Letter or Postcard – Letter
Sender – Ralph Peterson
Recipient – Phyllis Peterson
Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida
Postmark Date – 1 March 1943
Letter Date – 28 Feb 1943
Text:
My dearest wife,
Well it’s night again and here goes another letter. I really am tired now. I got physical exercise this morning and this afternoon. I listened to lectures for about four hours. Tomorrow I go to the classification hall and get my job picked out I am best suited for. I don’t quite know what it is yet but I am pretty sure it will be the Signal Corps in the Air Force. I am still living at the hotel but I will be moving in tents in about another week. I think the address will be the same. Even if it is different I will still get my mail if you do send it here. I will let you know if I do change camps. I just got a little information on my stay here. I guess I get my basic training here for about one month. Then I will be shipped to some place where I really start my training. It could be anywhere in the United States, but I hope it is in Chanute Field, Illinois. There is still a chance that I will be shipped there, but that chance is pretty small. I have only been down here about five days but already I am beginning to talk like a southerner. If you see Barney and Thelma tell them that Billy is talking more like a southerner then a southerner does. He talks more like a Negro than anything else. You know this is kind of hard writing when you don’t get no answer. I only hope your letter comes tomorrow. I don’t know what I will do if I don’t get one from you pretty quick. I miss you so much, one letter from you will raise my morale to the top. I will have to close now as I want to send it with the night mail. Send about three letters in one day. Close with lots of love from your husband Ralph.
PS – If Don and Marian [?] home yet send me their address. R.P.
Notes: Barney and Thelma were Barney and Thelma (Shruck) Pick. Thelma was my Mom’s first cousin. Don and Marian are Donald and Marian (Grant) Leigh. Marian was my Mom’s older sister.