Spring break - the rest of it
13 hours ago
Just a pause in the diary entries to come to the present
and wish you a Merry Christmas!
I've done a little decorating!
Come on in out of the cold and take a look. . .
Terry brought home these beautiful roses, he knows I love these
white'blush little buds, and I added some
greenery collected from my walk around the lake.
I added some of the fresh evergreens to the entry door.
That is after I sprayed them with a slight frosting of
snow and gold shimmer! A couple of pine cones
and golden pears and that's perfect!
and here, too.
the tree is flocked so naturally lends itself to glass and
silver beads, gold and silver sparklers and
lots of bright white mini lights!
I love the burlap under the tree, the contrast is natural and warm!
Even the kitchen gets a touch of the Merry!
and a little something for Terry's tomato ledge corner :))
Wishing your Christmas is merry, warm and full of laughter
and cheer surrounded by love!
So much happening, with shopping, running into friends, soldiers
and mom shares real emotion!
Read on to see how she spent her day "suit shopping"
"those precious boys"
Sweet, mom!
I can't imagine how she could talk about all the other
Marines she is seeing or plans to see after
he had just proposed to her!
Wished I had a copy of that letter, but I found this one. . .
Sounds so like her, sensible, huh?
And so young.
Who do you suppose this was?
We had left off, before I digressed, on Dec 1, 1942. Tony had to apologize,
there was "petting in the park", some alcohol and
someone sleeping on the lawn!
That all must explain why Dec 2 and 3rd were blank pages!
Those girls!
Imagine!
Well, let's go on. . . it gets better!
Mom sure always made it a point to make it to Mass after her
"wild weekend"! The weekends may have changed
but, as we know, Mom continued her Mass habit!
There were no letters from "Jimmy", no James, no Jim or
anything similar to that I could find in her
shoebox. None from 1942, for that matter. I sure wished
there were. Maybe she kept those in a separate stash.
I'm hoping we still have another treasure to find.
Because Jimmy shows up in her next entry. . .
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. . .
I came home from work the other morning and found an interesting
picture that grabbed me as I walked through the kitchen.
Lying on the counter was an old New York Times magazine
opened to this picture
Terry had found this magazine from 1995 commemorating
V-E Day's 50th anniversary. It was at his mom's. Saved by her because
Terry's dad, Joe, was on this
Terry's dad, Joe, was on this
boat, the Queen Mary, coming home from the war
when this picture was shot.
This is a fascinating account from the soldier's memories. Stories
of 19 year old boys taking off on the adventure of their lives.
Amazing stories, in time, I'll share some. But, as I read some of these,
all these names were coming up and one I though I recognized
from mom's letters. Alas, no, but it got me thinking.
What if I googled some of the soldier's that wrote her?
And so I did.
Corporal Klyne F. Pearcy.
He was the soldier that was smitten by mom. His letters were full
of romance and unrequited love. Like this one:
well, I shouldn't be surprised then by what I found
in the CBI Roundup, a soldiers newsletter, from 1944.
It was a news story regarding a new club formed by
a Corporal in China. Read on,
CBI ROUNDUP
VOL. II NO. 19 REG NO. L5015 DELHI, THURSDAY JANUARY 20, 1944.
New Club
FORMED IN C.B.I. BY CORPORAL IN CHINA
By Lt. FRANK S. WRIGHT
CHINA - It all happened at a rest camp "somewhere in China."
Freed of the cares of his clerical duties and spared the routine of daily military life, Cpl. Klyne F. Pearcy, of a fighter organization in the land of the chop-stick, had only to rest and rest and rest - and dream and dream and dream.
It was too good an opportunity to resist, so why not, he mused, be realistic about those dreams - why not write Dorothy June how madly in love he is with her and how she must meet him at the boat after the war ends, so they can hasten to the parson.
But there was Mary Ann, too, whom Pearcy dreamed he loved madly, and so he must write and suggest to her that eternal happiness would be his if she would but consent to be his bride.
And so both letter were written in Pearcy's most gallant style. The word literally dripped with honey as he bathed his superlatives in the language of the Goddess of Love. The two letters sailed away for the homeland.
Surely, time and fortune would be good to him. There was a 50-50 chance one would accept. If both should, he reasoned, he somehow could manage. It was important now that he plan positively for the future and be assured of at least one sweet woman when he reached home.
"Tis a sad, sad story. Pearcy sleeps restlessly these nights. Came a letter the other day. It was from Dorothy June. But lo, she had received the letter which Pearcy had written to Mary Ann.
Perhaps he really intended to marry both girls - just a bigamist at heart. Now he's in the hottest romantic stew that an ambitious Dan Cupid ever conceived.
And so I nominate Pearcy to be the founder of a new and exclusive G.I. organization - The "I Put My Foot Into It From Over Here Club," and the membership will be limited to those who fogged up from this side of the world, who can't put the blame on some civilian back home for swiping his girl's affections - just for G.I.'s (and officers too) who fumbled the romance from "Somewhere in the CBI Theater."
