Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 20, 1945

  Saturday
20 January 45.
Dearest Gretchen —

I received a letter from you and a card from Dorothy so fared pretty well for today. Your letter was postmarked Feb 9th and arrived in eleven days which isn’t bad time. I received one from you that took only eight days and it was also an air mail. Now if you could only start receiving my mail everything would be fine.

Honey I think you must have gone to a lot of work fixing those little sacks for coffee. At the time I requested coffee I was in Personnel and we didn’t have it available. Now that I am back with the Company in the station we have coffee furnished so it won’t be necessary to send more. However it will come in very handy and I will have some for a later date. The Ritz crackers, cheese and sardines sounds delicious and I can hardly wait until they arrive. Those are the things we never have and consequently have a craving for in fact I requested some of those things in my letter yesterday.

You mentioned receiving your allotment check but no other and I am wondering if you received the $50.00 I sent by P.T.A[?]. Perhaps it hadn’t time to arrive at writing of your letter however if it doesn’t come in by the time you receive this please let me know. We really don’t have need for much money over here as there is nothing to buy in the line of merchandise. In [censored] France we could buy

  wine, cognac, and champagne but up here about the only thing we can find is beer. Most French beer is very flat and much of the wine isn’t too good. Their cognac is really potent and quite similar to whiskey.

I scoured the stores in [censored] and [censored] trying to find some little gift for you. Clothing of course is very scarce and expensive and practically everything in that line requires ration points. I did manage to find a little dickey made of organdy I believe which I sent some time ago. Don’t know whether you can wear the thing or not but any way it came from France.

I am repeating a lot of things in these V-mails that I have written purposely just in case these still arrive head of my air mails so please overlook any duplications. I received a letter from Dorothy a couple weeks back and answered same immediately but don’t suppose she has received hers as yet either.

I have seen the use of plasma demonstrated and it is almost unbelievable. I’m sure most people in the states don’t realize the importance of it as a life saving element. In the case I saw the man was white as a sheet and too weak to talk from loss of blood and shock. Immediately after administering the plasma he perked up and even kidded some with the fellows. The sudden change it can make is really a miracle and there is no doubt in my mind now about the lives it has saved.

 

So Luana was happy to hear of your moving back home. It will be nice if you can spend a weekend with them occasionally. Maybe you can even make the Lone Oak for a steak or are there such things any more. Ha! I received a letter from Luana quite something back and also had one from Leo last week. Seemed good to hear from them. I’m wondering now if Dick[?] wasn’t on that new invasion in the Pacific. I’m beginning to think that theatre of war will be finished before this one and hope it is so we won’t be transferred there. Of course I won’t be happy unless they both end at the same time and soon.

Well darling it is now 5:25 AM so I am going to bed. Have been on C.Q. since three and am a little tired. We have to more or less sleep when we can get the chance.

Bye for now
All my Love Clarence.