Letter or Postcard – Letter
Sender – Ralph Peterson
Recipient – Phyllis Peterson
Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida
Postmark Date – 21 April 1943
Letter Date – 20 April 1943
Text:
My dearest Phyllis and Bonny,
Today was a big letter day for me. I got four of them – two from you and your daddy, one from Billy Pick, and one from Gilbert Rohde. Did I ever have a nice time reading them, especially yours. Gilbert told me all about his camp. The only reason he has got his rating is that he has started school and I haven’t. Just wait until I go to school and the stripes will start to come. I hope. Gee whiz, I wish that I could be home to help you with all the work. You must be awful tired every night. I only hope your mother gets well and helps you with some of the work. Of course if you have that fat little hind end that your Mama said you had I bet it will take it down a little. I’m only fooling, so don’t get mad. I got Pappy’s letter and was awfully glad to see that he wrote something at last. I won’t be able to write him tonight, but I will write him one tomorrow. I will have more time then. Your Dad said Bonny girl was the cutest little bugger he had ever seen, so I guess that makes her the best baby that was ever born in the whole world. I don’t know about baby’s birth certificate, but if I ain’t shipped by the end of the week I will have you send it down. Then I can get that stuff cleared up. If you don’t get a letter saying different, send it down on Saturday. It will help you out a lot more. It’s about time that they had that radio fixed. If I was home I would ride their rear end plenty. If you don’t get it right away just send them a letter, or else better still, go down and see them. As long as you get it back. Tomorrow is going to be a hard day, as I am going on KP again, so I will be up at three in the morning. It will be a long day, as we are going to be at the toughest chow house in the whole post. I guess I can take it, though. Every time you talk about Bonny girl it makes me so awful lonesome. You say she is so sweet and I miss her an awful lot even though I haven’t seen her. I think I had better close, as I need a lot of sleep tonight. I will write more tomorrow. Lots of love and kisses from Daddy.
PS – Give all my love to Bonny, too. You two will have to fight over it. Daddy
Notes: Wow. Fat butt jokes. I guess Ralph liked to live dangerously in his youth.