Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, January 29, 1945

I was very disappointed this afternoon when we had mail call. We received over or about 5000 letters for the Bn and I didn’t receive a single one. I still can’t imagine where my letters are piled up just surely hope some arrive soon. I’m getting terribly lonesome to hear from you. The one that came thru must have come by accident. Some of the boys received ten and eleven today.

Well honey I finally got into town yesterday and enjoyed it very much. I went with Sgt. Waples, Cpl Watson, Laskos and a kid by the name of Thielen. The city is in a way a very sorry looking sight. Many beautiful buildings are badly damaged by bombs. I never realized that a bomb could penetrate six or seven stories and blow out the walls to the ground. Most of the people are small of stature in comparison to the average American. In most cases they are poorly dressed in fact I understand there are practically no clothes in the stores. Most of the shoes worn by the ladies have thick wooden soles and very few of them wear hosiery. On practically every street you see the cafe’s and bars built out over the sidewalk with glass enclosures. Those were mostly filled with GI’s until in the evening, when the French civlians gather for drinking and games. You see them playing   cards, chess, and checkers. Food is very scarce and I understand sandwiches with a very thin slice of spam or spread sells for 30 Franc’s or 60¢. We were also told we could get steaks for 200 franc’s on black market. I was almost tempted to try one of them. We went to a couple bars and drank wine, cognac, and vermouth. It tasted very good. One of the bars was very quaint and quite nice. It had a long bar and a little room to the rear separated by an arch. Their only heat was from a large fireplace and they had skis fastened on the walls above a shelf or mantle running around the entire room. The streets in some parts of the city are very narrow and the buildings down town look very much alike. The price on clothing is enormous with a shirt selling for 2000 Franc’s or $40.00. I hope I get a chance to go in again when the stores are open and am able to get something for you as a remembrance. In this bar I told you about above we met 5 young French boys. They could speak fairly good English and taught us some French. They said they went to school six hours per day and after that they worked in a bomb factory. When we left one of them walked several blocks with us to show us the city. They also gave us their names and phone numbers and said they would gladly show us   around on our next pass into town. The only draw back is riding back and forth in Army trucks and they get very cold. It was terribly cold here last night in fact so cold I got very little sleep. The wind was blowing so hard you could hardly walk against it on top of this mountain. Wow, I just came from our nice little outside latrine and what I mean its cold. I think I'll stay up all night and keep fire, its too darn cold to sleep. The guy that picked this place for camp must have been a lame brain or else some one had some good cigars to sell him on the idea.

Well darling it is now 8:00 PM and I must wash and shave before turning in so better close. Oh yes, I haven't told you today that I Love You (just as tho you didn't know. Give my regards to all.