If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out Of The Phone Booth

July 20, 1953

San Diego, Calif.

Sailors on liberty in Manhattan, ca 1950

Hi Darling,

Since this is the last day in port for awhile, I had better write.

As I told you on the phone this afternoon, we pull out tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock.

I'm really hot to get underway. I'm tired of this place.

I hear we will stop on the Pacific side of the [Panama] Canal for one day and on the Atlantic side for three days.

We arrive in Norfolk the 5th of August, leave again around the 10th for a cruise up to Nova Scotia to show those people how a good carrier operates and we go into dry dock the 5th of September.

"No," I didn't have the snapshots made yet. No excuses. I just didn't get around to it yet.

A guy gave me the keys to his locker when he went on leave. He came back this morning at 4 o'clock. He said when he first asked for his keys, I said, "Go away you 'so and so', I haven't got your keys." 

I don't remember saying that. About the third time he called me, I woke up.

Just goes to show that false teeth may come in handy when you start waking me up.

You asked about Lash. Well, "pore ole" Lash, he's "done been had." He came back from leave today a married man. 

I guess men will never learn, but he says married life is o.k. At least he didn't lose any weight.

Speaking of getting married while I'm on leave, "Honey," I would like to. In fact, I would like nothing better. But it wouldn't be any good for you. Or me, for that matter.

I would be away most of the time. If I had shore duty then you could live near the base and I could come home every night, but while I'm on a ship, I won't be in the States very much. 

That phone booth I was talking from this afternoon was the hottest place I've ever been in. I almost melted away while I was in there. 

I'm pretty tired tonight and have to get up pretty early tomorrow.

So answer soon.

All my love, 

Jim

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Sweet Thing

December 13, 1952

Lost at sea

Hi Norma,

From left: Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, Bing Crosby,
"White Christmas," ca. 1954

It will be at least a week before I can mail this, but I was thinking about you and decided to write anyway.

We are two days out of Honolulu, going to Yokosuka, Japan. We are supposed to arrive there the 22nd of December.

I probably told you already, but they worked the hell out of us in Pearl Harbor and on the inspection there, we got a "Good." I don't know just how good that is.

We haven't had any trouble with our catapults and arresting gear for about two weeks now. Maybe we won't have any more. I hope so. 

Did I tell you, I saw Vera Ellen (the actress) in a night spot in Honolulu? Not exactly Honolulu, a town called Pearl City, just outside Honolulu. 

I suppose she went there to avoid the crowds. A drunk swab (sailor) kept going over to her table and telling her how beautiful she was, also how he would like to take her out. At first, she was getting a kick out of him, but finally she got tired of it. Then the bouncer tossed the swab out. She was with some big, good-looking guy I've never seen or heard of. In fact, I didn't even learn his name. It might have been her body guard. 

[Editor's note: Curious phrasing in the paragraph above and it makes me wonder if Jim was the drunken swab making a play for Vera Ellen or if he was drinking with the "swab." If there was no interaction between Jim and Vera Ellen, how would he be in a position to learn her companion's name?]

It looks like we will be in Japan for Christmas. Oh well, as I said before, it beats Korea.

"Oh," I almost forgot, we haven't had any pile-ups since you started writing again. I think you bring good luck.

I heard on the radio about that guy, Delmore, dying. That's tough. I used to like to hear them sing.

From now on Norm, when I tell you something that concerns me, you believe me, not something that someone else tells you, O.K.?

It seems some people are trying to take care of me. Every time I go out with a girl a few times, someone is getting me married. Even my mother (the dear, old soul) gave me a mother to son talk on the subject of matrimony while I was home. HA  She thinks I should marry before I get out of the service or immediately after. HA  I'm not the marrying type. I'll take that back. Every guy wants to get married some time, but I'm in no hurry. I'm only twenty-two, so I've got lots of time left. I can't see those guys who marry at 18 to 20. They spend time taking care of a wife and kids that should be spent out looking around the country, getting a practical education. 

I didn't even finish high school, but I think I know as much as a college graduate who hasn't been out of the States.

And when I've seen enough and been around enough, so that I can make a good living for a woman and make her an interesting as well as good husband, then I'll get married. You may not agree with me, but that's the way I look at it.

