The Althing

Letter or Postcard – Letter

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida

Postmark Date – 3 March 1943

Letter Date – 2 March 1943

Text:

Dearest darling wife,

Hiya beautiful. How are you feeling?  I hope you are swell. I feel good.  There are quite a few sick down here with colds.  I had a cold when I come down here but I feel good now. Well, I got my first basic training today.  I mean the first real drill I have ever had.  I marched about six hours today so I’m sort of tired, but not too tired to write to my wife. That day will never come.  We are supposed to drill for three days steady and then we take our first one in front of the commanding officer of the post.  If we pass that all we do is turn around and march and drill for the next three weeks. That sounds like quite a long time down here but I guess it will go faster after I get some letters from you.  Then after that we will get sent to some radio school in the United States for our 20 weeks training. There is a slim chance I will get sent up to the University of Wisconsin at Madison for my training,  but that is so slim I don’t like to think of it.  Boy that would be swell if I could get up there, wouldn’t it?  The Sergeant just told us we would get all of our basic training here instead of moving into tents for part of it, and that’s what I call swell, too.  We got everything here – radios, musical instruments, and showers and bathtubs.  Everything is real classy.  We even have a nice dresser with a big mirror on it in my room.  When we was out doing physical exercises today Bill Pick kind of monkeyed around when he wasn’t supposed to, so they made him stand at attention in front of about 500 of us for about two hours.  He felt kind of cheap about it.  I also run the obstacle course today for the first time.  This is about a half-mile around with 20 foot walls and a lot of smaller ones,  tunnels to crawl through,  wide creeks to jump,  and a bunch of ropes to swing across a deep ditch with.  The hard part of it was in that we had to run all the way and it was all washed sand about ten inches deep.  I was pretty well tired out at the end.  A bunch of them didn’t make it and one of them fainted.  It was funny  some more of them didn’t, as it was about 90 degrees in the sun.  I’ll bet you wish you had some of that heat up there.  I got a letter from Clarence today.  He was glad to hear from me.  He sent me a letter my stepmother sent him telling him that she was living in or near Redgranite.  I also wrote Alvin about two days ago but no answer yet.  Well sweetheart, I guess I will have to close now as I am getting tired and have to go to bed.  Lots of love and kisses and pray every night that I will get sent to Wisconsin.

By your Ralph

Notes: Clarence was Clarence Henry Peterson, my Dad’s oldest brother. Pretty sure he was already in the Army by this point. Their Mom [Esther Serena (Hansen) Peterson] had died in 1930, scared to death by lightning [see newspaper clipping below]. Their Dad [Henry Peterson] had died less then a year before this letter, in 1942, leaving his second wife [Evangeline (Parsons) Peterson]. She is the stepmother who had moved to Redgranite with Dad’s younger siblings, Florian Frederick Peterson [later Scott Peterson] and Lorraine Peterson. Alvin was my Mom’s oldest brother Alvin Grant, who was also probably in the Army by this point.

Letter or Postcard – Letter

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida

Postmark Date – 2 March 1943

Letter Date – 1 March 1943

Text:

My darling,

Night time again and time to write to my loved one.  No letters yet today and I’m getting kind of worried if you are going to write or not.  Still, it takes quite a while for the letter to go up there. Maybe you could have sent it up here with a carrier pigeon,  if you could catch one.  I suppose I will get one tomorrow.  At least I hope I will.  Well, I will start from this morning and tell you what I did.  Got up this morning at five this morning,  had chow, then I went up to the classification hall and got classified.  Now after three weeks more training here I will be sent to school for about 20 weeks.  When I graduate from there I will be a full-fledged radio technician,  whatever that is.  I know what it is though.  I will learn everything about radio – the repair and the running of them.  I guess that isn’t such a bad job.  I had my choice between that and a lineman.  I took radio, but my bunkmate from Coloma took  lineman, so when I go to school I guess we will part. But Marvin Roeske is going with me.  Billy Pick is training for a truck driver.  He will be sent to a different camp, too.  This afternoon we had physical [?] for about four hours. It was about 80 degrees above in the sun down here and two of the guys went under with the heat, but your little blonde Dane stood it all right.  I feel good now except that my back is getting sort of red all over. It’s starting for a nice tan.  There are six guys in my room and five of them are married.  Three of us are 19 and the other two are 20, so we all get along pretty good. All five of us were married last November so after the war we are going to get together with all of our wives and take a trip around the states.  The funny part of it is we are all from Wisconsin.  They are real swell fellows, too.  We all share pictures of our wives and my picture of you was noted to be the nicest looking.  I really think it is the sweetest girl in the world.  I guess three pages is all I can ever think of to write so I will close with love and kisses to my darling wife from Ralph.

