July 18, 1945

July 18, 1945

San Marcos

Dear Mother:

I really don't feel like writing but I guess you are wondering what has happened to your little wanderer. I'm sorry I don't write more but it seems to be just one of those things.

I had intended to write Monday night but I got side tracked.  I probably have written that I have a pair of swim fins but I don't think I told you that I also have a pair of underwater goggles.  You know with the combination you can have all kinds of fun chasing the little underwater creatures.  If you are quick enough you can catch pollywogs and things like that.  But as I was saying I got side tracked the other night.  We decided that if you can see those fish underwater why not try our luck at spearing them; so we made some fish spears.

Goggles have come a long way, thankfully.

We went down to Sub-depot and borrowed and begged until we had what we wanted.  We made the spears out of steel rods and made brass heads for them.  We put detachable long handles on them and had a lot of fun making them collapsible, so you can put them in a hand bag.  We just had a lot of fun.  Now you know why this letter is late.

Well I guess you know I am still spending my weekends in Austin.  Addie Mae and I really have a lot of fun together.  We go out Saturday night and go dancing or just go to a show or something.  Sundays I go up to their apartment and they cook dinner for me.  I lay on the sofa until dinner is ready with my shoes off and with a T-shirt listening to the radio after a really wonderful meal, they can really cook, back to the sofa I go and listen to the radio some more and go to sleep while they do the dishes.  Boy! what a life, almost like home.  Maybe you had better look out before you lose a son in the process.  It's funny though that I can have so much fun and just feel about them as I do any other girl.  I doubt if I shall ever get married.  I have more fun finding nice girls that can cook and have big soft sofas in the front rooms.

Just because it's funny.

Well we have to fly this afternoon.  They are kind of  half hearted by putting us through the AT-7 transition school here.  We are to get 10 hours a month in these sparrows and maybe get checked out. We go up and shoot landing and go out of the area to do single engine procedures.  There is not much to flying this plane but landing it is a horse of a different color.  The controls are so touchy and the least bit of movement has a terrific effect on the ship.  Also we are supposed to make wheel landings and a good wheel landing is a bouncy landing.  In fact if you can land in 3 bounces, you are considered a hot pilot.  I am not yet a hot pilot.  They are a lot of fun to fly for a change, but the time doesn't mean much as far as we are concerned.

It is time for dinner but I don't feel much like eating.  Breakfasts don't agree with me too well and make me feel groggy.  About dinner time I feel like I have rocks in my stomach and not hungry at all.  Maybe it is because I don't get much exercise.  However I drank a couple bottles of beer last night and that may be the cause.  I was just thinking that the next time Pop rather jokingly asks me if I want a beer I will take him up on it.  I don't really like beer but you acquire a taste for such things just to be sociable.

I was going to send you some pictures but the young ladies in Austin want to see them for some reason so you will have to wait a few more days.  How mothers suffer.

I heard the "Pops" Saturday night and heard them say it was the last one this year.  I guess I was halfway scheduled to be there rather than listening 1500 mi away.  But I suppose you couldn't do everything but I could close my eyes and visualize things.  Maybe I can get home when they are out on the Charles.  That could be fun also.

It seems to me that Pop is rather busy.  I just wonder what is becoming of all the money.  Maybe he is salting it away so he can retire but I'll bet he has got some scheme up his sleeve.  As for me I am going to buy a big car and an airplane after the war and the way it seem stop be going I will be out of a job very soon.  I hope so, so I can get back to B.U. and flunk another accounting course.

So William is an old Foran man.  Well I guess he can tell you just how the thing works which is a lot more than I could do.  My knowledge of Foran is limited to what happens when you twist this and that knob and why this and that happens when this and that do-dingest goes wrong.

I am afraid my letter is getting long and boring besides I ran out of ink.  Maybe I had better call it quits and go eat anyway.  I have got to write some more letters but I haven't got time.  My mail piles up, I have to write to Lenny, besides Esther and Mary and Pop always like to hear from me, besides all my other fans around town.  Maybe I can get a private secretary to mimeograph them off.

With love

Austin

How would you like to come to Texas?

December 28, 1944

Roswell Field

Dec 28, 1944

Dear Mother:

I haven't written you in a couple of days so you must feel a little slighted.  Not much happens so I just can't write about nothing at all.

It snowed here last night and it really looked grand.  Things always quiet down so when it snows and everything looks so clean.  It was only about 1 inch of snow but it was 1 inch more than a lot of the fellows had ever seen.  Of course there was a snowball fight first thing this morning and quite a number more until the snow was all gone.  Everyone had a lot of fun out of it and I wish it had stayed for a couple of days.  Maybe the next one will stay longer.

Actually it is not cold enough here for heavy clothes.  However it seems awful cold so I don't know what I shall do if I get home soon.  It must really be cold where you are and I hope to be soon.  I can't remember if I have any heavy clothes to wear.  Probably William has them all and I will freeze.

We are going to meetings at 10:00 and 1500 each day just to see that we are still on the post.  It is the same old deal that we had while at Luke Field.  We have nothing to do so they have a little get together twice a day to see that we don't have too much fun in town.  It gets to be a pain in the neck after awhile.

We go to the movies every other night because we have nothing better to do.  The pictures are usually very good and recent Hollywood releases.  It seems that the Army Posts get to see the films first, maybe to see how well the public likes the pictures and maybe because they figure that seeing what a great sacrifice we are making we should see them first.  Then after we come back from overseas we can go to the neighborhood theaters and catch up where we left off.  Most of your pictures are rather stale when I see them listed in the paper.

A good friend of mine got married on Christmas Eve.  I believe he is a Protestant and his wife a Catholic so we have our fingers crossed.  She is a School Teacher whom he met here in town about 3 months ago.  He claims he loves her and she is rather quiet about the whole thing.  She is about 4 years older and at one time engaged to a fellow lost over Germany in a B17.  The boy's folks are separated and he was one of those fellows who lived half a year with his mother and half a year with his father.  We all wished him all the luck in the world and I imagine he really will need it.

Well enough for the scandals.  I am about to do some washing and then go to bed.  Maybe I will be home soon, sooner than you think.

I hope!!!!!!????

With love

Austin