Letter or Postcard – Letter
Sender – Ralph Peterson
Recipient – Phyllis Peterson
Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida
Postmark Date – 4 April 1943
Letter Date – 3 April 1943
Text:
Dearest wife and baby,
Another day of laying around with nothing to do. The only thing I do now is eat, sleep, and write to you. It sure is one nice vacation. I only wish you was here so I could spend it with you. Better still, I wish I was up there. I got sent to headquarters today at noon for the mail for our squadron. I looked for a letter from you but I had one yesterday and couldn’t hardly expect one today. Still, there is a night mail I have to get yet. Nothing would please me more than getting a letter from you again today. I said I didn’t have nothing to do today. Well, I was a little wrong, as I had charge of quarters this forenoon. All I had to do was sit in the office of the hotel and answer the phone and keep everything in order. That isn’t very hard to do with only eleven men here. I listen to the radio most of the time. Right now I just got back from the 4th floor. I was laying up in the sun for about two hours. I do that every day. It makes me feel a lot better. We are supposed to be out of quarantine next Monday. If we are we will be moving to another hotel. Hold it. The guy’s just came back from the field and the Sarge told all of them that they were not going to move. They are all happy because this is a hell of a nice hotel. I am reading a real interesting book. The name of it is “Guadalcanal Diary.”
It tells all about the first bunch of Marines who landed in Guadalcanal. It’s a 275 page book and is it ever good. How is the baby feeling now? I hope she is a lot better, and you too, honey. Please take as good care of yourself as you can, and if you need me just send for me and I will try and come home. I can’t think of anything to send you and Bonny so I will send you a little money. It won’t be much but it will help you out a little. I am not going to send it by money order. I can’t get out to do that. That will leave me about $8 for the rest of the month. I’m going to buy what I need now and send the rest of it. You will have more use for it than I will. Let me know when you get it. That will help pay back the $10 I borrowed from you. This is about all for now, but if I get a letter from you tonight I will write you another one. Until next time, all my love and kisses to the dearest wife and baby of mine from your soldier daddy Ralph.
Notes: Dad was not known for his recreational reading. I never recall him reading a book for enjoyment although he read the newspaper daily.