PS – PLEASE WRITE EVERY DAY

Notes:

Letter or Postcard – Postcard [wwii postcard 03]

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – none

Postmark Date – none

Letter Date – none

Text:

This is the hotel I am staying in now. It’s a real nice hotel, bigger than the Beverly. I sleep way in the back in here. There is a big yard in the back right off my room.

Notes: Presumably this was sent along with the prior postcard of the Beverly Hotel.

Letter or Postcard – Postcard [wwii postcard 02]

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – none

Postmark Date – none

Letter Date – none

Text:

This is the first hotel that I stayed at. It held about 400 men. The place where I took my sun bath his way in the back on the top floor. I slept on the first floor.

Notes: This postcard was enclosed in a letter rather than being mailed. It would have been one of the letters from late February 1943. The Beverly Hotel was originally known as the Hollenbeck Hotel, according to “St. Petersburg: The Sunshine City, by R. Wayne Ayers”. It was located at the corner of First Avenue and Second Street North.

Letter or Postcard – Postcard [wwii postcard 01]

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida

Postmark Date – 2 March 1943

Letter Date – none

Text:

Dearest wife,

I guess this is just an afterthought, if that’s what you call it. I just got my letter mailed and we got a new address. I will write it in the upper corner of this card. I will still get the letters that are already on the way, but when you get this address, change it. Love from your husband Ralph.

Notes:

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.

Letter or Postcard – Letter

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida

Postmark Date – 28 Feb 1943

Letter Date – 27 Feb 1943

Text:

My dearest wife,

Yah! Yah! It’s me again and I just bet you aren’t glad to hear from me. Don’t you ever say that you aren’t glad to hear from that little blonde Dane.  Well, I am going to try and write you every day and I want you to do the same. It sure is going to help me a lot to hear from you. You can write two a day if you want to. That will be okay. Oh yes, if the baby wants to write you can let him write, too. Maybe he is a bit too young to write yet. I think I will be home in time to make him smile the first time. That’s all I would ever ask for – just to see you holding our baby. That will be the happiest moment of my life, and boy I hope it happens soon. I got my second shot today and is my arm ever sore. I can hardly raise it up. I have one hell of a time saluting these officers around here with that sore arm. We also got our first exercises today. They were only about three hours long. I took it alright, but a few of the guys were almost ready to drop. Yesterday I took a radio code test. If I make out alright on that one I will start school in about three weeks from now. I will find out about that tomorrow. I just got back from a show on airplanes. It sort of makes you familiar with all kinds of them. I guess I can sign up for an Air Cadet, but if you want me to I will stay on the ground in the Signal Corps. That’s probably the safest place anyway, if I have a chance. I wish you would tell me what to do. I feel so damn lost without you around. Well tomorrow is Sunday and I don’t know what we are going to do, but we can’t get a pass to go uptown to buy anything so I guess I will sleep, but I will write to you anyway. That’s all for now so will close with lots of love honey, from Ralph.

PS – I am going to write to your father, too.

Notes: This letter makes it a bit more clear that the baby had not yet born, because Dad is imagining a baby boy. The reality was my sister Bonny.

Letter or Postcard – Letter

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida

Postmark Date – 27 Feb 1943

Letter Date – 26 Feb 1943

Text:

My dearest wife,

I have nothing to do right now and I wanted to write to you so here goes. I just had a little bad luck down here. I went to bed the other night and I put my wallet in my money belt. When I woke up in the morning it was gone. I reported it to the 1st Sergeant and he made a search of the room but he could not find it. He made one hell of a stink about it. He said there wasn’t nothing he could do about it except to wait and see if it turned up, but I had most of my money so I am just about flat broke. I will have to ask you to send down about ten bucks if you can. I wish you would do it right away as I could use it now. You better send it in a postal money order. I have not heard from you yet but I get lonesome down here without you. I tell you honey it’s hell here without you and I won’t get a furlough until about six months from now. Of course there is a chance I will be sent to Chanute Field in Illinois. That will be a lot closer but that’s only a slim chance. I have a new address here now. I have moved to a different hotel here. It is the Serena Hotel. Don’t put the hotel on the address. The address will be on the back of my letter. Maybe I had better write it here, too. It’s just about the same. This is it

Flight 400S

604 Tech Sch. Sqdn. (SP)

AAFTT@

St. Petersburg Florida

I am writing this right between drills so I will have to close now. Kiss the baby for me and take good care of yourself. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Say hello to Mom and Dad and tell them I will write them later. Let me know if you got that first letter. I’ll have to close now with loads of love from your husband Ralph.

PS – Remember that money.

Notes: There is one very curious detail in this letter. In the postscript Dad asks Mom to “kiss the baby for me.” But my sister Bonny would not be born until 14 March 1943, a bit over two weeks after Dad wrote this letter. I assume he was speaking figuratively but it still seems just slightly odd.