Just step up, men, those of you who can qualify - address your griefs to the unintentional founder of the club, Cpl. Pearcy, c/o of a fighter group, APO 627.
VOL. II NO. 19 REG NO. L5015 DELHI, THURSDAY JANUARY 20, 1944.
New Club
FORMED IN C.B.I. BY CORPORAL IN CHINA
By Lt. FRANK S. WRIGHT
CHINA - It all happened at a rest camp "somewhere in China."
Freed of the cares of his clerical duties and spared the routine of daily military life, Cpl. Klyne F. Pearcy, of a fighter organization in the land of the chop-stick, had only to rest and rest and rest - and dream and dream and dream.
It was too good an opportunity to resist, so why not, he mused, be realistic about those dreams - why not write Dorothy June how madly in love he is with her and how she must meet him at the boat after the war ends, so they can hasten to the parson.
But there was Mary Ann, too, whom Pearcy dreamed he loved madly, and so he must write and suggest to her that eternal happiness would be his if she would but consent to be his bride.
And so both letter were written in Pearcy's most gallant style. The word literally dripped with honey as he bathed his superlatives in the language of the Goddess of Love. The two letters sailed away for the homeland.
Surely, time and fortune would be good to him. There was a 50-50 chance one would accept. If both should, he reasoned, he somehow could manage. It was important now that he plan positively for the future and be assured of at least one sweet woman when he reached home.
"Tis a sad, sad story. Pearcy sleeps restlessly these nights. Came a letter the other day. It was from Dorothy June. But lo, she had received the letter which Pearcy had written to Mary Ann.
Perhaps he really intended to marry both girls - just a bigamist at heart. Now he's in the hottest romantic stew that an ambitious Dan Cupid ever conceived.
And so I nominate Pearcy to be the founder of a new and exclusive G.I. organization - The "I Put My Foot Into It From Over Here Club," and the membership will be limited to those who fogged up from this side of the world, who can't put the blame on some civilian back home for swiping his girl's affections - just for G.I.'s (and officers too) who fumbled the romance from "Somewhere in the CBI Theater."
Just step up, men, those of you who can qualify - address your griefs to the unintentional founder of the club, Cpl. Pearcy, c/o of a fighter group, APO 627.
Ha Ha, what a guy! He must have been a lot of fun, and mom must have
seen right through him!
November ends and brings in December with Frank and Tony
hot on their heels!
Read on for the weekend that leaves Tony apologizing!
Tony left mom a picture she says, could this be him?
She mentions a "very pretty" Christmas card she got to send? to
a Marine. Well, this one was in her shoebox in an unadressed
envelope, maybe. . .
some Marines loss is our gain!
Mom's Christmas card to us now!
It was all talk about their Marines!
. . . and not much else of Thanksgiving.
And she mentions work.
I found a letter she had written, a draft, that was never sent.
It is to Klyne (yes, Katie, you are right). I
was also anxious to find out how she to writes
to him after his very "excited" letters we've seen.
She talks about work in this one.
I found it interesting. Earlier in the year, she speaks
about how challenging work is and school before that.
Now, she is more adept and well. . . read on:
I guess she can feel a little more confident since jobs are so easy to get!
Her letters are so light, so friendly, and no sense of the romance in return.
Like she always said, "there was no hanky panky!"
Letters!
Some of you may have heard that mom kept a shoebox full of soldiers
letters well hidden away. Well, it was discovered not long ago!
When mom was confronted with her stash, she was a
little flustered at the quantity of admiring
letters that were in the shoebox!
We never went through them, but gave her a little tease
and they were set aside once again.
Then, this entry in her diary got me to thinking it
might be a good time to unearth those letters and just have a look.
Can anyone read shorthand?
Well let's just see what one of those letters said now!
(I couldn't find letters from 1942, or from Jimmy, but this
soldier sure felt she was "swell"!)
Whowza! This guy is smitten!
I don't think all her letters were this red hot!
This next letter, I see, was a month earlier, although by the same
soldier. She certainly got a lot of letters from "Kyle".
That was a lot of fun!
General Zhukov
He was the most decorated general officer in the history of the Soviet Union and
Russia. He launched a counteroffensive attack that encircled the entire German 6th
Army, the single largest Nazi troop formation of the time.
It was November 19th, 1942.
Mom made note of it in her diary.
But, not before a perfectly ordinary
and not so wonderful day:
Africa was well under attack at this time with the Nazi General
Rommel, as you might remember, taking over Northern Africa.
The British had been pushed back into Egypt as the Germans
plan to take over Egypt, push through the Suez Canal
continued. However, a significant change in the course
of the War happened here. The Battle of Alamein at El Alamein in Egypt,
marked a significant turning point of World War II and was the first
major victory by British Commonwealth forces over the German Army. The
battle lasted from October 23 to November 3, 1942.
Mom noted this too:
I was wrong. She was a bit of a historian!
But, in no time, she was just a girl having fun with the soldiers again
Imagine the soldiers meeting their "sweethearts" for Mass at the cathedral!
Hmmm... maybe a good movie to netflix for the weekend
check it out!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035113/
