April 10, 1952
Yokosuka, Japan
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Hi Baby,
What's cookin'? By now you should be home recuperating from your New York tour. "Boy," I sure would have liked to have been with you on that trip.
Maybe someday we can take it together, "huh?"
I got the package you sent yesterday and it was wonderful, all of it. The cookies were the best I ever ate, bar none, and the cake was real good, too. The popcorn wasn't very fresh, but it helped to keep the other things fresh.
You should see the guys crowd around when one of us gets a package from home. Usually the one who gets it, gets less of what's in it than anyone else. But when someone else gets a package, I'm always there to get my part.
Thanks for it, Norm. I think you're the sweetest girl I know.
The weather here was real warm today. I did some baseball practice today. I threw some (I'm supposed to be a pitcher) and my arm didn't bother me at all, but my left leg did. Every time I threw a fast ball, it hurt in my hip. I guess it will work out when hot weather comes. If you don't understand baseball, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. If you don't, I'll teach you when I come home.
[Editor's note: Jim was a bit of a baseball legend in his hometown. Nearly 20 years after he left for Detroit, I spent the summer of '67 with my grandmother. Some of the old timers happened to stop by for a chat with Mrs. Parker one afternoon and discovered I was Jim's kid. "Let me tell you about your dad. He was the best," said one. "Oh, yeah," offered the other old guy. "We always went down to watch him play. Threw faster and harder than anybody. Never saw anyone who could play like him."]
"Man," I can't get over all those places you've been. When I come home, you probably won't even look at me.
Honey, if you can get high on a Sloe Gin Fizz and Tom Collins, you won't be very expensive to go night clubbing with, but I sure would have like to have seen that. I almost "busted" just reading about it. HA Have you sobered up yet? HA
No, I don't think you're terrible, you just let yourself loose a little. The trouble with some people is that they hold too tight a rein on themselves and never let go.
Guess I've been letting go too much lately.
Two buddies and I went over about a month ago. It was about 2:00 and the club wasn't open so we bought two fifths of whiskey, they are about 4/5 of a quart each. We drank them and by this time all of us were pretty high. Then the place started opening up. We went to the "Grand Palace" cabaret, had some beer and mixed drinks, then I drank 3 shots of champagne and that was "it." I had done been "had," as we say in the Navy.
I don't pitch those kind very often, I guess it was the only once since we left the States.
That tap room where you celebrated looks pretty nice in the picture. Does it have a dance floor?
That sleeping until 11:00 sounds pretty good. Wish I could pull that stuff sometime.
We're back in port now, but we're leaving next Monday. We only had 9 days in port this time. No, I'm not very busy, now. In fact, in port we don't do anything but kill time. One of the guys said a sailor was nothing but a professional "time killer" and I guess that's about true, but at sea nothing is farther from the truth.
From the way you write, you did nothing on that trip but sightsee and sleep, but I suppose that's what you went for.
The trouble with me is that when I start sightseeing, I always wind up doing something else, usually drinking. If I don't stop, you're going to think I'm a "bum," but honest, I don't drink much when I'm home. There are too many other things to do and most of the people I go around with in Detroit don't drink much, but over here all the sailors drink. So when I go ashore, there isn't much else to do.
Well, "honey," I've got to sign off. I've run out of things to say.
Answer soon.
Love,
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