The first letter from home comes dated January 13, 1943. Dad’s sister Anna reports that his letter arrived at noon and that she is writing her reply at ten of one so her father could mail the letter when he goes to work. This detail necessitates a note on the living arrangements. The house where Dad’s family lived in Albany was an upstairs/downstairs arrangement with separate entrances for each floor. At this time, my grandparents lived on the upstairs floor while Anna, her husband Eddie and their daughter lived downstairs. As you can imagine, this provided for great convenience in terms of keeping the family close. As far as I know my grandmother stayed at home while my grandfather worked as a freight handler for the railroad.
Anna lets Dad know that their brother Stanley is “expected to be [shipped out] about January 15 to Mississippi for another 5 to 8 weeks of training”. From the information in the letter, it looks like Stanley is currently at Fort Logan. Anna goes on to write, “I hope he can be transferred on this side of the Mississippi so that he will have a better chance of coming home. I hope that you also won’t be sent to ‘No-Man’s Land’.” She further reports that all are in good health including “that little bundle of from heaven”.
In other news, Anna reports that cousin “Edzic wrote home before Christmas and wanted Ciocia (Polish for Aunt) to send him a radio, but now as you know with the priorities and high prices one can’t buy anything decent. So Ciocia didn’t want to spend too much money for a piece of junk so she didn’t send him one. Now he is so angry at her and hasn’t written her a letter since Christmas and poor Ciocia is so heartbroken.”
Anna wraps up her letter because it is time for her father to go to work and “time for Theresa Marie’s bottle”. She signs off, “Good luck and God bless you”.