A Quiet 4th of July

July 5, 1943

Dear Mother,

You should have about a completely furnished apartment by now. That is if your furniture got in as it should have by now. You won't feel at home now with all that stuff underfoot.

Did Dad enjoy his dinner date? I hope he ate a T-Bone steak for me. I haven't had a good steak for ages. Are you sure you didn't slip over and crash the party. I'll bet you thought of it anyway.

Did you know that mail gets here quicker from Springfield than it does from St. Louis. Mail takes about five days from St. Louis and four from Springfield. I think the mail going to Los Angelas causes quite a delay. Those air-mail letters take about three days.

I spent a very exciting fourth of July sleeping. This is the first time I can remember ever spending such a quiet 4th. Did you enjoy the show that you intended to see? They had a U.S.O. show here in the evening. Supposed to be some movie stars. There was one star (not very well known) and the show was so corny that the fellows would hardly let it go on. If they don't bring better shows they might just as well stop them all together.

You know this desert makes a guy awful lazy. I sleep all night and then want to sleep all day. Of course the officers have something to say about that daytime sleeping. You crawl under a truck, scatter tools all around and then stretch out and relax. That old buzz saw just hits a lick or two when the officer pokes his head under the truck and asks "are you working or sleeping" to which you naturally answer, "Working sir - that last trip loosened all the bolts under here and it's quite a job tightening all of them." Sometimes it works and other times it don't.

I'm going to send my watch home in a few days when I find something to pack it in. It stopped the other day. I don't know whether it's just dirty or maybe I hit it on our wild ride across the desert. I'm sending it to you maybe you can have it looked at and if it's not too bad have it fixed and cleaned and return it. If it's too bad just forget about it.

I've got to quit now and do some sewing. They changed me from a technical corporal to a line corporal. It's the same pay but a few different duties.


Love
Kenneth