January 4 and 7 1944 – two letters from Albany to the boys. Anna reports that there is not much news to report, but nonetheless manages to type two pages single spaced for each of the letters.
With a 14 month old child, Anna and Eddie did not bother to go out on New Year’s Eve. Not only did they not want to burden mama with watching the baby, but with the clubs charging an $8.00 per person cover, they did not feel it was worthwhile. As Anna explains, “I’ll be darned if I’m going to throw my money away foolishly. Figure it for yourself if two people went and then spent some extra money on top of that. Only crazy people did that but you have to figure it out that there are crazy ones in this world also because how could the bar rooms and saloons and night clubs get rich if it weren’t for them.” Anna also mentions that Joe and Mary Miller came for dinner on the Sunday after New Year’s.
Anna also writes that they expect that Dad will be able to get a furlough in the coming year. She notes, “I know that furloughs are expensive, but heck they are worth the expense, just to come to the familiar walls and faces again. …This time…you will certainly be greeted by a little lady on two feet with a broad smile and happy rosy face and she will salute you… Terry doesn’t intend to remain little all the time.”
Even though the weather lately has been cold, Eddie managed to get some fishing in with some of the guys from the auto shop where he works. He came home with seven pickerel “that were about seventeen inches long…they were pretty big.” The family had one of them, while Eddie shared the rest of the catch with his folks.
Anna tells Stanley that they have got the clothes that he asked for (“three pairs of summer undershirts and three pairs of shorts”) and that they will be shipping them over to him. Anna explains that they had difficulty finding summer weight clothing since “the Christmas rush has exhausted the stocks in the stores and besides it is winter time and they have mostly winter clothes for sale now. Towards spring they will probably have more lighter underwear. …Mama also is sending handkerchiefs which she has monogrammed as best as she could with your letter “M” on them. A few are sent from the home supply because the stores are low on hankies now too.”
Of course, no letter from home would be complete without news about the baby. Anna writes that the Terry is getting used to the toys that she got for Christmas and “she plays with them continuously”. One of her favorite toys is “…the oblong box …when you roll it on the ground it makes musical sounds. …she loves to walk and hear the box make music.” Anna also mentions that “Terry has inherited such a good appetite from her god-father (Dad) because she certainly pus away a lot of food at each meal. It is funny to see something so small eat so much.”
Before closing the letter, Anna returns to the topic of the weather and how well the weatherman is doing. In that respect, it seems like some things don’t change all too much. “This time the weatherman kept on predicting snow for a few weeks and I told mama that when he predicted fair and colder it would probably snow and sure enough it did. He doesn’t have the luck like the other one we had and rarely, very rarely, guesses what will happen. He is either couple of days too early or it just doesn’t happen at all.”