August 24 & 27, 1943. A couple of letters from home. Baby Theresa is about 10 months old and continues to grow and learn all kinds of important things. Anna reports that “when you stand her up in the crib she grabs a hold of the spokes and stands up all by herself. She also knows how to pull herself up into a kneeling position. Tonight I put her on her knees and she said her prayers – the sign of the cross and Dzieke Panu Bogu (I give thanks to the Lord) 3 times.”
Anna also says that the baby is getting better with her potty training. “She understands know when we take off her pants and put her on the pot…We really started to train her now and it sure save diapers. It is quite a bit of work to keep on pinning and unpinning her pants all the time but I would rather do that than wash about 25 diapers.
Anna, Eddie and the baby took a day trip with Ed’s parents and his younger brother and sister to go fishing in Coville. It seems that gas rationing was still in effect and that Anna “felt kind of guilty and expected to be stopped almost any time on the road”. They took a picnic dinner and “had quite a time”.
In other news from the neighborhood, the “Italian girl next door…to …Eleanor…got married Wednesday afternoon at five o’clock and they had the wedding supper at Maffeo’s house with only a few people. She got married to that guy who used to go around with her in that maroon colored Chevrolet. He is in the Navy and got married in his Naval uniform. …Her name according to the marriage license is Jenny DeCaro” Anna says the gown was “long white satin bridal gown with a veil, not to ritzy, not too poor”. The cake that was delivered “was just plain with no colored frosting”. According to a clipping from the Knickerbocker News of August 26, 1943. Jenny DeCaro married Earnest Vettese, who at the time of the wedding had already seen action off of Guadalcanal and in the Battle of the Coral Sea, at Midway and in the Solomon Islands.
Clipping from the Knickerbocker News dated August 24, 1943 about the Vettese – DeCaro wedding (credit www.fultonhistory.com)
Anna knew that something was up when “I saw all of …Jenny’s clothes hanging out on the line …and I thought that maybe she was preparing her winter clothes but then every day that sailor would come in the afternoon for the past two weeks… so I pieced two and two together”.