Movies Archives - Page 7 of 8

31 January 1943

Dear Folks:

Now is a swell time to get off a few lines to you when everything is quiet and another day is done. As usually happens I just got back from the show and saw a World Series game in the newsreels. Today was Sunday but I spent most of it behind a typewriter or in the office. It was a beautiful day to get out with a camera but I didn’t but in lieu of that, here is a picture that was taken when Joe E. Brown was here last week. Of course you can spot him in the center and if you look close in the left upper corner you can see me. I’m standing almost in front of the guy with the open jacket. I think it is a good shot don’t you? The portion of the building in the center background is our projection booth.

In a couple of days I will be on pass and will get the table set you mentioned. I’m glad my bonds have been arriving. I was beginning to get a little worried. Soon I will send you a Honolulu paper. Perhaps you would like one and on the other hand, maybe you can get a little more scope of the islands. I hope you have received the other things by now.

I really can’t think of much to write about except anything very perfunatory (?). Today we had a very swell dinner centered around delicious ham. Last night I attended a party at my old battery and was even called upon to give a speech. It was a good deal with lots of beer and the other accessories of cheese, etc.

Guess this is quits tonight. Wished I could think of something to end this properly but I can’t, but I do think about you all the time.

Love,

28 January 1943

Dear Folks:

I’m still trying to get back in your favor so here’s another brief letter to help me. Received another letter from you today and it came on a day that I most wanted one. I just came back from the show and it won’t be long before hay time. Joe E. Brown made a personal appearance at our improvised theatre. He was very funny and it was a treat but it seemed odd to have him before such a small group over here. At the conclusion we posed for pictures and he mimicked C. McCarthy on a guy’s knee. Last night, Wednesday, was the occasion for a “Blackout Frolic” and it was especially good. A Scotsman who has been on the island for many years and knows the South Seas from end to end gave a very good talk. There are so many different kinds of beauty everywhere. I’m at the end of the page so better end. I think about you all the time.

Love,

26 January 1943

Dear Folks:

It wasn’t a half hour ago that I finished a letter to you but it wasn’t enough to dissolve my guilty conscience completely so I’m back at it again. I have a few pictures that you can keep on record until I get back. The picture of me jumping into the pools lacks plenty of the glamour side but the guy caught it just right and when I wasn’t expecting it. The building is the bathhouse and the panoramic views are of the ball field adjacent to the pool. The place is much prettier than pictures. It doesn’t show the broad lawn or the flowered hedges, nor the clouds over the hills. The place I am at now is more suitable to my palate if you will recall my favoritism for fruit. Here in camp are avocadoes, oranges, limes, pineapple, papayas, and many banana trees and probably more that I have forgotten.

I went to the show tonight and saw a newsreel antedated to October or so. But the picture was good and the mosquitoes were hungry. “King’s Row” is currently showing and I don’t want to miss it.

I know these two letters won’t suffice for my negligence but I’ll double up on the next week and hope that the tray will please you.

I never go to bed without thinking about you and realizing what I failed to appreciate. Every time I see a lady with four or five jewels getting on a bus I can see you ten years ago.

Love,

14 January 1943

Dear Folks:

It isn’t long until hay time but perhaps I can get a few lines thrown together before the lights are out. I just came back from the show and it was “The Lure of the Islands”. It drew a lot of desultory (?) comments from the crowd. It is much more romantic than it actually is.

The month is half gone and I can hardly believe it. Nor can I realize it is 1943. I wonder where I would be if all this hadn’t happened but I guess that is foolish speculation. I wished I had a technical camera to round up a bunch of shots of flowers and trees. They are really beautiful and I’d give a lot to see a few in our backyard. There are more darn varieties and some are always in bloom. In some places the roads are lined on either side with banks of blossoms.

My mail has been slack lately but quess I haven’t been writing much. Suppose you have heard of the new postal regulations on packages and letters.

I spend the bulk of every evening reading or going to the show. The library in town is fairly well stocked so on pass I take care of my reading material. There is also a free traveling library that makes the rounds every two weeks.

I know you must feel there isn’t very much in what I write but activity is so routine, news is at a premium. But I think about home all the time. As a matter of fact, I was accused of talking of it in my sleep and know now there isn’t a better place in the world.

