China
?/1?/45
Dear Will, Grace and Jean,
Every thing OK on the far eastern front and we have the
situation well in hand. Seriously tho I’m very ashamed of not writing you sooner.
I’ll apologize by getting you a little note thru once a week from now on out, cause
I’ll be here at least long enough to unpack my bags. We have been moving so
fast and often for so damned long (it’s been ?) about all I could do to get a
letter written to Sarah once a day. My
mail (_ _ _) up here and up to yesterday I hadn’t received any for over two
months. Sarah’s letters came last night that that is some of them did, so now I
have all of her letters up to the thirteenth of January and I’ll get the rest
soon. I was sure surprised to find out she was going to Shen. to work. She’s
been such a swell wife to me Grace, much better than I deserve and I’m really
so proud of her to help that way cause she really doesn’t feel too good at
times. You kind of look after her as much as you can won’t you?
In the
states they told me I would never go overseas as I was past the age limit, and
when we left I thot we were going to Alaska. You can imagine how (surprised) I
was when I found where we were really going. We didn’t know till we were out
quite a ways. You know I almost joined the Seabees but now I’m glad I didn’t
for those boys go in where it is rough as the dickens. Somehow I just don’t
like the idea of getting all shot up to save the Chinese. I’ll tell you what I
mean when I get back.
Bill I
have the same kind of job here as I had in Fergus Fall. We are in a big town have
good food no KP and good barracks to stay in. We are far away from any battle
front and I feel swell all of the time so I haven’t much to kick on except
being so damned far from home. This is
about as far away as I can get and stay on the world. The best liquor we can
get out here is Vodka so I had to quit drinking which is just as well.
Jean,
don’t ever believe what your geography books tell you about India and China
being fascinating oriental countries and for golly sake dont join any of
the services. A war is not the least bit
glamourous inany way. We are all so
anxious to get away from here we can hardly wait. When I get my next paycheck
I’m going to send all you kids samples of every kind of Chinese money. It’s not
worth much but I think it will be interesting to you. One dollar of our money
is worth five hundred of their’s. I have been trying to get some Chinese silk
to send you but all they have around here is so cheap and shoddy and dirty it’s
worthless. If I find anything good I’ll send it along.
We flew
over “the hump” from India to here and boys and girls that is really a hump.
You have to go up to twenty thousand feet to get over the darned thing and that
was my first plane ride so I got initiated fast. We sure saw some spectacular
scenery tho and it was quite a thrill. I hope when I start back I can go west
so I can travel all around the world, but I’m not going to be fussy about it,
just any direction as long as I get started soon. From the looks of the wars I
dont think it’s going to be too long before I’ll be packing up to start. We are
all pulling hard for it, cause this is no place to spend your life. The people
here are so dirty and ignorant and poverty stricken that it’ll take fifty years
to bring them up to any kind of a decent standard of living. Personally I don’t see what the Japs want to
take over here for, it looks like a bad job to me. I’ll quit now and write
again soon. Many thanks for all youve done folks.
Love to all of you [signed] Cuffy
Note: I'm using a blurry copy of a copy to transcribe the V-Mail. Mom has the original. If someone could look at it and fill in the blanks and ?'s, it would be awesome.
Large Weasel
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