Letter or Postcard – Letter
Sender – Ralph Peterson
Recipient – Phyllis Peterson
Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida
Postmark Date – 19 March 1943
Letter Date – 18 March 1943
Text:
My sweetest wife and baby,
Here is that proud Daddy writing again. I didn’t get a letter from you today, but I am hoping for one tomorrow. Maybe you aren’t well enough to write yet, but when you are please keep up the good writing you have been doing before. Now you have something to write about. I won’t know what to say about her until you tell me all about her. I’m going to keep on asking you this question in my letters, as you might forget to tell me all about her. I didn’t know whether I should keep on writing to the hospital but I will until you tell me different. How long will you be in the hospital? It won’t be much longer than ten or twelve days, will it? Let me know how it was to have the baby. I would have liked to been there to be right along with you when the baby was born. Let me know all the facts, as I would like to know. You see, you was the one to have all the pain while I was way down here and didn’t know nothing about it. Say by the way, how did you get down to the hospital? Did somebody take you down there? Today was one hell of a hot day but we didn’t do much. All we did was exercise a little this morning and this afternoon we saw movies all the time. Tomorrow is the day we are going to get the devil drilled out of us. We have to carry a full pack all day and I think we will stay out all night. Of course this will be about ten miles from town and we walk all the way. I don’t feel so good tonight, as I have one hell of a cold, but I got some Vicks now and I think I have it pretty well stopped. This is all for today, so will close with love and kisses to you my dearest wife and our little baby girl, from Ralph.
PS – Take care of yourself and God bless you and the baby. Night, honey. RP.
Notes: Vicks VapoRub, the wonder drug that cures just about anything. Mom would have totally related. As kids having a cold meant going to bed with a half pound of Vicks slathered on your chest. If your cold was bad enough, it meant a eating a spoon full of Vicks. That whole “not for internal use” is strictly advisory. Contrast the notion that a woman could spend ten to twelve days in the hospital for childbirth with how things are today.