January 31, 1945

Wednesday 2 p.m.

Dear Joe,

How do you like this snazzy air mail stationary?

By the way, there is some on the way to you.

I have another one of those awful colds I get. I haven’t stayed out of work but I don’t feel too good.

Are you still living in tents? How is your house coming? Send us some pictures as soon as you can. Those pictures of the crew sure were swell. Try to get one of your Pilot and Bombardier if you can. Then we’ll have all of them. I still have that roll of film (116) I told you I was going to take and send you [the] pictures. However, I am glad I haven’t used it yet. You see, Al M. Laverty just came home yesterday morning from N. Caroline on a 28 day furlough. Jane says she thinks it’s probably because they are going to ship out again, most likely to Panama or some such place. He swears there was some mistake that he shouldn’t have received 28 days but he’s not going to worry about that. So, what I started out to say was that I’m going to invite Jane and Al for dinner maybe Sunday a week and really be nice to him (after the way I acted the first time) so maybe we can use the film then and take some pictures. If we do and these plans “pan out” I’ll send them to you.

You sure must have looked pretty when you were growing beards. I bet you looked worst of all.

I might stop here to say again that I think Ted Wilson and Joe Chapick sure are cute. Let me know more about them.

Well, they finally took Vincentine Lapreziosa’s husband in the draft. It made a lot of people around here feel better but there’s still Franky.

Did you see the “Very Thought of You”? Dennis Morgan and Eleanor Parker. I think it was swell, a little on the “mushy” side, but very cute.

As for Pat Catilla, we haven’t seen him since he was discharged. They were to move over on Passyunk Ave. so they were busy I guess. I suppose his ideas about the army haven’t changed any.

How’s the cigarette situation? Do you get any? It’s terrific over here.

Listen, let me put straight on Frank Sinatra. As far as I am concerned (and Mom too if you please) he “stinks” if I may say so. As a singer he is a flop.

Incidentally Bing Crosby is just coming on. He’s my man (and Mom’s too).

I was up to Tieton Hospital Fort Dix about a week and a half ago. I was talking to a Bob Fallon who was with the 15^th Air Force in Italy. He asked me your group no. and I told him. He said you were probably near Foggia.

I was up to Valley Forge General Hospital Jan. 23^rd. We went to the Red Cross Recreation Hall, a very pretty place- large cozy lounge, a lovely large hall and soda bar.

Most of the boys were blind or partly so. Some were burned badly. It was pretty horrible- I thought I wasn’t going to be able to take it. It was a dance. Dancing with blind boys is quite a job. However, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed when you got know how happy the boys were to have us and how they were anxious to dance and wouldn’t venture out for fear of being left in the middle of the floor. How happy it made them if you suggested a dance with them. I talked and became acquainted with 5 boys there. One was especially attracted to me- a blond boy (strange, I like ‘em dark) who could see pretty well. He had only light perception in one eye and could see a little with the other. He could see things real close but only shadowy far away. He passed the test to travel alone. One of the other boys was blind completely. He was so happy I danced with him. Then there was Bob from Cleveland Ohio. He was very cute and could see quite well. He just had an infection which had dimmed his sight but it was returning, another boy had a concussion of the back. Anyway Johnny the cute blond boy swore he couldn’t dance but when I dragged him out he was a beautiful dancer and we had a wonderful time. I invited 3 of them down home. You should have heard them trying to memorize my phone number.

Last Sunday I was out to Fort Dix Air Base for a dance from 3 to 7 p.m. it was a beautiful Service Club, sort of rustic. I met up with 3 nice boys there. One was a little slow. Harold, Anne finally paired off with him. She liked him a lot. Then I met up with George something or other. He was from Pittsburgh. He looked just like Ronald Ryan, smile and all, except that he wasn’t too tall. Just about as tall as me. He said he couldn’t dance either but after I dragged him out he didn’t want to sit down. After a few dances we went out to the Bar and had some beer. He was really cute but I wasn’t satisfied. I still wanted to dance with the 3^rd boy. So I wiggled him over to where the other boy was sitting. You see all 3 were together originally. So I finally got him up to dance and he wasn’t bad at all. 6’3” medium brown wavy hair. Real good looking but just like you. It took a bomb to wake him up. He was from Wisconsin and Marquette University where he was studying Electrical Engineering. So, as a result the little fellow George wandered up. I spent the rest of the afternoon with this tall boy. To top it all off we almost got left. We were having a drink with the boys and suddenly realized everybody had left. I just had been building them up to what a swell place Philadelphia was and all you could do. I had them right where they were talking about us showing them around Philadelphia when I noticed everybody was gone. We then dashed off and forgot to give them our address and phone number. Then we were dashing off to make the bus and they were yelling “coming again soon?”

So I just found out we are going up again on Tuesday coming.

Well, I’m still waiting for a call from Harry Matthews, the sailor.

And Ray is still asking to take me home on Saturday night. Nothing ever happens right to me- Oh well.

I’m falling asleep as you can see by this writing.

Have you received any packages yet or your fountain pen.

Write soon; we haven’t heard for over a week.

Love from all of us

“Sis”

P.S. Boy I sure didn’t know when to stop in this letter! Kiss the boys good-night for me especially you know who.