And another thing, if a tourist went to Japan, he would go see things like the shrines in Tokyo, or the abbeys in Yokohama, or the remains of the atom bomb in Nagasaki. Those things don't interest me. I like to be with the people in the middle class, people like myself who work for a living. I like to sit and sip sake with them and talk. Of course, we have trouble understanding each other, but we manage. That way I learn their habits and customs and ways of doing things that are simpler than the way I previously did the thing. That, to me, is an education that surpasses anything a college could offer.

"Boy," I got all wound up here and can't seem to stop. Hope you don't mind.

Glad to hear you are taking piano lessons now. You can play for me. I really love to hear a piano.

That damn shorthand confuses me. I guess that's one thing I can't learn traveling around.

And Merry Christmas to you, honey. I hope yours is better than mine.

The election suited me O.K. That's the way I voted.  [Editor's note: Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in the presidential race.]

I'm losing some weight, but not much as yet, but I will this winter.

Your bowling is improving, keep at it, it is good exercise, if nothing else.

Well, "beautiful," I've "yapped" long enough for a while. Sometimes I get in a mood that I could write all night and this is one of them.

But I've got to sign off. So, answer soon, "sweet thing." 

Love, 

Jim

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You Bundle Of Beauty

Feb. 23, 1952

Sat. night

Poster for the film, "Flame of Araby," ca. 1951

Hi Norma, you bundle of beauty,

I received your letter yesterday. It was the first one in about ten days. 

I was beginning to wonder why you didn't write, but I found out when I read your letter. I don't know why you haven't heard from me in 3 weeks because I've been writing at least every 4th day. You will probably get them all at the same time.

It takes about two weeks for an air mail letter to get here and three weeks for a regular letter.  And sometimes, like a couple of weeks ago, we go 8 or 10 days without having mail-call.  Then some letters I get are mailed a month before I get them. 

Yes, I've heard of Joan Caulfield. In fact, a picture that she is in is playing, or rather soon will be playing, at the base theatre here in Yokosuka. I saw it advertised tonight, but I've forgotten the name of it.

I saw the "Flame of Araby" tonight. It had Maureen O'Hara and Jeff Chandler. Pretty good, too.  

I don't know how you [can stand] that spaghetti (if I didn't spell that right don't blame me, I copied yours). That is one food I can't stand. When we have it on ship, I don't go to chow.

In fact, we haven't had a good meal on this tub in months.

So, you think you're a pretty good driver, "eh?" Well, wait until I come home and I'll give you some pointers. That is, if I can still drive myself. It's been so long since I drove a car, I may have forgotten.

I heard that Eddie C____ got hurt at the roller skating party. Do you know anything about it? Maybe he was trying to make time with some girl and one time too many.

You must be a pretty good skater. I wish I cold skate. I can stand up O.K. but I have to run into the wall or something to stay up.

Well, in case you haven't guessed already, we're back in port again and it is really nice. Mostly to rest. When we're at sea, operating there just isn't any rest for us.

We got in at noon yesterday. Some of the guys went over and came back all fouled up, so drunk they couldn't walk. Some of them were beat up and passed out. One had gotten into a fight and the other guy thought he was a steak and carved on him a little with a knife.

The Doctor put 13 stitches in one wound on his back. I guess I can't criticize them because I "get tight" sometimes myself, but I never get in trouble and I always get back under my own "steam."

No, Norma, I don't think you need my prayers. I don't think they would help anyone right now, but I hope for you the best of luck. 

"Oh oh," the baby of the division just came in from Yokohama a little drunk. He told me all about the "Club St. Louis" up there. It must be a pretty good place. This guy (the baby we call him) joined the Navy at 16. He is 17 now and looks more like 14. HA

I'm glad Doris finally got George. She chased him until he caught her, I guess, but I don't know why he got married knowing that he will be going overseas as soon as his leave is up. I can't "see" that. He doesn't know how long he will be gone or where he is going, but I have a pretty good idea that we won't be too far apart. Just a few miles of water. 

No, that isn't the life for me. When I get married I want to live with my wife. And when I'm in a place like this, I like to be single so I can go out with these girls without a guilty conscience. 

Oh, well, I guess it's O.K. if they love each other enough. 

Well, Norm, I guess I've "yapped" enough, so I'll sign off now.

Answer soon.

Your sea-going mate, 

Jim


[Editor's note: On the back of the envelope, Norma listed the following, which was The Billboard Music Popularity List for March 8, 1952:

7. Shrimp Boats
6. Please Mr. Sun
5. Tell Me Why
4. Cloud [The Little White Cloud That Cried]
3. Any Time
2. Slow Poke
1. Cry]

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