Letter or Postcard – Letter

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida

Postmark Date – 25 Feb 1943

Letter Date – 24 Feb 1943

Text:

My Sweetheart,

Well here I am an awful long way from home. It is about 1200 miles from Chicago. That is too far away from you. We left Fort Sheridan at eleven on Monday night and got here at three on Wednesday afternoon. We come through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and then into Florida. It was a real nice trip with a lot of scenery, mostly Negroes. They would dance for us if we threw them money and then they would fight for it. The biggest Negro town we came through was Birmingham, Alabama, and that was all Negroes. We are now in Florida at the airbase that I wanted to get into. I am in the Signal Corps of the Army Air Corps. I don’t know how I got here but here I am. I am staying in the Beverly Hills Hotel right downtown. This is pretty swell now but I guess we move out to a tent city in about ten days. There is seven of us from Waushara County down here together so I can’t get too lonesome for guys, but it’s you I am lonesome for. The guys with me are Marvin Roeske, Rex Carey, Bill Pick, and four others from Plainfield and Hancock. The rest of the guys are somewhere in Georgia and Louisiana – that is all except Gilbert Rohde. He was still in Fort Sheridan when we left Monday. There was about four hundred of us that left Sheridan for Florida. That is quite a bunch. We might be radio men on airplanes. If I go to school, pass the tests, of which there are about 50, I can get a 2nd Lieutenant Commission. I think I am too dumb to do it but I sure am going to try awful hard just for you and our baby. Well that is about all about me for now. Now, let’s ask something about you. How are you getting along and how is your folks – or I should say my folks. I can’t quite get used to it. I hope Dad, got his teeth out and is feeling better. Does the radio work better after Cal fixed it? I hope it plays a lot better and louder. I wish you would send the Argus down here as I would like to hear the news from home. The lights will be out in five minutes so I will have to close with all my love to my dearest beloved wife from your husband Ralph. I love you a lot and miss you more each day. I will write you more later. Please send the Argus.

Notes: This was 1943 America. Up to this point Dad had lived a very insulated life in rural Wisconsin and had certainly not come into contact with many Black Americans. I have his father’s letters home from World War I, which contain a very similar reaction to seeing Black Americans for the first time. The Argus was the local paper.

Letter or Postcard – Letter

Sender – Ralph Peterson

Recipient – Phyllis Peterson

Postmark Place – Fort Sheridan, Illinois

Postmark Date – 22 Feb 1943

Letter Date – 19/20 Feb 1943

Text:

My dearest wife,

Well here I am at last.  That is I got in here about half past five Thursday night.  But we have been pretty doggone busy all the time so I have not had time to write until now.  It is just after chow and there isn’t much to do until about seven o’clock. Then we have to get some more of these examinations.  Boy and is there plenty of them.  I have got all my clothes and all together they weigh about 100 lbs.  Some load to carry, eh?  They all fit swell and they are worth about 100 bucks, and if we lose it we pay for it.  The last thing we did today was to take a test to see where we were best fitted.  We won’t find out until tomorrow and if they need us we will probably be shipped out either Saturday night or Sunday night. By the time you get this I will be on my way to only God knows where but we automatically get a furlough about six months from now or maybe even less.  I hope it is about two days from now.  I sure am getting lonesome for you but there isn’t much I can do about it I guess.  I can hope though.  By the way, I suppose my clothes will be home about as quick as this letter.  There are about 3000 men here right now. They are coming in and going out at about 1800 a day.  Say, don’t write to me while I am here as I might be gone.  I will let you know when I get where I am.  The lights are going out in about five minutes so I will have to close with all my love to the sweetest and dearest wife in the world. I miss you like the devil.  Say hello to Pa and Ma for me.

Lots of love, Ralph

PS you will get 50 bucks a month starting last Thursday.  R. P.

February 20, 1943

Yes it’s me again.  I didn’t have time to mail this letter yesterday so I thought I would add a little bit on.  We just got done with our first drill and boy am I tired.  We had a hell of a tough Corporal drilling us and he was tough.  Another reason I am writing this is I have a paper to send home so you can get your money.  All you have to do is send a copy of our marriage certificate to the address on the top of the paper.  I will put a circle around it.  You will get $28 from the government and $22 from my check.  That leaves my check about 28 bucks.  Then they take four bucks for bonds and $7 for insurance.  But if it would help you I would just assume give it all to you.  A bunch of boys are just being shipped out.  A bunch from Wautoma are going.  Be sure to send that paper right away.

Loads of love, Ralph

Notes: When he says to say hello to Pa and Ma my Dad is referring to my Mom’s parents. By this time both of Dad’s parents had passed, his Mom in 1930 at age 30, when Dad was just six, and his Dad in early 1942 at age 48 from a tooth infection.