January 9, 1944 Sunday

Hello my Honey,

I'll bet you're listening to the Sunday p.m. symphony the same as I am, Mozart's piano concerto, etc. -- the program comes at 2 p.m. here. Hope you are fine today, and doing something you like. I love you very much.

Yesterday we took lunches and went on an all-day convoy with half-tracks and 2 platoons of light tanks. It snowed, but was fun. Many funny things happened, which I liked best of all. Got out at 5 and Tom and Jim and Herm Schofield and I took off for Louisville. After scampering around for rooms and tickets we made an exact tie with the first note of the Ballet Russe in “Serenade.” It was a very beautiful program, and of course we will have to see some ballets together often in the future. Like poetry, it looks ridiculous at first, but as you get “into” it, you understand it more. The grace and dexterity of the men gave me the biggest thrill, I think, tho there are many things I will remember from the program. You can jump up into the air and flutter your feet the way they do, can't you? Really very difficult to do, I'd say, but fun to watch. The ballerinas are sexless things, pretty muscular in the legs and flat-footed. However, far be it from me to it against them, the lack of sex appeal made them better able to express other things in their dancing. The orchestra was very good. It was an A-1 program all around and a big cultural event for me. Also made me feel good because when I was in New York I bought tickets to see them and failed because I had to come back to get into R.O.T.C. I caught up with 'em, tho.

Back to the Hotel Seelbach for a few drinks and a long sleep. Tried an “old fashioned” and found it to be one of the best. Tom and I came back to camp right after a breakfast of tomato juice, boiled eggs, coffee and toast. Now we are listening to the New World Symphony, I'd say, by the sound.

Your watch is seeing service every day. It gains just a little every couple days. Will have it regulated sometime because it's capable of being on the button I can see. It isn't serious enough to go to any trouble over, tho. I like it an awful lot, and always say “hello, Marjorie” to it when it shines up at me in the dark. Can't help appreciating what a lucky fellow I am to have such a girl – almost said wife. Tom and Jim and Herm haven't and they wish they had very much. Tom, particularly. We are much better off than they are. They haven't got anything to look forward to, even.

Yesterday almost everybody picked up a whole lot of gigs and I didn't, so it about evened our totals up. Guess we'll have a big crew in next week-end. One got 8 gigs in one day, beating my own record. Misery loves company. We finished our mechanics course yesterday and start on gunnery tomorrow. M1 rifle all this week. Tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm on table waiter, so will be very busy – will try to write, tho, if I get any time off at all. Thursday thru Saturday we are on the range and have to get going an hour earlier than usual. Gunnery lasts for weeks and weeks as a course. Can't get over the types of things I'm doing. So far, they have been much more enjoyable than basic, but nevertheless are things that just don't happen to me. I'm quite nonchalant in a tank now altho a month ago it would have been easier to imagine myself as a pursuit pilot or something. Very interested to see where all this ends. Life is full of surprizes, isn't it? Win, lose, or draw we've got some colorful days ahead. A full range of emotional experience is better than just a hum-drum routine life, don't you think? You see more things, anyway.

We have just a sprinkling of snow here, and cloudy, muddy weather. It gets the Colorado men, but reminds me a lot of New England. Opposite from Georgia, Kentucky is a state I'd like to visit with you after the war. We'll come to Louisville and I'll show you where I've been there and maybe go to some new places. Saw the Gold Vault building at the Fort today, for example. Oh, Bunny, we've got a lot coming.

I love you, I love you, I love you,
always,
Wallace

Dear Bunny:

This is an annex to my Sunday letter containing:
1.One (1) Ballet program
2.Two (2) tanker portraits by Bill Smart
3.One (1) tanker portrait by W. Russell
4.All my love
Yours always,
Wallace