15 Sep September 15, 1945

letter
from: PFC George W. Shonkwiler
to: Mrs. Alice Shonkwiler
Compiegne, France
15th Sept. 1945
4 P.M.
Noteworthy: Dad is in a low state of mind and wonders if his home and family
are real.

Dearest Alice and Ronnie,

Received a very nice long letter from you today.  In fact 22 pages of a very
nice letter.  It was about time too.  Didn’t get anything yesterday and in my
present low state of mind it doesn’t take much to make me feel like the last
rose of summer.  And I mean the last rose.

I officially received my 59 points today. What the loss of one point may mean
is still very problematical.  But I know I would feel much better if I had
received that extra point.  Don’t know whether I told you, don’t believe I
have it was such damn bad news, but a couple days ago all men in the depot
were frozen to the depot unless they had 80 or more points.  And it was
reported that our commanding officer had made a deal to keep the depot here
until the last of next February.  Hence my very low mental attitude toward
life as a whole lately.  Officially we know nothing other than the <? perseval>
mentioned are frozen.  Now today a new strong rumor comes out that the Feb.
deal has been changed and now we are to return earlier and set up a
redeployment center back there.  You see we are very much up in the air about
the whole thing and about the only thing I can tell you that I know to be a
fact is

page 2
that I do have just 59 points and not near enough for any quick discharge
apparently.  Looks like my only chance is to have the age limit lowered and
then if they stuck two years in the service it wouldn’t be until Feb.

The fellow working next to me - my immediate supervisor I guess, and I are
going to the village for a decent meal this evening we hope.  Our chow has
not been up to par lately and I’m finding it rather difficult.  Even though my
present weight doesn’t justify my statement.  With no exercise it doesn’t take
much ice cream to put on weight.  Last nite I ate a whole canteen cup full and
that’s getting to be a habit.

How do you like this new pen I’m using?  You will remember some time ago I got
a new Schaefer Life pen.  The damn thing never did write well, so I put in for
another one.  My name came up this week and this time I got a rather
inexpensive Waterman.  You see we take what we get.  It isn’t like buying what
you want or

page 3
making a choice like you do back there.  Right now though I wouldn’t trade
this Waterman for the Schaefer.  It is doing alright.  I also got another
cigarette lighter.  Now have the two best made a Ronson and a Zippo.
Lighters probably don’t mean much to you but over here anyone without a
lighter of some kind sometimes find[s] it pretty difficult.  Not as much now
as it was about a year ago.  I really have three because I also have some
foreign make lighter that I’m keeping for a souvenir.  Well - I have to spend
a little money somewhere.  I can’t send the stuff home.  I have over two
hundred dollars in my pocket right now.  Like to have some?  I’d like to give
it to you, but I don’t just know how I’m going to get it there unless I bring
it and I don’t think that’s going to happen any too soon.

We’ve been working pretty hard this week weeding out all the oldest
correspondence in our 20 L file.  A job that doesn’t have to be finished until

Oct. 1st.  We have about

page 4
one half day’s work and then we’re done.  After that I guess we’ll go back to
working a couple hours and playing the rest.  [We] Have a balcony just outside
of our office here.  We are on the second floor.  The other fellow from
Chicago here, Robert Stapp, and I had a few games of handball out there this
afternoon.  Of course we had to use an old broken-down ping-pong ball as a
hard ball but I was able to show him a sample of what I used to be like on a
handball court.  Oh yes we managed to get through the day.  We have a number
of little games we play here to help pass the time along with our daily paper
ball fights.  Even have inter-office baseball games using a newspaper for a
bat[,] a slightly dented ping-pong ball and tables or desks for bases and out
-of-bounds example.  Don’t you think the army is putting its huge manpower to
good use.  At least the fellows in our office stay on the job most of the day.
That’s more than most of the other fellows in the other offices do.  they just
take off or don’t show up at all.

page 5
Sunday 3 P.M.

Hello

Well you see I skipped finishing this last nite.  We did go out for our meal
last evening and had a very nice one again.  Starting with pea soup then a
very large dish of tomato salad.  With some kind of oil dressing veal chops
French fried potatoes French bread beer and white grapes.  Now I know all that
doesn’t sound like much to the fare you have on special occasions but to us
that is a real feast.  We caught a ride out on a 2 1/2 ton truck and came back
in a weapons carrier.  Made good time both ways and was back in town in time to
see a pretty good show - Back to Bataan I think its name was.

The French moved their clocks back an hour last nite so after the show we
spent the extra time at a casual hand or two of poker.  This morning I got up
in time for lunch and to read your letter mailed Sept. 10th with Catherine’s
letter enclosed.  You didn’t say anything about Gladys and Dick’s trip in [it]
so I suppose there must still be a letter coming to cover that.  Tonite I
have to be on C.G. that pretty well takes care of today.  There’s a baseball
game this afternoon which I think

page 6
I’ll go see after finishing this letter.

As for painting the car at $150 per that sounds a little steep to me.  What
did you finally do?  And what was the bill.  I’m still waiting for a letter
from Tostis.  Haven’t heard from them for a long time.  What’s the matter did
I make them mad or something.

So Elsie Carlson is going to get married (well she waited in a way) or was it
because she couldn’t get anyone else.

Guess this letter doesn’t come up to your 22 pages one but considering what
all I have to write about it must compare favorably.  I think by the time I
have to stay over here another six months I’ll be down to one page per letter
one letter a week.  Right now I’m finding it harder and harder every day to
get off my usual two pages without missing too often.  Not because my interest
in you and Ronnie is diminishing but just because.  Guess you really wouldn’t
understand unless you were over here and away from home so long.  It’s getting
so I wonder if I ever had a home, wife and little boy.

And for now that’s about it until tomorrow.  I love you my dear and miss you
and Ronnie very much,
Daddy