Just A Matter Of Days

September 4

Norfolk, Va.

Jim's stationery for this letter

Hi Doll,

How is the sweetest girl I know? We just got in this afternoon from Halifax. We had a real good time there. The people were the nicest and most considerate I've met since I've been in the service. 

We didn't get any mail while we were gone and I got six or seven [letters] from you today.  I'm not going to try to answer all your letters. I don't have enough stationery and I must write my mom tonight.

I sure did miss you on our cruise to Nova Scotia since you came out here. I love you more than ever. And miss you more.

Darling, only twelve more days 'til my leave starts. Remember when we were counting months? Then weeks. Now, it's just a matter of days.

We got our new captain aboard. He seems like a real nice "swab," much better than the one he relieved. 

This weekend he gave everyone but the duty section a long (72 hours) pass. 

I called you tonight but you were out, so I told them to tell you I would call back tomorrow.

No, I'm not surprised at Millie G___ "making out" and I suppose you also know how she managed it. 

Sweet thing, I'm gonna sing off for now.

Answer soon.

I love you, Doll, 

Jim

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You Had Better Be Ready

[Editor's note: The envelope for this letter had two paperclips on it, Norma's notation that it held special significance.]

July 12, 1953

San Diego, Calif.

When Jim had money to call Norma, he would have looked
for a phone booth, like this one
Esso Gas Winston-Salem, NC 1956 by Hank Walker

Hi Angel Face,

I don't know how long it will take me to finish this. We have two "odd balls" up here, gabbing all the time. You should meet these two, they would drive you nuts.

Now they are singing. It's so funny. I'll have to stop for awhile. Needless to say, they are both about "three sheets on the yardarm." One of them is supposed to come to Detroit when we get leave and wants me to drive with him.

The other said if we would tell him the night we were going out, he would fly up all the way from Colorado just to go out with us. HA  Do you think it will be O.K. if I go out with them?

I suppose you are "shook up" at me (since I haven't had a letter from you in three days). 

And I guess you have every right to be.

I wrote you about three days ago but forgot to mail the letter. I just found it in my locker tonight and dropped it in the [mail] box.

Norm. I can't say what I want to say in a letter. I want to apologize for not calling you again, but by now you should know the reason. I feel a little guilty about getting out and raising "hell" like we did the first week in the States, but in a way I'm not sorry. I had to get away from this ship for a while. I was about to go crazy seeing and doing the same thing for so long.

I know a guy should put the girl he loves before anything else, but you were so far away and I was so disgusted with everything. I hope you will forgive me although I can't promise I won't do it again because under the same circumstances, I would probably be tempted.

Honey, do you know what I would like more than anything right now? 

I would like to come home, marry you, and settle down. Now, it's nothing more than a daydream, but if you will let me, I'll make it come true. 

I'm tempted to ask you to marry me while I'm on leave but I know it's no good, not as long as I'm in the service. But when I get out, then I'm gonna ask you and you had better be ready.

I gotta sign off.

Answer soon

I love you, sweetheart,

Jim

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The Good Humor Man Is Coming Around

May 8, 1953

Vintage Good Humor Ice Cream truck and vendors,
image courtesy of Classic Concessions

Hi Honey Doll, 

I wrote you last night, but I got three letters from you today and I can't get as much behind as I did before.

This is one refueling day that I rested. I haven't done anything at all but sleep.

The boys in my section all call me "the old man" [Jim was 23 when he wrote this]. There are 7 of them and only one is over twenty. Just now, one of them walked up and gave me a book he said would be appropriate for me. The title was "Sex After Forty." HA 

One of the guys got a letter from his girl friend today. She sent him some real seductive pictures of herself. In one, she had nothing on but a pair of lace panties, but it isn't too revealing. In fact, she doesn't have very much to reveal. HA  He is sitting on his bunk, looking at them now and every so often he says, "Damn, I wish I was home."

Honey, if you sent me pictures like that, I would swim the Pacific getting home.

"No," I never read "Hamlet" in school. I read "Ivanhoe" and "Lady of the Lake." 

"Yeah," if the Good Humor man is going around, it is spring. I think that's what I'll be when I get out, a Good Humor man. HA 

If those damn Tigers don't start winning pretty soon, I'm gonna get razzed off this ship.  If they don't do better, I might refuse to see a game when I'm home. 

[Editor's Note: Jim shouldn't get his hopes up. The Tigers finished the season 40 games behind the Yankees who took the American League that year.]

So, you have been "swinging the swab," eh? Well, you have nothing on me. The "X.O." makes us wash bulkheads (walls) in our spare time.

We got good news today. The air officer got his orders. I don't know when he's leaving, but it won't be long.

Yesterday, we were putting on an air show for 48 big "wheels" that came aboard. The weather was too bad to fly strikes, but they flew off and came right back aboard. I asked one pilot why he wasn't flying.  He said he wasn't going up in bad weather for nobody, not this close to going home. And that pretty well sums up my feelings, too. I'm not gonna take any chances at all. If one of those birds spins in, I'm gonna run in the opposite direction.

That raise sounds good. Wish I could get one.

Well, darling, I've got to sign off. So answer soon.

With all my heart, I love you,

Jim

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