30 March 1945

Dear Mom,

Gosh, but I am swamped in the letter answering business. I have about two or three to answer from you, three from Richard, and I don’t know how many from Barbie. What’s worse, I don’t seem to be finding too much time in which to answer all these letters, with a basketball game again tonight and riding my bike into town to see a show. Well all these letters seem to have come in the last two or three days, so I guess I am maybe a little over-anxious to have a chance to answer them all, but I will have to be patient and let things go as they will and when I do have an opportunity I will be over here pounding this typewriter to my heart’s delight. I assure you, there is little that I enjoy more than just sitting here answering my letters, because you can’t begin to imagine how enthusiastic a fellow can be about thanking all of you for remembering that he isn’t over here just because it’s one of those things that everybody seems to be doing these days. In other words, I am very glad and pleased that I hear from you so often and know all about what is going on back home.

Tonight I will do my best to answer you Mar. 24 and Mar. 9 letters, and let you know how a fellow can really appreciated these letters. Incidentally, if you see any mistakes in the grammar, well it is more likely that is the fault of the typewriter than the fellow that is running it. Tell dad that he is doing a very commendable job on the typewriter, because I have been banging one here for the last 15 months or so and my typing still stinks, to put it mildly.

In your March 9 letter you told me how “one has to take what comes and do the best one can.” That was very good advice, Mother dear, but fortunately untimely, or shall we say that I had come to that conclusion as matter of necessity or as a result of self-made morale uplifting, if you get what I mean. I just reasoned the whole thing out and predicted what you and Barbie would tell me, and my predictions were quite right. I guess after a fellow has as many things to undergo, he kinds of gets used to taking it on the chin, but please don’t think for one minute that I am underestimating the help of our advice for more than once you have lifted my eyes off the ground and set my chin on an elevated angle so that I could throw my chest out and sing a song bravely and laugh at his troubles. Yes Mother I can’t think of anyone I need more for much of the weight that has been taken off my shoulders and the troubles that I have perhaps dreamed up you have driven away with a little sound reasoning and Motherly advice. Nevertheless I am very chagrined over Dad’s hardship but I know that I can and will try to be as satisfied as possible to do the best I can for him over here, and try not to get too moody or worried or over-despondent. Being that way and writing to you about it certainly won’t help matters any and I want to help you all out just the best [way] that I possibly can, I want you to realize that with all of my heart, Mother, because there are few or no things that I have ever said or felt that want nothing more than to be able to help you all out the very best that I can. I know that I can pray and will. The more that I have faith in the future and keep my head up in the clouds and smile with a determined heart and a clear mind, well, mother there’s nothing that you and I can’t lick or fight with that kind of courage, is there?

As for the flowers I originally intended you to get with that money, well, I still think that your idea about beautifying the farm is much more practical and splendid, in fact. Spend it all on that if you wish, there is little enough there for that, I sent it to you to afford you all what little happiness I can give you and I am sure that you will be able to use your own discretion to very good advantage as to what will make you all the happiest. I only wish that I could do more right now, but I will try to be patient, and I caution you all to adapt the same attitude, with the forethought that such caution is probably wholly unnecessary. At any rate none of us know much about the future or what it holds in store for us and consequently it is very unwise to do too much planning for it and too much predicting when the darn thing will all be over, true the news does look good and our troops are really doing a crack-up job over there, but it all costs and I think it will be more than a little while before I will be working myself up in feverish excitement about going home.

I’ll have to finish this letter and go over to the basketball game, but I think I would much rather just sit here all night and talk to you, Mom, but I think the team will be counting on me now, because they are a little short of players tonight, and I might even be able to play the whole game, You see. I haven’t any protective goggles and I’m not quite as sure of myself or as fast as the rest of the fellows and the game doesn’t mean enough to me to wear my glasses. But, it’s all in a lifetime, you know. That’s just what I meant when I told you in one of my first letters, if you will remember, I said, “My stride is still long,” and you wondered what it was that was still long because the censor cut it out, maybe he wondered if you might wonder if that was a roundabout way of implying that I was headed for some specific duty of something. Well anyway I merely wanted to let you know that I was taking it all in my stride and that stride was still long enough to take in a lot of things. I sometimes wonder if it hasn’t shortened some since then, though.

Well, I think it is about time to quite trying to kid you all into thinking that perhaps I know something about typing and sign my John Henry at the bottom of this letter and go off to the basketball game, wondering all the time how much Barbie will say about how long she had to wait for a half dozen or so unanswered letters. I am doing more than a little wondering just how I am going to answer some of the things she wanted to know. Not only as far as the time element is concerned, but also, I think your Chuckie is going to have a little ticklish explaining to do. Nothing serious of course she still want me to go out more and have more social life and she doesn’t have a very good idea of just what a fellow is up against in the darn country. And I don’t want to be just giving her a “Big Story” and a lot of excuses and hemming and hawing, when she has be backed right up against the wall, and well within her rights, thinking that when I come home it will be the customary thing to do to show me off as the Saturday night dance. And, more than likely she could think that if her soldier really loves her he would give her considerations the utmost concern, so you see, Mom, this life I lead certainly has it’s complications, and I could go on and on into the night thrashing it out with you, but “Tempest Fugit”, and I suppose the girl in you will be waiting for me to report my success at the dance, as they do quite a lot of it over here. God bless you, Mother dear.

Sincerely, Chuck Give love to all.