Well it’s adios until another time but let’s hope our battle of the inkwells ends before too long,

Love,

12 January 1943

Dear Folks:

It’s high time I got around to writing you again. Been several days now. Time seems to slip by faster than I can keep up with it. Was on pass today and saw a couple of things in a store that I thought you might like so they are on the way. I mailed them from a store so let me know if you get them. Quite a while back I sent Dan a knife among some things for you. Did you get it? You never said but I suppose you have.

Here I am at the end of the first paragraph and I’m stymied already. Had a letter from Katie today and it was full of pep and life. Said she mailed me a picture of her and Tom but I haven’t gotten it yet but it takes quite a while I guess. The gal in Washington is very faithful in writing. Had a picture from her yesterday. I sure miss the midnight turkey we used to have. Sunday afternoon took in the civilian dance and had some fun and arranged for some in the future. Just a few minutes ago came back from the show. Having movies every night helps a lot. I was going to put in another request for something but I see that packages from the mainland have been curtailed except on request from an officer. Lately I’ve been reading some law books and have read all in the library in town and can’t get anymore that I want. That’s why there has been fewer letters. I get to reading and forget to write. Saw “This Above All” last night but didn’t go for the film version as much as the book. The ending especially seemed to dampen its dramatic punch.

I hate to nip this off in this stage but I can’t do very much about it. It’s hard as heck to write a letter. I’m really feeling fine and getting a lot of good grub and developing a stenographer’s spread working in the office. Tomorrow night means the weekly battery get together in the rec hall. They are quite a bit of fun and everyone that comes seems to have a good time. I’ve almost forgotten what winter is like although it gets pretty cool in the evenings and early morning. I’ll stick myself with a pin where it will do the most good and write more often.

I want to get back to all of you as soon as possible and when I do I won’t take anything for granted as I did before.

Love,

2 January 1943

Dearest Folks:

I’ve really been slackening up writing you and I don’t know why-guess time is going faster than I realize, but lately I have been working in a personnel office and there are many things to find out that I didn’t know. It’s pretty good work—I hope I like it and make out good. Cinemas are available every night here and instead of staying in the billet, writing and reading like I should, I takeoff for the theatre and swat mosquitoes between shifting my aching posterior. The one tonight was a solid murder muddle.

Yesterday was one of those days again that mean a little respite from the routine—it was the first and I was on pass. Ate a good heap of grub then took off for town. Went to the dance at the gym and for the first time the ratio of she’s to he’s wasn’t so great as the last time. Went quite a few rounds and almost didn’t make it back in time.

Here are a few pictures I took when I was on pass. The pictures of the stage and the meal were all taken during the ‘luau’ that I told you about. Most of the fellows seem to be surveying the offering with a quizzical curiosity. I took one of myself with a tentacle of squid dangling from my mouth but apparently it didn’t turn out. The hat I’m wearing is a native boy’s version in palm leaves of a Dobbs cross-country. In some of the pictures you can see the cloud formations I was telling you about.

I had a letter from Dick a few days ago sent from Oklahoma but he didn’t say enough to tell much what he was doing. I hope the next one will be a little more comprehensive. Had a two page manuscript from Gram and a card from the Peters. I never have answered any of the cards sent to me for Christmas and I better make a resolution and do something about it.

It’s really hard to write a letter-or at least it is for me-so little happens that is not patterned and too, I can’t mention everything. But things are very comfortable, good housing, good food and enough facilities for recreation. That’s my version although it might not be everyones. There are all kinds of predictions pro and con on the war topic but the news seems to be looking up-at least as we hear and read it-and I believe it is, although what is ahead will undoubtedly be the toughest.

Now I’m coming to the end of this and that’s always the most difficult part—how to end a letter properly. Maybe I won’t be so crude and unconscious of the time and trouble mixed in my recipe for the last twenty years or so when this is over. I know I want to get back and go to school again. I think about you all the time. Goodnight.

Love,

28 December 1942

Dearest Folks:

I’ve neglected you somewhat in the last few days as a result of a change in the battery but I’m back to normal so there shouldn’t be any more delay. I think that this change is a good one for me and possibly may open some opportunities. The fellows are from New York state and have an accent and a manner I hadn’t been around before. But they seem pretty swell and I hope I make out. And here I don’t have to ‘sanitarize’ in a ditch and wait for Saturdays to see a show or cuss a clogged up lantern for light. I hope I have the same opinion of the place a month from today as I do now.

