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258 Navy #3247 (Mil. Govt) F.P.O. San Francisco Sunday 24 June 10:30 am My dearest darling, This morning, for the second time since I've been here, I deliberately slept thru breakfast; got up at nine and had coffee in the mess hall, where we know have a steward in attendance (for coffee only) all morning); came back to read thru your most recent batch of Time clippings and then settle down to writing. I'll drop in the office for awhile early this afternoon, but am taking most of the day off. Ordinarily, while school is not open on Sunday, there are special jobs to be attended to: the building of a new tent frame or something similar by teachers, the spreading of coral on the walks, drives and movie area by casual labor that has to be requested in a day-to-day basis. Today none was available and nothing else in particular is going on. While I wait for your next letter - which I hope will come in the morning mail at eleven - to see if there is any further word on that matter [pg 2] of replacements, I'll get going on some back letters yet unanswered. (I still think that it's probably just the group who are coming here to train for a couple of months, although statements by M.G. officials in Hawaii to men who have arrived here recently make it reasonable to suppose that there might be replacements coming in addition.) #292 - It's such fun reading of your getting my occasional long specials - I wish I could write them more often. I see I've already answered this letter in detail. Did I tell you that I was impressed with your judgment that Wendy might turn out to be left-handed? It's not really important, of course, though I rather like the idea. Besides Doug, I have a couple of left-handed cousins at not very far remove. Watch for more signs - I don't really care which she is, but I love hearing every last detail. Mail time. 3 pm There was no mail from my darling (none yesterday either), but I did get a letter from Bob Wilcox, Personnel Officer on the MG staff in Hawaii, whom I wrote to regarding my box. He says, in part - “They [the Supply Depot in Hawaii”] [pg 3] have a record of it - that is, they know it is en route, but it has not been received here at Pearl as yet. They have a rotation that it is to be shipped on to you at Tinian. It seems that this type of cargo has a very low priority and takes a long time to clear the West Coast. My advice would be to write the Navy Overseas Freight Terminal requesting that they put a tracer on the box and advise you of its status. “There is no indication here at the present time of any chance in your duty status [underlining mine] so it would be probably just as well to ask the Freight Terminal to get it on its way to you. Or, if you know someone in San Francisco who could retrieve the box, have the books you want mailed on to you and the balance returned to your home. Judging from the apparent fact that it hasn't cleared S.F. in 6 months’ time, it will be a long time before you see your box.” As far as I can ascertain, Wilcox would not necessarily know of all MG transfers in the Pacific area, but he would know of all those initiated by [CincPac?]. I'll take his advice about the box and write to the Navy Overseas Freight Terminal, but I think I'll ask [pg 4] them to return it, if possible, to Carmel or perhaps to CASA. From mail call I came back to wash and then went on to lunch - or in this case breakfast; and since the sum was shinning brightly today I decided to take a sunbath for half an hour (Sunny days are growing increasingly few and the rain is coming with gradually greater frequency and intensity. So far, though, we haven't been reduced to a vast mud puddle.) According to a recently formed habit, I took my armchair and a book into the enclosed but roofless shower, tilted back against the wall wearing only my cap and glasses, and felt the warmth on a too long neglected part of my body. I'm not really very brown because I find time at noon to sunbathe only periodically, and by the time you see me I may have faded considerably on account of the rainy season, but at least I can try to spread what tan I do have all over and eliminate that foolish looking virginal belt of white. I have nearly finished reading “The Three [pg 5] Bamboos,” which I appropriated from Joe Scannell's tent after he’d left, when I went to pick up our copy of Emily Hahn. If Kirby Etter (Joe's roommate) doesn't claim it, I'll send it on to you. Mae Kennedy, the Economics Officer, has left for the States within the last few days by Liberty (Merchant ship). Although he’d only been here 3 or 4 months, he's on his way to 30 days leave and rotation because of 18 months’ overseas service. I know of no case where M.G. officers have had their requests for leave after 18 months denied or postponed, though (even applying a couple of months in advance) is usually delayed by a few weeks; like most men, Mae had actually just about 19 mos. when he left here. He was not replaced; he had been head of a department whose separate offices (Private Enterprise, Food and Water, Labor, Agriculture and Fishing) all have their respective officers in charge, and presumably the office of department head has been abolished or will [pg 6] be held simultaneously by one of the