April 2, 1945 Monday

Hello Honey,

This stationary isn’t very fancy, but you know how things are in this line in the E.T.O. I feel lucky to have anything to write on – my only source of notebooks for official business has been the German army. They have a big supply of very fine quality notebooks. Much better than our own, and each non-com and officer has one or more. Stiff covers, lined, very good deal. 

I seem to be coming out of my lethargy automatically. Spontaneously today I did quite a lot of reading and wrote a letter to the folks. It is rather fun to see just how much you’ll do without forcing yourself at all. It sure has been good just to lay around and have a completely natural rest. Soon I may work up to orientation lectures, who knows?

A new warrant officer moved in to the bed next to mine last night. He had some Belgian francs with him. I have not been in Belgium, Hon, but I begged some of it from him and will send it home to you to add to the pile of things you must have already. By the way, I wonder if you have yet received the box of Paris souvenirs, and also the box of coins, I have sent you. Probably not. I understand it takes quite a few weeks for them to get to the States. To completely jumble the sense of this paragraph, I’ll end it by saying that I have been in Luxembourg, which is a romantic little state.

Now to review my reading for today. It has been weasel-reading, I confess. That is, it was all from a magazine “Omnibook,” which contains condensations of real books. As a rule, I don’t enjoy condensations, and don’t consider them valid or valuable reading. But I did have some fun with them today. I read “China to Me,” by Emily Hahn. She certainly was quite a character. Wrote a book about the Soong sisters, married a Chinaman and had a child by a British officer, only to accept repatriation to the U.S. on the Gripsholm. She was an uninhibited sort, anyway, and a typical international character. No observable moral code, no strong convictions, but brilliant and realistic. Freedom from conventionality was her most admirable quality.

Then I breezed on to “Lost in the Horse Latitudes” by the author of “Low Man on a Totem Pole” [H. Allen Smith]. That brought me a few good laughs. I think the humor suffered from the condensation, tho, because it seemed awfully forced in the version I read. Both Smith and James Thurber write very much in the style of Robert Benchley, but neither one can touch him, in my opinion.

Finally, I found a condensation of “Brainstorm” by Carlton Brown. I have not finished it yet, but it is the most interesting of all. It is the story of a man going insane, and his experiences in recovering. I’ll tell you more about it when I have finished it.

Say, Hon, first you know you’ll be reaching the end of your current activities. Oh, not too soon, but with spring well here, can summer be far behind? You will have your degree, I presume, and school in Westmoreland will be over. What then? We know the hue of my future – O.D. for some time yet, I imagine. So will you forgive me if I think about your future? I like to think about it because the opportunities are unlimited. You can do just about anything you really want to. You might be able to travel some, or study music some more, or even get with that book of yours. Of course, having Grammie to consider might be something of a limiting factor, and also consideration for our bank roll – but as long as it is going the right way I don’t want you to think of that too much. What would you really like to do? That’s what I’d like to have you do, Hon. Even drinking root beer on the Russells’ lawn sounds good to me. Very good, in fact. It’s nearly time to think about getting those battered lawn chairs out. And the croquet set – remember when I hit you in the head with a mallet? One of my romantic memories!! I promise never to do it again, Hon, if you’ll only play with me again. I love you even if I do make such unconscious attempts at manslaughter.

‘Nite now, my Bunny,

Here’s dreaming of you,

Wallace.