Letter #337 March 25, 1944

Mar 25, 1944 Sat. Eve. Sweetheart; I guess it's Sat eve, but not sure. The days are so busy and go so fast out here in the woods, it's hard to keep track of the days. This letter may be a little hard to follow. I'm laying on my bed roll and I see the lines aren't as straight as they might be. I've done a lot of writing before, laying down, but I have a pillow to slant the board on. I didn't do like Brownie. When he unrolled his roll the other night, there was his pillow. We got a kick out of it and have been kidding him ever since. Some field soldier when you need to bring a pillow along. Think maybe he's got something there at that. This damn rain coat of mine gets rather hard. We brought along a couple of big tarps and a lot of odd pieces of canvas, so we have one large tent for the six of us and have plenty left to lay on the ground to keep out the dampness. Very heavy dew at night. Almost like rain. We always pull the half track up close to the tent and hook a trouble light to the battery so we have electric light in our tent also. Some class to us. We've had beautiful weather the past three days. Not too warm, just nice and crisp in the morning and evening and perfect during the day. I imagine it was about 75 degrees today. Clear and bright. I had guessed it when I figured we would be busy. We sure are. This is the first night we haven't worked until at least 10 and some nights we have been a hell of a lot later. Time out for a laugh. It's dark out now and Brownie has been heating some water to wash and shave. He'd packed it about a 1/4 mile from the creek and now, after he had heated it and was ready to wash he stumbled over a stump in the dark, between the tent and the fire, and spilled the whole pail of it. First I heard the pail hit the ground and then Brownie began to swear. Now he is sitting here trying to make life miserable for Gebby. Gebby has hung his mosquito net over his bed. It forms a square canopy about 3 ft high over the bed. We've been catching June bugs and putting them inside. Won't he have a nice lot of bedfellows when he comes in? I can hear it, if he doesn't come in until we turn off the light. He's outside playing cards by the campfire. There must be at least 50 of them in there and getting more all the time. I'm so busy putting bugs in his bed I'm not getting much writing done. Brownie sure is getting a hell of a kick out of it. So are the rest of us. Now, to go back to the story. The tanks have been doing very well considering. They have been through a lot of tough country and covered quite a lot of miles. Yesterday we took a road march [on the highway] of about 80 miles and we had all the tanks in by about 3 in the afternoon. Gebby just came in and got in bed with his bugs. He didn't see them for a minute and then he blew his top. He's still picking bugs. Back to the trip. We traveled from the bivouac area to Pitkin, then to Oakdale, then to Oberlin, and back to the bivouac area. You can find those towns on the map. You know the one I thought was in the book case and wasn't. It was a rather interesting trip. Saw a lot of country I had never seen before and most of it is lots better looking than we have around camp. Some rather nice farms and homes. Gals too. Too bad I'm a married man and faithful to my wife. If was single and didn't have to work tomorrow I think maybe I would find some meat for my tiger. All the boys that had their work done are off and can stay out until Mon. morn. We have enough work to keep us busy until noon tomorrow at least, maybe longer. Monday we move our bivouac area to someplace around Oberlin and then Tues. night we come back here, I guess. Blackout drive. That means no lights on the vehicles. We haven't had time yet to get into the syrup - Tomorrow maybe. There is lots more I could write but I don't know if I'll get a chance tomorrow so I think I better answer a few of your letters now. I got your weekend one yesterday and Mon & Tues. one today. I meant to send your menu the other night but I see when I get out the letters I didn't. Getting forgetful or something. I can very well imagine how the basement looks. It used to be an every Sunday morning job for me to keep it clean at all. Don't worry about it. I'll clean it up. Can't hurt anything. You're still as perfect as I want you to be even if you don't keep the basement clean. My job anyhow. I love you sweetheart. I guess I put one over on you, about having the car with us, didn't I? I've been thinking about it all along. If we only had good enough tires so you wouldn't have trouble on the road, everything would be set. We'll wait and see what happens. I know you are a very capable person, I've said so more than once, but I don't think you're much at changing tires or monkey wrenching a car. So Gus is in the navy. Good for him. It's as good or better than most places. When does he report for duty? You speak of maybe being persuaded to lay your book down if approached properly. I can't say I know the proper approach but it usually seemed to get results at that. If the approach doesn't meet your expectations you can start in with your teaching right there. That is if I can wait long enough for any instruction. I don't think I will at first. I love you and I'm hurtin to show you. You are not a bitch and never were. Never will be either. You used to be a bit "ouchy" at times, but who isn't? By far, the largest part of the time you were your own sweet, lovable self, sometimes even a bit passionate. Boy do I like you that way. Wow. Well, honey the boy wants to go to bed so I guess I have to quit. Night, Sweetheart. I love you, I miss you and am thinking about you. You are a sweet thing to think about. I love you so much. your hubby. Norm.