Go Happy. Go HoJo.

April 23, 1954

"At Sea"

Howard Johnson’s restaurant and ice cream shoppe postcard – circa 1950’s

Hi Sweetheart,

What's cooking on the old homestead?

"Boy," this damn Yankee weather is about to get me down after those hot days in Cuba. We haven't been to Norfolk yet. We went to Rhode Island to drop off the air group and are on our way to Norfolk now. Wish you were going to be on the dock to meet me.

I got your Easter card today. It is very nice. Thank you, honey.

I'm trying to hurry along to finish this before the ballgame starts. After that, I doubt I will be able to write much. 

You will have to excuse me. I've been fighting Civil War again and neglected you for the moment. One thing for sure, when conversation lags mention the war and it immediately picks up.

Sounds like you people almost ate the Howard Johnson place out of chow. Wish I could have been there to help you. 

In the last hour I've written three lines. We have been talking baseball. 

These guys like to shoot the "bull" almost as well as I do.

So, John [Parker] has another Nash. I knew he wouldn't be without a big car for long. Sounds like it has everything on it but a clothesline. Does it make a bed? 

Tell Ruby [Turley Parker] I do remember when she showed me around the [Detroit] News.  I enjoyed it very much.

[Editor's note: Ruby Parker was one of the few women who worked for a newspaper setting type in the 50s. The profession was predominately male at the time and Ruby was widely considered to be excellent at her job.]

Honey, do you think you could get me a job singing with the "Glee Club?" I could really do with a deal like that? And if you and I were on TV together, they would probably sign us to a movie contract.

Baby, if you kiss me once for each year, it will take quite a while. I'm getting pretty old. 'Tis a nice thought, at that. [Jim's 24th birthday was March 31.]

Gal, it's been two hours since I wrote a line. I've been talking over our part of the war with a guy who was on another ship in Korea. He was talking about a bomb hit they got on their flight deck. I remember seeing it go off. We were operating with them in task force 68 at the time. I guess it killed several guys and hurt some more. This guy I was talking with was a crash crewman on the ship. He said they had a "hell" of a fire.

We were at sea all day Easter Sunday. We were on our way to Mayport, Florida. The captain wished us all a happy Easter, then tried to get the ship docked that afternoon so we could go ashore, but they wouldn't let us in the harbor.  

"Oh, yeah," did I tell you the air department got an excellent on the training cruise and the "V-1" division got an outstanding on most of the operations. 

The air department officer was really proud of V-1. He was slapping all of us on the back. They he bought ice cream and cookies for us. 

I had better sign this off before it becomes a book.

Answer soon.

All my love,

Jim