latter. Kennedy got to go by ship (which will get him to California in at most a months’ time, possibly as little as 10 days) because his orders gave him a 4 priority rather than the 3 which is indispensable if you want to go straight thru by air (even then it's hardly a guarantee) and need “first available government transportation including air.” As orders are interpreted, a 3 would have made it almost mandatory for him to travel by air. Everyone here, including myself, would much prefer to return by ship, since the food is excellent and the trip restful; you arrive in top shape. Travel by air out here is just the other way around, and could easily take longer. If I'm so fortunate as to able to leave here by ship when I do leave (all I'll be able to tell you is that you won't hear from me for up to 30 days - the number I give you will depend on the ports of call, if any, and probably lay overs) I hope you'll rejoice with me and not mind too much the gap in the mail. [pg 7] Now settle back, darling, and dismiss the seeming likelihood that I am coming home soon. I think Wilcox is probably right: there are no plans which call for replacing me in the near future. And, much as I ache to see you and Wendy, I think it is probably better that way. At one o'clock I went up to school, got Kouchi to assemble some Korean teachers to continue work on the new warehouse (for storing farm tools and manual training materials - the latter are now in the suiji annex, where we need the space for the truckloas of food Morimoto and I are bringing in from various CB units) - stamped a couple of hundred cards “MOVIE PASS,” accomplished one or two other little jobs and came back. We’re grading the movie area, which has always had a bad slope in it, so that those in the back now can see (trucks are bringing coral and kids spreading it); then we'll be able to accommodate more adults in seats which before nobody wanted [pg 8] to use. Passes are being issued free to all teachers; school suiji workers, office boys and nurses; members of the Trustees Council of the Parent-Teachers Assoc.; members of the Police (who rotate standing duty on movie nights, but who want to come out of uniform on off-duty nights); and Welfare Office workers. In addition, all members of adult evening classes (English) are issued passes on payment of a 50¢ registration fee, the money going to buy dictionaries (now available at Supply) for their exclusive use. The dictionaries are those little pocket ones, both Wa-Ei and Ei-wa. Gosh, I feel lazy today. I'm just not used to so much sleep. #293 (June 8) - What you said about spacing children 3 or 4 years apart interested me; perhaps it is the best way and might be even easier on you in the long run. It's hard to tell though - let's wait and see! We can decide now for the next one - let's not make it much more than 3 years, please? Always assuming that that gives us a year together before we even start. I’d hope for twins (tho I guess there's not much chance) [pg 9] and failing that would try again in another 3 years and hope again. This time I’d wait only the minimum time from the standpoint of your health - 2 years from birth to birth - and there you are, with four healthy and extremely active children. It's a delicious prospect (both the creating and the having) My birthday! Thinking of that already? Yes, I think a little money for clothes when I get back would be the most appropriate thing M and F could give me. I have no other desires in particular except perhaps (if available) a half pound of that same tobacco Father used to get me. I'm back to smoking a pipe again for the first time (consistently) since I left home. Of course I don't mind you speaking out about the deal I have here, how much better the routine and accomplishments are than those questionable ones at Casa, etc. and I think you’re quite right. Kennedy was missing, retrospectively, before he left, how time flew after the first 8 months. The latter, he recalled, were awfully hard to take, [pg 10] and there seemed to be little attenuation of that divorced-from-life feeling (except of course, over the very hard pangs of the first month or two) for a long time. Then, suddenly, time became almost forgotten; the 9th-16th months just seemed to have vanished into thin air, with the last two or three brining a renewed consciousness of time but with a different undertone, one of expectancy. #294 - Don't know about insurance on packages you mail from there, darling; from here we can insure everything except first class (but airmail is o.k.) And now a few moments to look thru that excellent batch of little birthday snapshots again. Enjoyed M and F's letter to you about the meeting and dinner with GF, Muz et al. - was awfully glad to hear that Aunt Beth was making Wendy a quilt similar to her own, which I like very much - Darling, when I went away I sort of assumed that I would never see Grandfather again, but he seems as well as ever and I'm hoping strongly that he will continue to be active until after I return and [pg 11] we’re able to go East. I want him to see Wendy again, too. Do you have the negative of that picture of Grandfather holding Wendy in the armchair? I’d love to have a copy of it and MacQuarrie would be interested in seeing it, I'm sure. I'm going out for a coke now - am stuffy from sitting here so long - but I'll finish later. 