us souvenirs etc.  Later we dropped in at a little café where we saw some people dancing.  We danced and carried on in general there and had a swell time.  I had more fun yesterday then I have had since we landed in France – the people here speak French – and I get along very well – Quite a few of them speak English also – I’m going in town again this afternoon to pick up my radio – this phase of the war suits me fine – it made me a little homesick to see civilians and stores and hotels and so on – but I had such a good time that passed on after a while –

            The mail (in coming) will be very vague until I rejoin my unit that is unless someone comes back here for some reason or other – I haven’t received your package with the writing paper as yet but I think I can buy some today in town.  I didn’t buy anything yesterday as I had French francs and this morning sent my money to be changed into Belgium francs.  I lost a little on the exchange but will make it up in purchasing power.

            I’ll try to write again soon and tell you more about this – I’m enjoying it immensely –

            Write often – and soon.

Love

Jack