I haven’t heard from Katie since she got her spouse but I guess she’s pretty wrapped up in the newness of the thing. I sure hope they make out okeh. Had two letters from Gram, and I better answer them tonight. I guess I made a mistake when I asked her for “Harper’s”. It should have been the “American Mercury”. By the way, in Gram’s letters she put quite an emphasis on the qualities of Wylma and what I ought to do about it when the brawl is over. Maybe she’s right but I don’t know. I thought I had a letter from Dick today at first glance and I was disappointed when it belonged to another Moss. Dad’s long V-mail came today. If anyone has a literary style, he is certainly the one but that’s unimportant. Wished I could conjure up enough words like he does.

This is really the limit to my effort tonight. There isn’t much to write about. Going to a show in a half hour and digest a “Horse Opera”. Have about four law books now. I’m going to read them if it takes the duration and six months. Just finished one. I hate to say goodnight but it would take me an hour for another paragraph.

Love,

25 December 1942

Dearest Folks:

Here it is Christmas Day 1942. That’s just about all I feel like saying—today is Christmas seems enough. I guess a guy should have a lot to feel (good) about and write about but I can’t find any words. The day was an easy one and I spent most of it reading and listening to the radio. For dinner we had everything and plenty of it and we exchanged gifts that were put under the tree in the mess hall.

I started this letter last nite but didn’t feel up to finishing it so perhaps I can tonight. Had some films come in today so here are a few.

I just came back from a show at our open air theater—pretty good too.

And here’s a copy of our paper sort of done up in Christmas style. It doesn’t seem any easier to write tonight than it did last (nite) so I’ll let the rest of the contents suffice for this time. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have time and more words.

Love,

19 December 1942

Dear Folks:

It’s time I was writing you again and this is a better time than any. But first your birthday card that came yesterday. I got kind of dewy around the eyeballs when I read it. And the money order was there and it will make my birthday merrier. Thank you so much.

Well tomorrow is the day that we celebrate our Christmas on. It is a fiesta natively called a “luau” or approximately that. The chickens and a pig are cooked on hot rocks in an open pit. And all the eating is done with fingers. I’m looking forward to it—it sounds good. I have my camera loaded so I’ll get some pictures.

Yesterday it seems a little funny then, a sergeant and myself were shopping for Christmas decorations for our mess hall tree. With pure masculine tendencies we bought anything that we thought would be appropriate and ended up with everything from snow for the bottom to a star for the top. The mess hall is being decorated with Christmas posters and cards. A few nights back the Chaplain came over with a little wheezy one lung organ and we took part in a little community singing. A couple of Christmas carols took us back five years or so. The canteen also shows Christmas with some very good posters by the battery artist. By the way, the PX is officially titled “Myrtle’s Mansion”.

While I was relaxing one night about a week ago thought it might be profitable to read something of a professional nature so went to the library and drew a couple of law books and one on economics. One half of them are read and I hope to get time to get through them all.

Recently an outfit installed an outdoor theater of a sort and tonight the first film is being run. This will do a lot to dissolve restlessness in the evenings.

I believe this will suffice for tonight so must leave something for tomorrow. I’ll give you an account of the “luau”.

I’ll be with you Christmas although not in the house.

Love,

6 October 1942

Dear Mother and Dad:

In order to write a little more I’m not using V-mail but hope you will get this in decent time. Yesterday was a boom day for mail so I’ll have plenty to answer although I’ve been writing almost everyday.

Got Dan’s letter and I’ll answer it tonight.

Today had the opportunity to get away from camp and ride around in a jeep to different parts of the island. If you could get a look at these flowers along the road and the beautiful landscape you’d think you were in a greenhouse. Guess I get a little daffy over the sights and the ocean is really blue seen from a high point. I’m so drastically awkward with words that you’ll have to use your imagination.

Expecting a pass tomorrow or the next day—it will give some diversion, a show, a swim and perhaps a round of golf. Theatres are quite modern with good films-in fact the towns near would be likened to any small town on the mainland, excepting the coconut trees and vegetation. Liquor is rationed to a quart a week for civilians but is not available for soldiers. Beer is plentiful but weak. On pass we must carry our gas mask and helmet and have it with us at all time. Civilians have them too but many

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