12 Oct Coasting, May 18, 1945
It feels like we’re entering a new period in the direction of my Dad’s letters now that the war has officially ended in Europe and he’s not sure of his direction. This long letter to Mary shows concern for all the things that are out of his control at home: his daughter is in the hospital, Mary’s very unhappy, and his Dad is not well and no one is telling him what’s wrong. Meanwhile, ping-pong has become the major source of joy in his life! Go figure?!
Interesting note hand-written above the date of the letter about the stamp on the envelope. I’m including the image here in case anyone reading this knows about the value of this “fake stamp”?
Note the trick airmail stamp! Think it might be a curio someday? Such as the misprint coins? It’s a military necessity, they tell us
18 May 1945
Good evening darling, Poor li’l kid. You sound so unhappy in your May 7 letter, and I can’t blame you, with Karen in the hops. How is she now, baby? I’m very anxious to hear. I also recvd a ltr from Dad, and I’m very worried. His last letter was pretty disorganized, and this one made me feel a little sick. It was not only practically illegible, but the words didn’t make sense. I have just written to Mom to ask her to have Rene find out what the story is and tell me. I have hunch that they know but are afraid to tell me anything. Just wanted to tell you about it.
I’m enclosing another picture of the Admin. section, and a couple of action shots of me and Lt Moore shooting a game of horseshoes. That’s some fanny I got there, ain’t it? And in case you wonder what the hell I’m doing in the other one, I’m scraping the dirt back into the hole with my left foot as he’s shooting.
The box with the china and pictures (I’m hurt. I thought that the wooden pictures were pretty nice, and you don’t even mention them) was from Nice, as was the perfume and a third box of pictures (which my friend Madeline was to mail for me). Three boxes, in all, from Nice, and I’m sure that I wrote to you about them, and you probably have the letters by now, anyway.
Doggone it, I can’t get over Dad’s letters. I wrote to him yesterday, but went on the same as though his letters were perfectly normal. I also wrote to Ruth Wilson today. She sent me a five dollar bill in a letter a few days ago. Why don’t you give her a ring and invite her up some week-end?
Since I started this letter, Col Bettman came in and says “Neibauer, I think I’m ready to trim the pants off of you in ping pong”. So I says something modest like “I hate to take the confidence out of an aspiring young athlete like this, BUT —” and we went out and had four fast games and I’m still champ. Them Spalding and I were trounced at two fast games of badminton by the old man and Lt Roe, after which we took them down to the rathskeller and bought them a couple of beers, and now I’m finishing this letter to my ol’ cutie-pants.
Be sure to let me know all about how Karen is doing. I haven’t received the V Mail that you mention intending to send anent (?) same. I must go up and wash and shave before I go to bed, darling, and there isn’t much of anything new anyway, so I think I’ll be running along. I hope that you didn’t worry too much about Miss K, and that she didn’t have too much trouble. I imagine that they had her pretty well doped up so that she didn’t know much of what was going on, hmm? Did she know you when you went to see her? Was she upset about being away from home and mama? Let me know all of those little things about her, darling. You see, I’m missing out on all of the cute things that she says and does, so if you have time to put them in a letter, I’d love to hear them. Gee, but I miss you guys. All my love, darling,
Rollin
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