It was bound to happen at some point. Given that I located a few letters in a special scrapbook that were not part of the main collection, they weren’t collated properly in chronological order. Here’s a letter written on July 4, 1942. Ten days late, it doesn’t hurt to reminisce about Independence Day, from 1942 or even 2014. Though fairly quiet in comparison, the 4th of July in 1942 must have brought many questions to the minds of those who were sending their sons and brothers to defend our liberties.
July 4th, 1942
Dear Folks,
It is about two hours until we can go out on liberty so I’ll try to answer your letters. We had a regimental review this morning instead of this afternoon. We were expecting to get out on liberty at noon but we will have to wait until four. The navy from Great Lakes is to play baseball with the army from Fort Custer, this afternoon at Briggs Stadium here in Detroit. We expected to be able to go see it, but evidently that won’t happen.
We didn’t go to school yesterday afternoon but heard a talk by a reporter who was on the Lexington. He was an interesting speaker but it was just the same as the articles which he had written for the papers.
Thanks for the cookies, Mom. They were good but they didn’t last long. The string was gone from the outside wrapper but the wrapper was still on so I got it ok. Did you get your rocks?
How many kittens do you have now, Paul? Something happened to ours. Maybe they are back under the barracks.
We are having a Defense Bond drive here on the station with competition between dormitories and barracks. This dormitory is leading in the competition. I am making an allotment for one bond each month. They will be sent to you once each three months. We were hoping to be paid today but guess we won’t get it until next week.
This is certainly a quiet fourth of July. The army is putting on an exhibition of paratroops this evening out at the Ford airport. The big transport planes have been flying around the last two days. This morning they dropped three parachutes to test the wind. The transports follow the river up, flying low so they won’t be so easily detected. It is harder to spot them while flying low than when high in the air.
I got a letter from Nelva today but she didn’t have much news. You know that she and Jim are going to school this summer. She has heard from Myron but of course he couldn’t tell where is at now. I heard from one of my buddies who was in “C” & he is on the west coast now. He had been on the east coast so he had traveled some in the two months he has been at sea.
Wallace, you asked how much I weighed now. I got weighed about a month ago & weighed 143 pounds. You still have me beat a ways. The clothes I got when I came in are pretty tight but I can still wear them.
Guess I may as well close for this time.
Love to all
Lester
The Bridge 