Tag: Army

1938 May 11 Expecting to Fly

Editor’s note:  On May 3, 1938, the concentration camp at Flossenburg goes into use.

Another hit song from 1938 was “Thanks for the Memory” by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKgUq5dziEk

5/11/38

Marty Gal:

I haven’t, written for some time, as I heeded your warning.  I shall send this through Vera, as you already know.  It is not hard to see how some people would find it hard to believe that we’re on a pals basis.

I was glad to hear from Mother that you had been in to see them.  The family seemed to enjoy the visit, and haven’t asked any questions at all.  I doubt if they shall, for they are not that way.  They miss me more than they let on, and I am reasonably certain that they enjoy having other young people in the house.

No word has yet been received from the army, as they won’t make the final decision until the fifteenth.  I am on pins and needles, as it means so much to me.  I should know if I am going by the middle of next week, although I am trying not to expect word.

School is going to pot, although I am getting up a little ambition for a change.  I may be able to come out with all B’s if I am lucky, but that two weeks surely took me for a ride.

Margaret may be up there sometime this summer, and hope you get to meet her.  She isn’t the most attractive girl in the world, but she certainly does have what it takes as far as I’m concerned.

I yet have your letters in a safe place.  If you ever want the ones you had to destroy, I think I have copies of all of them.  This is strictly between you and I.  I appreciate your thinking of me and destroying them.

I must away to school now.  Will write more later.

Damn!  Mother asked Margaret to spend a couple of weeks up in Chicago when Margaret and I were home Xmas.  This afternoon, with all plans complete, she backed down!  I’m so damn mad I could shout.  I never knew anyone could lie so rapidly.  Listen, honey, was I bad influence on you when you were young and innocent?  I’d commit suicide if I thought as little of me as they do.  We may yet be able to persuade them, but I doubt it.  Well, a couple more years and we can thumb our noses at them.

Let me know how you’re doing etc.

73,  Cy

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1938 May 12 Confessions of love

5/12/38
Dear Marty:

I am writing this against my better judgment, but I trust that you will destroy it as usual.

I sent a letter to you yesterday via Vera, which didn’t say much, and you may get this one before the previous one gets to you.

I’m awfully glad that you had the day with my folks.  I think they are peaches, and they all said how much they enjoyed your visit.

Wish I could help out on the speedwriting, but can’t see it just now.  Maybe after I get out of debt I can do some good.  I’d do it for any of my pals, and haven’t forgotten all of the things you did for me.  Certainly hope you can get located.

I shall probably hear from the Army by the end of the month.  I shall be in Chicago for a couple of weeks before I leave, and shall certainly haul my shoulder around to be cried on.  Do you remember the night I left for college?  Seems as if I did a little crying on yours then, so it is your turn now.

I was afraid you’d find fireworks in Wheaton.

Thanks for reading my article.  I hope someday to write something that human beings can enjoy, and not just engineers.  I have a book in the process which might interest you if I ever finish it and get it published.

About Bill and Jo*.  They were all set for us to go places together.  I didn’t give them any encouragement one way or the other.  They think more of me then they really should, and as a result, they felt a little badly towards you when you married Bill.  I have always kept my mouth shut on the subject because there really wasn’t anything I could say.

Well, you asked for it—“what you really think.”  And please don’t be hurt by it, honey, as you know I feel towards you.

I’ve been waiting for this to happen for the past two years.  After you were down here that week-end, I determined to pop the fatal question as soon as school was out and I was sure of my ability as a college-trained radio engineer.  I had no idea that you and Bill were so serious.  When I got home that summer, I couldn’t make connections with you and didn’t [know] what to think.  When you called me at Johny’s that night and told me the dope, I was practically floored.  I wasn’t the least bit mad, just scared stiff.

The net reaction was my wild summer with Marje.  I haven’t been balanced emotionally since then.  Although my social standing is better now than it ever has been, I have dropped to a first-class drunken bum and less.  That is really straight shooting.  My grades have dropped in proportion to the amount of alcohol I have imbibed, and they are plenty low.  I’ve recently gone on the wagon, about 1 beer per week, and grades are already higher.  But it hurts like heck not to have the stuff.  I have the reputation among the bums around school of being able to hold more beer per evening and yet walk straight than any engineer around, and that is saying plenty.  Well, that gives you an idea of how low I’ve dropped.  I’m going to snap out of it, or know the reason why.

That may explain the Army business to some extent.  I want to get away from all personal responsibility for a while and just think straight and figure this whole mess out.  In the Army, I will be supervised to death, but it will be an easy life for a while.  That will also give me enough money so that that restriction will be removed.

It’s a fine pickle, honey.  Perhaps I never should have let myself want you the way I did.  I do feel very responsible for the entire situation though, as I could have averted things for a while if I hadn’t been such a damned little sissy, and at least asked you what you thought of the idea.

But we’re both bawling over spilled moo-juice.

As to the future, I think I had better let that do until I talk to you.  I want to very badly.  Do you realize, Marty, that during all of the time we have known each other, we have never had a scrap of any sort?

Please let me know what days you have off, if any.  If I have an article in Radio this month, and they said I would, I shall have enough spare cash for a trip up there.  No one need know that I left Lafayette, so it would work out ok.

Drop me a line and give me the dope.  Please don’t draw any conclusions from this letter, as it is too sketchy to justify a complete picture of the situation.

73,  Cy

I shall not sign for obvious reasons.  In case letter should get misplaced or something.

*Bill/”Willy”/”Conk” and Jo Conklin

 

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