10 Sep September 10, 1944
Posted at 20:47h
in Letters
Letter from: Mrs. G. Shonkwiler to: Pvt George W. Shonkwiler Sept. 10, 1944 Sunday 6:30 P.M.
My darling,
Just writing to tell you I love you more every day, or is that because I’m lonesome for you? Could be, but the result is the same, so it doesn’t make much difference, does it?
The Hayes were just here and spoiled an otherwise perfect day. They stayed from 4:00 until 6:00, so altho I planned on eating much earlier, we haven’t eaten yet. My dinner is just about finished [cooking] now, so we’ll take time off to eat now if you will excuse us.
9:00 P.M. Well dinner eaten, and Ronnie and I went for a walk, and now he’s tucked in bed safe and sound. We had Swiss steak, carrots, and potatoes,
page 2 tomatoes, lettuce, milk and cake. Sound O.K. to you? I s’pose your tongue’s hanging out a mile every time I mention a meal, as from what I hear, you’re not thrilled about the army chow, as yet. I guess you’d even appreciate my bride-like efforts at cooking. Or am I wrong?
I feel terribly about not writing last night, I had all I could do to get thru the evening with Oralee. Yes, you’ve guessed it, it was my "blue day". Haven’t felt any too good all day [today] either, so certainly enjoyed being home alone, that is I would have been if the Hayes hadn’t come around. (This lousy pen I bought isn’t worth the plastic it’s composed of. I’m going back to your old pen, altho every time I use it I get ink on my clothes.)
page 3 Oralee and I started out at 5:30 last night and went to the Palace to see [the show] "Bride by Mistake", with Laraine Day and Alan Marshall and a Sherlock Holmes picture with Basil Rathbone. They were pretty good pictures. After that it was about 9:30 and we hadn’t had our dinner yet, so we went to "Old Heidelberg" to eat, but it was too crowded, so we finally went to the "Berghoff" to eat. Oralee had corned beef and I had fried chicken with coleslaw, French fried potatoes and peas, and a stein of Berghoff beer. The bill for both of us was only $2.04 so that was cheap enough. Of course everything I ate was against my diet, but it’s hard to follow a diet in a restaurant. My aches and pains today wouldn’t be any better regardless of what I’d eaten.
Guess Oralee isn’t leaving until Sept. 18th, and will spend
page 4 two weeks in Iowa with her Dad and Aunt before going on to Ft Louis, so she won’t get there until first week in October. I told Oralee you’d mentioned our coming to see her and she said we’re certainly welcome, and they’ll be glad to see us.
Oralee looked very nice last night in a beige gabardine tailored suit and light green blouse. I wore the suit I just made which is a tiny brown and white check with a brown blouse, green hat, green shoes, and alligator purse. Are you interested in Ladies fashions? Guess not. I must have looked presentable anyway, because we were sitting next to two young Navy lieutenants and the one kept looking over and smiling. Of course, I just turned my head and ignored him. Maybe should have encouraged him,
page 5 as he was probably away from home and lonesome, and it would have been "patriotic" for us to donate our time to them for the evening. You don’t think so? Well, there you go again. Say, put away that "shooting iron," I was only fooling. As long as you behave, I’m sure I can.
We got home before midnite, so we behaved pretty well, don’t you think? Besides, I was so sleepy I could hardly keep my eyes open. One reason for this was that Friday nite at 12:00 P.M. (or is it A.M.?) I was really ready for bed and I let Judy out for her stroll. She ran away and didn’t come back until 2:30 A.M. Was I ever mad. I had to sit up all that time waiting for her, when I was so sleepy I couldn’t see straight. And on
page 6 Saturday morning I got up at 7:30, so I could bake some cookies to put in another box for you. I also had to mail this 5 lb box and buy groceries and clean house, so by 5:30 I was so tired I didn’t even want to go downtown, but as Oralee expected me I went anyway. Today I packed another 5 lb box for you and also included your flashlight and some more cookies and a few pieces of butterscotch candy that I made today with my own little hands.
To date, (that is after I mail this box tomorrow) I will have sent you 4 five pound request boxes and 2 eight-ounce pkgs. Please let me know as soon as you receive any of them and if they got there
page 7 in good shape or not. I’m so anxious to know. I’m all out of request letters now, so if you want any more pkgs, keep the requests coming. I can’t always manage to send something, even if it’s only cookies.
Do you want me to send any socks or anything? Razor blades? Underwear?
Goodnite, honey, it’s 10:00 o’clock and I feel awful, so I’m going straight to bed.
The Hayes mentioned getting a letter from you yesterday. I haven’t received any mail since Monday. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get lots of ’em - I hope!
Sweet dreams, darling, and hope I can dream of you all night tonite.
All my love is for you, Mom and Ronnie.
P.S. I gave up numbering my letters. as I write every day, have skipped only about three times since you left.
