02 Feb February 2, 1945

Letter
from: Mrs. A. Shonkwiler
to: Pvt George W. Shonkwiler
February 2, 1945
7:45 P.M. Friday
Noteworthy: V-mails get there faster.

Hye, honey,

How is my sweetheart today?  Do you know that today, Groundhog Day, is an
eventful one in your life and mine?
Today is my Mom and Dad’s wedding anniversary and they’d have been married 38
years if they were living.  If my daddy hadn’t popped the fatal question I
wouldn’t be writing you now, would I?  And if you hadn’t done the same thing, I
reckon we still wouldn’t be writing one another.  In other words, guess that
question (plus the right reply of course) is what makes this old world go round
and round.

I’ve been writing you V-mails this week since you said they got there sooner,
but tonite

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I felt like writing a nice, long letter, so I hope you won’t mind if it gets
there a little bit late.  Even when I write several V-mails the space is so
limited I can’t seem to go into detail at all and everything seems so cut and
dried.  Right now, tho, I’d appreciate even one V-mail from you, as I haven’t
had a nice letter since Monday, which was dated Jan. 19th.

It was warmer today (20 degrees) so I hauled the car out of the garage and
picked Mrs. Dixon and Bobby up and the four of us went up the Avenue.  I also
went down to 95th and Stony Island and had my car tested for the safety sticker
and passed with flying colors.  Isn’t that wonderful?  After that I went to the
Electric Co. and raised the devil, ’cause my electric bill was $8.60.  He said

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that they’d send a man out to check on it, but said the increase from $5.14
(last month) might have been due to the blower in the gas furnace working so
much more during this cold sub-zero weather we’ve had.  Altho I didn’t tell him
so I s’pose, or rather the refrigerator repairman told me, Mrs. Page’s
refrigerator has been running up my bills at least a dollar per month because
of the shortage of ammonia or refrig. gas in it.  I told you, didn’t I, that
the bill for repairing it was $8.05.  The Pages came thru with $5.00 [3.05] of
it.  Wasn’t that nice, as they didn’t have to.  I also paid my life insurance
today ($8.16) and bought $6.00 worth of groceries.  It seems Ronnie and [I]

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still have to eat, regardless whether we have boarders or not.  That’s one
thing Ronnie gets is plenty of good nourishing food and cod liver oil, even if
we do go ragged.  Sure is a good thing I have a lot of old clothes and can
remodel and wear in spite of not being able to buy new ones.  I don’t mind, as
I do very little that requires nice clothes nowadays.  I’ll buy myself a new
wardrobe when my sweetheart comes home and can comment on how nice I look.  At
least I hope you’re not the type that ignores his wife’s clothes and never
comments on them.

After doing all our chores we went to the Roseland Cafe for

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lunch.  Ronnie sure is an ornery little dickens when Bobby’s along, or is it
that I think Ronnie can do no wrong on his own?  We (Ronnie and I) had pork
loin roast, french fries, gravy, macaroni and cheese, green beans, clam chowder
soup, bread and butter, crackers and coffee or milk and chocolate ice cream.
Between the 2 of us (that is, for Ronnie and me) it came to 97 cents.  Tonight

we had cheese and ham on [a] bun with hot chocolate, some pineapple juice and
Ronnie had an apple, too.  This noon makes about the third meal I’ve had in a
restaurant since July, so you see I don’t get around much anymore.  Guess you
don’t either, at present, so guess we’re

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even.  I’m so glad you’re getting good food at the hospital.  I feel more like
eating myself when I know you’re well fed.  Have you gained back any of the
weight you lost in combat?

As Ronnie didn’t have a nap today, he was in bed before 7:30 tonight.  He slept
until 9:15 this morning so I guess he won’t suffer too much without a nap for
one day, anyway.  He and Bobby had a lot of fun as they insisted on riding [in]
the backseat together.  Their yelling almost drove me wild.  I was in a store
while Mrs. Dixon waited in the car with the kids and she said when he saw me
come back, he yelled, "There comes my Mommie. I love her."  Guess he does like
his

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Mommy after all.  I hope he always feels that way.  Maybe if his Daddy keeps on
loving her, he will too.  Anyway if we do have differences I hope it won’t be
in front of our kiddies.  Hey, what am I saying!  Guess I’ll have to wait
a while, won’t I?  At least legally.  Oh well maybe someday!  However, that’s
not a promise!  You know how we women change our minds.

Tomorrow is Saturday, and just another day.  I keep thinking of how you and I
used to get all decked out to go out for dinner at the Nantucket (or the Barn),
except when we were broke, when we ate at the Greeks.  And how we’d go downtown
to

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see a show, and in the wintertime I’d get cold and cuddle up closer.  Altho
after we were married, of course, you paid attention to your driving, rather
than put your arm around me.  You’d better change that when you come back!
After all you didn’t need two hands to drive when I was single.  Anyway, it was
nice just to be doing things together, where now the best we can do is wait and
hope we can do those things again soon.

Well, goodnight, Darling, and please dream just one little dream of me tonight
and then tell me about it in your next letter.

We love you, honey and can’t wait to have you with us again.

Love,
Mom and Ronnie