December 12, 1943

Sat. 3 P.M. Dec. 12, 1943

Dear Mother:-

I received your letter a few days ago and as you know I was glad to hear from you. I have this afternoon and tomorrow off so I'll try to write a few letters. I have so many to write I hardly know where to start. About the only time we get time to write is on the weekends. I got a card from Lillian and also a Xmas card the first part of the week from Uncle Henry. I believe I told you in my last letter that I got a Xmas card from the Ed. Roberts.

We have been having some awful hot weather this last week but today it is cloudy and has rained a little today. I sure hope the weather stays nice the few weeks that I'm here yet.

I got my pictures last week and set them to Dora. I guess by this time she brought you one. They aren't very good but still they are better than I thought they would be.

Well next week this time I guess Dora will be in Jacksonville waiting for me. I sure hope I can get a week end pass so I can meet her. I should be able to get a pass if I haven't K.P. or guard duty as I never did ask for a pass since I've been here. I guess she will have a time getting a room after her 3 days are up here at the camp. Rooms are awful hard to get down here now.

A lot of fellows left this afternoon on a sight seeing trip to St. Augustine which is the oldest city in the United States. There bus fare was to be about $1.25.

We had 4 hours schooling and a picture show on malaria fever this week. They tell us about this as the camp is in a low spot and a lot of mosquitoes breed around here. They have men out working every day spraying oil on the ponds and cutting weeds to keep the mosquitoes from breeding.

We were kept real busy this last week. We had night classes until after 9 o'clock 2 nights. During the day we had code; pole climbing and hooking up switchboards and telephones. Just 6 more weeks basic training here. Time has sure flew by fast since I've been here.

I was just out to see if I had gotten any mail but I never. I thought maybe I would get the Staunton paper. the mail is coming in very slow now. I guess there are too many Xmas cards & packages to slow things up.

Have you heard from Freddie this week? He never did answer my letter but I guess he is like I am most of the time, just hasn't time to write. I guess some of that Army life is tough on him as he is pretty big. Couldn't they do any thing about getting him a discharge for being over 38 years old? I thought John Lee was going to try and get him out. Has he forgotten again?

Well I believe I told you all I know so I'll close and will write you more later.

Gus


Dad seems to fill most of his time off writing letters. Sounds like he had been getting mail from family and from Staunton townspeople. His cousin Lilly Glenn has written, as has her father Henry Brackhane, both of whom lived in Athens, Illinois. His brother Freddie wasn't ever much of a letter writer, even when away in the Army, so Dad has been asking his mother in nearly every letter he's written whether she's heard from him.

I think that this picture, because it is so different from other pictures of him from this period and because only a couple of copies were found, is probably the one that that he write of in this letter and in a couple earlier letters.