Letter or Postcard – Letter
Sender – Ralph Peterson
Recipient – Phyllis Peterson
Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida
Postmark Date – 26 March 1943
Letter Date – 25 March 1943
Text:
My dearest wife and baby,
Hw is my wife and little girl today? I hope you are getting along fine. I’m feeling very good, but the sunburn got a little the best of my nose. It looks like a ripe tomato and boy is it ever sore. The way the weather has been down here lately it is no wonder that I have not got my face burned more than it is. Today it was way up to 96. I didn’t get a letter from you today, but I got my present from Sookie. She sent me down a real nice box of candy and she also slipped in a dollar bill along with a nice card. She wrote me a real nice letter. She said that she sent a present to you. I want you to tell me what she sent you. She said she thought maybe Alvin was a daddy already and that she was coming home the same time as he was. That was the last of this month. Today was our last day in our own squadron. All that are left of us now are in a squadron call X. This is just a place where all men go after their basic training is over and they are not shipped out. I will still get my mail though, addressed to 400S. I lost two of my pals from Waushara County tonight. They were shipped out to school about seven tonight. The guys were Bill Pick and the kid I got my picture took with. Say, by the way, did you ever get those pictures I sent to you? You never said anything about them so I don’t know if you got them or not? Let me know if you did or not. Nobody knows where those guys are going that went out tonight, but they were ordered to put on their winter uniform and carry their overcoats, so they will be shipped somewhere up north. When you find out where Pick is let me know so I can write to him. You can find out from Barney and Thelma where he is. I only hope when they send me out they will tell me that I’m going up near you someplace. Then I could come home and see what our little Bonny girl looks like. There I go again, wishing for the impossible again. But it won’t hurt to wish a little bit, I guess. Say, honey, there’s something I want you to do after I get shipped. When I get to where I’m going to stay awhile I want you to send down my underwear. I mean a couple pairs of shirts and shorts. They issued us three pairs but I seem to get them so doggone dirty so quick. I will let you know when to send them to me. I suppose by now it is starting to get a little bit warmer up there. For your and the baby’s sake I hope it gets warmed up real quick this year, and when I come home on my furlough I want to see you and the baby out on the front lawn. When I get there she had better be able to smile at her Daddy or else he is going to be awfully mad. I think I am pretty good at making them smile at me. Maybe it is because I am funny looking, or something like that. I can’t think of much else to write now as there is nothing to write about. When I get a letter from you I will have more to write about. I guess I will have to close now, as I have to write Alvin and Sookie yet tonight. That is, if I have time, and I think I will. This is all for now, honey. Love and kisses to my sweetest wife and baby from your soldier husband Ralph
PS – Send me some pictures of you. I miss you so doggone much that I like to see your face once in awhile. Night, now. RP
Notes: My cousin Sharon, daughter of Mom’s sister Marian, confirmed that “Sookie” was Mom’s sister Virginia. She was also in the military during the war, though I don’t know the details. Brother Alvin was indeed a dad by the time this letter was written, with the birth of his oldest child Alan Gene Grant on 20 March 1943. The “kid I got my picture took with” was Johnny Premo.