Letter # 89 September 16, 1943

Sept 16, 1943
My sweetheart;
Hello Chubbins, how are you today? Here it is Thursday afternoon again and I'm flat on my back resting. I'm getting so I can do that better than anything else. I just finished reading your Mon. eve letter. Very nice love letter. I believe you must love me a little even after three years of being with me. I love you too honey and will even after 30 years. The passing time seems to make it just that much better. If I keep on loving you more and more all the time I soon won't be worth a damn for anything else. I'll just want to spend all my time making love to you. It's a very nice occupation and I was very lucky to get such a swell person to share the occupation.
Glad to hear Mickey likes the army. It makes it a lot easier. He seems to be getting a different start than I did. I didn't like it worth a damn there at Ft. Hayes. Probably because they rushed us through so fast. They must not have a place to put him yet. It would be a nice piece of luck for him if they decided to keep him there at Fort Hayes. Tell Louise I'm wondering what they did to pass the time. They hadn't been separated long enough to start a second honeymoon yet.
Yesterday I told you what Ernie did to me, well today I got even with him. He had an electrical trouble to trace out, so while the instructor was setting up the trouble and Ernie was out of the room, I took the test light, took out the bulb and put a piece of paper in the socket and screwed the bulb back in. That fixed it so the bulb wouldn't light.
Ernie came in, tried to start the engines but the starters wouldn't work, so he picks up the test light and starts checking the cables for power. Of course the bulb wouldn't light, but he could tell from the instruments that the battery was O.K. so he just keeps on taking wires loose and checking. No success anyplace. We are all getting a big kick out of it and trying to fuss him up. He checked just about every wire on the tank, and there are plenty of them, so he decided the battery must be so low it just wouldn't turn the engine over. He told the instructor that all the wiring was O.K. and the only thing it could be was a dead battery. The instructor grinned and using another test light, tested the battery and got a light.
Ernie just stood there with his mouth open for a minute and then the light began to dawn. He inspected his test and then took the bulb out, thinking it was bad. When he took it out the paper fell out.
"Who the hell thought of that mean little trick?" he says.
Then he had to go all through his check again but it didn't take him long to find it with a good test light. The instructor asked Ernie if he didn't remember him saying to always be sure the test was good before using it. Ernie agreed and said, " I sure as hell won't forget that lesson for a long time."
We had another test this morning and we both got another perfect mark, so I still hold my 2 point lead for the week. 58 to 60. The next nearest are Grafton & Schindler with 54 each. It looks like another close race.
Wed. we were scheduled to take a hike and some of them did, but I was on a detail again. Took the covers off the mattresses I mentioned piling the other day. Three of us to do the job. About 1/2 hrs work but we had to make it last nearly 2 hrs, so you can see how hard we worked. Nearly killed me.
Gus and I just came back from a walk over to the old Post. Gus wanted some buttons for his blouse. We stopped at the Service Club for another sundae. I also wanted to see if my girlfriend with the "tits" was still there. She wasn't so we didn't stay long. On the way back across the parade field we stopped and watched a bunch of W.A.C.S. doing close order drill. As Ernie would say, There was some pretty good looking G.I. fucking there.
Thanks for the compliment honey. Telling me to go show them how it's done. I'm just an old has-been and beside I haven't seen many that would interest me very much. My wife has 'em all beat and I love her. I'll rest up real good and save all my energy for my Tootsie Wuggles. If she's like she was a few weeks back I'll need it all and then some. Probably wear me plumb out. I'm more than willing to be worn out. I'll try like hell honey.
Night sweetheart. I wait for the chance to try.
your loving soldier
Norm