8:15 pm Instead of a Coke I had - on MacQuarrie at his insistence (but with little reluctance on my part) three bourbons and ice water. They left me too sleepy to resume writing after dinner and after Tel and I had driven down to the harbor to pick up a box from Saipan consigned to him. So I finished reading “The Three Bamboos.” It is a sketchily written book, but held my interest throughout - the story of a Japanese family [Mitsui, Mitsubishi, [S?tomo] - the book calls them “Fureno”] [pg 12] from the time of the late Tokugawa [Shogumate?] up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. #295 - Would still like to see Wendy's picture on exhibition - but it's facing me right now on top of my packing case dresser. I do love it, darling. #296 Weekends as they should be lived…Gosh, darling, it will be so good to own my own life again! In a sense I do - more than in almost anything else I could be doing - but are in work, none in play or re-creation. Or at least what there is of the latter is in my work. It isn't the same. Just the description Mother gave of the dinner they all had in N.Y. made me hungry. It certainly isn't that we don't get enough to eat or that the food isn't good (tho the cooking does leave much to be desired). And we have five colored stewards in our small mess for 20 to (with guests) 30 officers and table linen and are eating off Navy china now instead of the divided trays served replete with food which went half wasted; we [pg 13] help ourselves with serving spoon and fork, one thing at a time as it is brought to us individually. But it's still just a feeding, and very little recreational or social element enters into it; average feeding times about 15 minutes. Out here I don't really care; there are certain advantages in the system to a man who prefers to be wrapped up in work to sitting around and reminding himself of his misery by exchanging old wives tales with others. I don't mean to imply that we mope; the atmosphere is usually blithe and jocular to a degree. But not much of the spirit of the amenities enters into an all-male existence, and when females are introduced into it as when officers bring dates to dinner and the club, even that seems artificial. So I've yet to have my first date or any real desire for it (had none for the party the other night because there weren't enough women to go around and I wasn't interested enough to compete for one). Don't mistake me; I am interested in women in general, as well as supremely so in you in particular; but there's [pg 14] an air of adolescence, and very little of mature, relaxed appreciation of casual feminine companionship (which I should enjoy if I saw any of it floating around), to all such dates. Foolish, simpering and giggling affairs. Some few get as far as a bed in quarters; most remind me of gawking high school kids on a date. So I've just another small reason amongst many big ones for wanting to come home to you soon, darling. #299 Shells the size of hen eggs such as you describe are very difficult to obtain, honey. I've seen them - saw Rein's, in fact - they come not from Tinian but from faraway islands in other parts of the Pacific. There are some small shells of much the same color, but not mottled, which are found in shallow water all around this island, and I'll pick up some if I can. That will be whenever I next have the opportunity to go to the fishing beach. Will also look for tiny shells for a comb. [pg 15] In the next day or two I'll see if I can order a woven snapshot album cover for Mother. I'll take Sasaki my little album to give him a general idea, but of course make it much bigger. Yes, Bud has had very good breaks in the Navy. Hilo, of all places in the Pacific, is about the most attractive (according to what I've heard) that he could have gone. And doubtless he found some native women worth cultivating, tho with you I wouldn't expect him to be as dependent on sex as Bev is. The dream was absurdly funny, and very understandable. If you’re not careful, Wendy's going to be learning techniques and suspecting general principles somewhat earlier than she should - at least the techniques. I hope Jean May is in Berkeley next fall, that you do go to see her, Mrs. May and Mrs. Conrad, and that you can persuade her to spend a week with [pg 16] you in Carmel. All the seeds you sent me awhile back are planted in a neat bed about 4’ x 10’, raised off the clayey earth and consisting of neither black dirt surrounded by a boardframe, in the yard of the school kitchen - the seed envelopes are attached to the end of their respective rows, and some little plants are just beginning to come thru. Morimoto, my farm and suiji Nisei, did the job; I’d have liked to myself but except for rare days like this (which I’d rather spend catching up on writing you) I just don't have the time to get started. - Your lovely little poppies are still blooming merrily in back of the Quonset, no less fully than a month ago. Again, I too am glad that the choice isn't really ours, darling. And so it remains for the present. Forgive me, sweetie, for being so slow in getting the pajamas off to you this time. They’re ready and I'll try to mail them in the morning. I love you very much Warren
