Name/Title
Spalsbury: #66 Letters Home December 28, 1943Entry/Object ID
2021.2.310A-EScope and Content
Letter Home from Pvt. Robert C. Spalsbury, ASN 17135556, Btry B - 778th AAA Bn, Camp Haan, California to his parents Mr. and Mrs. George C. Spalsbury, 806 South Eleventh, Saint Joseph 10, Missouri. Post Marked DEC 28, 1943, 4:30 PM, Camp Haan, Calif., 6 cents Air Mail stamp.Context
Monday Night -
27 December 1943
Dear Kids -
It's 10:15 p.m., and I didn't get to bed till 1:45 this morning, but I wanted to write and tell you how much I enjoyed the package, which arrived Friday - the day before Christmas. The cookies and candy are delicious - they're not gone yet, believe-it-or-not. The boys are crazy about the pralines and home-made maple candy, and of course I am too. Pop - the box of Stover's chocolates is de-li-shus! (I'll bet you got them, didn't you?) The cookies are very good, especially the chocolate-nut chewy ones. I'm putting the smart stationery to good use, as you can see, Mom. It's really nice. And the billfold looks even nicer to me now, when I compare it with others I've seen recently. I just finished trimming up a lot of snapshots to insert in the celluloid picture - folder. And the folder with Marie, George, and Duane in it is nice. I carry it around with me in my O.D. shirt pocket. The packages were certainly all beautifully wrapped - I hated to tear the wrappings off. Oh yes, the tie -nice and clean - I've got it on now. I'm sending my other one - the one I bought in Hollywood - to the cleaners. I put in an order in the Supply Room for two G.I. ties today. They should be sufficient to last me a long time - they're so tough.
Oh yes, last Thursday the cute card and letter and 15-dollar money order arrived, and thanks a lot. How is it? - Is five dollars of it from Aunt Esther, five from Grandma Whinery and the rest from you, or how? I thought maybe I'd have a small package from Grandma Whinery, but no soap. I wonder if she's got the 2-lb box of dates I sent 'er. - And has yours come yet, and also the little box of candy I sent, Mom? I worried about you thinking I'd forgotten you if they hadn't got there. Have you run across a pen you like at Smith's? I think that's what you really need, with all the writing you do, and your job, etc.
I was paid $49.50 today - for October and November; will be paid for December this Friday. Also I'll soon get about 8 or 9 bucks ration currency. Then I s'pose Duane's check will come in his next letter. I've plenty now to pay back my 50-dollar loan from the A.E. Relief, and to buy a sleeping bag at the P.X. I hear we're going out to Camp Irwin for firing on January 8th. We'll be there a week or two. Then we'll come back, for how long I don't know. If you're worried about me going overseas - don't be - because I've heard that we new fellows will probably be transferred to some other outfit. We really haven't been with this one long enough to go overseas with it.
The 1st Sgt. had another fella and me fixing four new rifle racks today - one for each barracks. We braced them with boards, and then painted 'em. Most of the Battery was having instruction in hand-grenade throwing during one period this morning. It's the first instruction of that kind they've had. We're all going to be issued a rifle before long. They're in now, and the racks for 'em are almost ready. We had an orientation film today - one in the series "Why We Fight." It showed the battle that Russia has put up. It was long - about an hour and a half - and very interesting. We've been having a lot of classes lately on Defense Against Chemical (Gas) Attack. All this sounds ominous, doesn't it? Don't worry about me worrying about going overseas, because as yet, it doesn't scare me one bit. I wonder how Johnny Jamieson is - have his folks heard?
Funny thing - I dreamed about the two Schwartz girls one night last week.
T/5 Bill Kurtz and I had a very enjoyable holiday in Hollywood and Los Angeles. We slept and ate at the Guild - Canteen; saw Lena Horne and our old friend, Jack Benny, at the Hlyd. Canteen. Benny looks old - his hair is a yellowish-gray. Saw two radio broadcasts - Jose Iturbi, the pianist, and Amos 'n Andy were on one of 'em. Saw the "Song of Bernadette," a new movie, at the United Artist Theatre in downtown L.A. It was a good picture -mystical and religious -(Catholic). Sunday night we had some Italian spaghetti & meat balls at a genuine Italian Restaurant in downtown L.A. Pretty good, but I wouldn't want to spend 65 cents for some again soon. It's not that good - and it kind of monotonous eating - they give you so much! We had a delicious dinner Sunday noon at Clifton's Restaurant. My bill was only 59 cents, and I was so full I couldn't eat a dish of macaroni I took. -- Hollywood was really beautiful - large bushes of poinsettias were blooming. And everything looked so green, with the recent rains. We were lucky - the sun shone the entire weekend.
Saw kids I knew - 3 from Loyola, and Haglund at the Guild.
MUCH LOVE, SPALS
[NOTE - written along the side of the back of page 2: "P.S. The January Readers" Digest arrived last week. - - - I sent ya a small bottle of orange blossom perfume from Hollywood. - - - Had 3 cards today - from Helen McMachen, Margaret Lawlor, and a card and letter from Mrs. Reichert.Collection
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Category 08: Communication ObjectsArchive Items Details
Title
Letter Home from Pvt. Robert C. Spalsbury, ASN 17135556, Btry B - 778th AAA Bn, Camp Haan, California to his parents Mr. and Mrs. George C. Spalsbury, 806 South Eleventh, Saint Joseph 10, Missouri. Post Marked DEC 28, 1943, 4:30 PM, Camp Haan, Calif., 6 cents Air Mail stamp.Description
Handwritten letter home to parents back in St. Joseph after being called up to serve in the US Army during WWII. Pvt. Spalsbury, at the time of this letter, has completed Basic Training at Camp Callan, California, was stationed for a short time with a STAR Unit for ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program) soldiers in Pasadena, CA then moved to engineering training at Loyola University in Los Angeles, CA. After flunking out of the ASTP program, Robert was briefly stationed at Camp Roberts, located in central California assigned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center. At the time of this letter, Robert is stationed at Camp Haan in southern California, a U.S. Army training camp for Coast Artillery Anti Aircraft gunners.
This letter is two pages, front and back, written in blue ink on very thin plain stationery (likely Air Mail stock). The matching envelope is equally thin and shows signs of deterioration along the edges. The pages are folded in thirds.Dimensions
Height
10-1/2 inWidth
7-1/4 inRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Robert C. Spalsbury
