06 Apr April 6, 1945

Letter
from: Mrs. G. Shonkwiler
to: Pvt George W. Shonkwiler
April 6, 1945
Friday, 8:30 P.M.
Noteworthty: Mom scolds Dad royally for telling her confidences.

Hello, honey,

Here I am again after an absence of two days.  That is I haven’t written for
two days. I’m sorry.  I’ll try not to let it happen again.

But I’ve been pretty busy with the Shonkwiler clan, so hope you’ll forgive me.
Wednesday I had to shop for meat, groceries, etc., plus, washing the kitchen
ceiling and woodwork and washing and waxing the kitchen and bathroom floors.
The floor part was a waste of time, as all the kids had black reclaimed rubber
heels and the floors are all streaked in black.  And the stuff is almost
impossible to scrub off.  Even all my newly varnished floors are all streaked.
And the washing of kitchen walls was also needless as they’re all fingerprinted
now - oh me!  Wednesday evening I spent making my gelatin salads and the lemon
chiffon pie.  All in all, I was pretty tired by the time I went to bed.

This morning Ronnie and I got up at 7 o’clock in order to get down to the
Dearborn station to meet Catherine and the children.

page 2
We took the I.C. down and walked over to the Dearborn station.  I found them
very easily, and as it was cold out and all her kiddies had spring clothes on
and bare-legged, I got a cab to take us back to the I.C.  Catherine was very
easy to get acquainted with and all the kids seemed to fall for me right away.
They certainly are a grand bunch of kids.  The two oldest, Bobby and Sonny,
wanted to stay behind and live with me.  Imagine?  They’re 7 and 9 yrs old,
Jimmy is 4 and Carol Ann 5.

When we got home, we had lunch, as follows: Vegetable soup, Parkerhouse rolls,
Ritz crackers, butter, peach and prune and cottage cheese salad, and for
dessert, Jell-o, (with peaches, bananas and oranges in it and cream) and milk
and tea.  Boy, can those kids eat?  Of course, I s’pose eating was probably
rather makeshift on the train, as they didn’t eat in the diner.  She came in
on a coach, but for her trip to California they have a compartment, which will
be nicer, as there are two bunk beds in it at night and in the daytime, it has
the 2 seats and a table, also a wash bowl and a toilet.  I will take her from
11:30 o’clock Thurs nite (last nite) until Sunday morning.

page 3
That’s two nights and 2 days and that’s a long time to be traveling with 4
children - oh me!

After lunch, we tried to put Ronnie, Jimmy, and Carol Ann to bed in the bedroom,
but that was a miserable failure as neither Jimmy nor Carol Ann would stay in
bed.

Gladys and Joyce came in at 4:30, and we had dinner at 5:30, which consisted of
jello salad (with carrots, apples and celery) on lettuce, baked escalloped
potatoes and ham, buttered green beans, hot parker house rolls, lemon chiffon
pie or jello, and coffee, tea and milk.  I guess it tasted O.K., as they had
2nd and 3rd helpings.

All in all everything went very well, considering we had six children in the
house.  No accidents, a few brawls but that’s all.  Everyone wanting the same
toys at the same time, etc.  It was too cold for them to play out of doors, or
they probably have had more fun.

It’s costing Forrest about $400.00 to get his family to L.A., and some of the
furniture such as; washing machine, refrig, bed, and

page 4
living room set.  It costs more than it’s worth to ship furniture, but of
course nowadays the trouble is one can’t replace the stuff.

Since Fuzzy is Ph. Mate 2/c now, he gets I imagine about $85.00 per month pay,
plus $90.00 per month subsistence, as he has to furnish his own lodging and
food.  This plus the allotment gives them a fairly good wage.  Of course part
of the allotment comes out of his pay, so they must actually get about $235.00
per month from the Govt., plus rent from a house she owns in Bloomington.  Of
course with their family they can use plenty of money to good advantage.

Say, honey, after this when I tell you anything in confidence, I wish you’d
keep it to yourself.  It seems every time I tell you anything, it pops right
back at me.  You’re certainly breaking Gladys’ and my friendship in a hurry.
First you lit into her about not coming out last Labor Day, because I mentioned

page 5
it to you.  Now she tells me you jumped her for spending so much money.  I wish
you’d stop it, ’cause after all it’s really none of our business.  It certainly
was poor taste of you to tell her I told you she was spending too much money.  I
thought that men didn’t gossip, but guess I’m mistaken!  I would think you’d
want us to be on friendly terms instead of trying to get me in bad.  It’s tough
enough anyway to get along with in-laws, I’ve heard.  If I found out that you
said anything to her about she and Dick, that will be the last straw.  Just
consider yourself balled out, now. (This is one time you can’t talk back!)

After dinner we sat around and talked and Gladys and Joyce left at 8:30, so I
took them to the Kensington Station.  When I came back Mr. Page said he’d drive
us to the Dearborn Station, as I’m afraid to go downtown at night.  In fact I’m
not sure I’d care to drive in the loop as yet.  At 10:00 o’clock the Pages,
Catherine and kids and

page 6
Ronnie and I started down to the station.  I got on the train with her, helping
with the kids etc, and they left at 11:30 P.M.  I left Ronnie in the depot with
the Pages and he cried terribly as I s’pose he thought I was going away on the
train like Daddy did, poor kid!  The depot was so crowded I was afraid to go
out to the train with Ronnie and the other 4 kids too.  I’d surely have lost
one or two before we got there.  Of course Catherine had the two youngest and I
the 2 oldest boys.  Ronnie was terribly jealous yesterday when the other kids
would crawl up and around me when I sat on the davenport.  This morning he said
"The boys and girls hugged and kissed you didn’t they, Mommie?"  I said "Yes,
and do you want me to give you to Aunt Catherine and I’ll take the other boys
and girls to live with me?."  He said, "No, no Mommie, I want to stay with you,
and i’ll hug and kiss you, too."  I thought that was cute.

I spent today cleaning up the remains of the cyclone we had yesterday with all

page 7
the kids in the house.  We also ate leftovers all day today.  At 4:30 I mowed
the front lawn.  The grass was pretty long and it was cold and windy.  I hate
to think of the back lawn, as that’s even harder to do.  I’m pretty sore all
over right now, having washed walls, ceiling, etc. and the lawn mowing is the
climax.  Certainly wish I knew of someone who would do it for me.  I also wish
someone would wash the ceilings of the living, dining and bedrooms, and I think
I could manage the walls.  In fact I wish I could have both walls and woodwork
painted all over.  Everything looks so worn and faded.  Well, I can dream, can’t
I.  that’s about all I can do about it.

I have an earache and I’m sleepy too, so guess I’ll take a couple aspirin and

go to bed.
Goodnight, sweetheart, even if I bawl you out,

I do love you, so just hurry things up over there and come home to,
Mommie and Ronnie

p.s
I’ve heard that the boys in [the] occupation army can’t expect to get home
before 1948.  Gosh, I hope you don’t have to stay that long or I’ll just give
up now.

PPS Would send you chicken, but it is impossible to get any kind of poultry now
as Army and Navy are getting it all they say.  I got two envelopes containing
Stars and Stripes and Paris edition of New York Herald,but no letters.