December 4 and 7, 1944: Anna writes two letters from the home front in Albany, NY to her brothers.
Anna and Eddie have pretty much settled into the routine of having their own place and had some guests over for dinner. “Eddie invited his parents to dinner and being Joe Miller was on leave a whole week we invited him and Mary to come.” The meal consisted of “Chicken soup with noodles, then we roasted up the chicken in the oven. Also we had the usual mashed potatoes and cole slaw and corn…Also we had mama’s sour pickles and tomatoes.”
After dinner, Joe Miller took an interest in Anna and Eddie’s player piano, “…he sat all afternoon and pumped rolls till we all got sick and tired of it and he didn’t. He got a mania for playing one roll ’MONOPOL’ and he liked it so much that he played it five times one after another and sang, or should we say, bellowed all afternoon. …Finally I managed to convince him that we had enough so he stopped.”
Little Terry continues to be up to her usual antics as she had a unique way of acknowledging a gift from an uncle. “Uncle Eugene brought Terry a Santa Claus about three inches in height and she likes it. She calls it ‘Sandy cosik’. After Gene left she knelt down on the floor and lifted the Santa Claus in her hands and said ‘Dzicki Jezusowi’. She was thanking the Lord for the Santa Claus.”
As December 7th comes around, Anna writes that “we are having a nice big snow storm. It started in the night and has been snowing all day and the world looks so beautiful outside. It is the dry kind of snow and the weather is cold…” Despite the snow, “Eddie went ice fishing with the gang from the shop.” As for Anna, she doesn’t mind being home while it snows since “it also gives me a chance to write to you boys.”
They had another feast in their new home to celebrate Eddie’s mother’s 44th birthday. Like most celebrations, it involved a whole lot of food including “that delicious chicken soup with vegetables and noodles” and “mashed potatoes, corn from the can…steak that I rolled up and…stuffed [with] green peppers and onions and tomatoes” and “butterscotch pudding with whipped cream and the birthday cake and tea. Well we had quite a supper and everyone ate until it was coming out of their ears.” Of course, her brothers are never far from her mind as she reflects, “I wish you could only be here to enjoy those things with us but there will come a time soon I hope when you will enjoy those things with us and we will all have a good time.”
In other news from the home front:
- They saw “the youngest Bogdanowicz fellow” at church. Based on how he was moving around it was clear that he had a leg injury, and Anna surmises “from the way he walked and when he got up and sat down he has a wooden leg.”
- “…our cousins on Second Street received word that Vincent was already wounded and is in a hospital.” According to Vincent’s brother Edward Morawski, “he got wounded in the stomach”. Anna comments, “I guess he is in the anti-tank business and they are using up a lot of them guys nowadays.”