Name/Title
Spalsbury: #34 Letters Home August 13, 1943Entry/Object ID
2021.2.278A-IScope and Content
Letter Home from Pvt. Robert C. Spalsbury, ASTU 3938, Loyola University, Los Angeles 34, California to his parents Mr. and Mrs. George C. Spalsbury, 806 South Eleventh Street, Saint Joseph, Missouri. Post Marked AUG 13, 1943, 1:30 PM, Los Angeles, Calif., 6 cent Air Mail stamp.Context
Thursday Night - August 12, 1943
Dear Mom and Pop,
It's nine o'clock and I'm in study hall. Every night I study here from 7:30 till 9:30, the required hours, and usually stay later than that. Last night I went to bed at eleven or thereabouts. I just completed my Analytics for tomorrow which I'd begun during the study period from 2 till 3, and since I have no further assignments for tomorrow I'm writing. The letter you began last Saturday and completed on Monday came this afternoon, Mom, and I was mighty glad to hear about things in Joetown. I'd often thought that was poison ivy there on the Library fence.
I wrote the Library Staff a Hollywood postcard a minute ago. When I get more time I'll write 'em a letter. Besides your letter this afternoon I got a short one from Lilburn Roberts - he's still a Pfc. at Keesler Field, Mississippi, working in the orderly room now. He said Edwin Einbender started to school (M.U., I guess) over a month ago, but he's still there. Surely he'll get into the ASTP eventually, because he's plenty smart. -- I certainly enjoy hearing from kids I used to know.
I was surprised to hear that Jack Planalp's a corporal, and studying Radar at that! He wasn't a bit mechanical, you know, and didn't care about such things.
Yesterday I had a mimeographed letter from the Church, with a program of the church service the Sunday before, and also a short letter from Kathleen. I had a long 8 - page one from her last Saturday, also. She wants to send me some cookies or fudge, whichever I want. She did a clever thing in the short letter yesterday, which was sort of a "thank you" for a folder of Hollywood I sent her. She had been down at the Library, and she looked up places of interest around here in a Rand-McNally Atlas. She wrote down brief descriptions of places to dine around in L.A. County vicinity. It was pretty cute.
I guess maybe you've received a letter by now in which I told you about Loyola, but maybe I'm thinking of one I wrote somebody else. - I wrote Duane several days ago. Well, I'm in a room with 21 other boys. My locker is no longer at the head of the steps - it's right inside my room now - they were rearranged the other day. The food is slowly improving, and since we now have two small lunchrooms, we don't have to stand in line so long anymore. The University is situated on a high plateau overlooking suburbs of Venice and L.A. to the north. There are rather marshy lowlands at the bottom of the hill to the north, and I guess that's why there are so many mosquitoes around here. They are small - not very large - but plentiful. The grass around the buildings is well-cut and watered, and there are numerous tree-roses and some kind of lily which looks like a pink amaryllis. The flower stalks going directly from the ground without any leaves. - I guess the leaves come after the flowers.
Do me a favor. Call Mrs. Montgomery and see if Warren's address is the same. He's owed me a letter now for some time, and I think perhaps he's out on a submarine. He wanted to see the pictures, but I'm afraid to send 'em unless I'm sure. I sent the one of me with my arms folded, and standing on Balboa Park Lawn, to Barbara Mann in a letter I wrote her the other day. She'd previously asked me for a snapshot.
Our permanent passes are now good for anyplace within a radius of 6 miles from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. So I hitchhiked by myself over to Inglewood, about 5 miles east of here. Manchester is a pretty busy highway, so I didn't have much trouble. I left at 6 p.m., after mail call and chow were over, and got back at about 7:20 p.m. I left a roll of films which I took at Callan the day before we left for Pasadena. I left 'em at a corner drug store, and the man said they'd be ready tomorrow evening, and the charge (for the large size) is only 5 cent a print, like in Joetown. At Callan the price was 10 cents a print, and then it took almost two weeks.
I stopped in an Owl Drug Store and had a choc malt and then a choc sundae - how good they tasted! Ice cream is very scarce at the Loyola Lodge Lions' Lair, which is sorta our P.X.
Then I strolled down the sidewalk a ways and stopped in still a third drug store, and got a 37 cent tube of Colgate's Dental Cream. I didn't have my empty Ipana tube with me, but the lady said they didn't require an empty tube of servicemen. That was about all I did - then I hitchhiked back. Oh yes - bought a new roll of 127 film for 28 cents in the first drug store. Now you see where my money goes.
We had a supplementary payroll the other day. I received 5 dollars, and I can certainly use it. -That means I'll probably only get about 18 or 19 bucks at the end of August. I spent quite a lot on the 3-day pass and weekend pass last week in Hollywood and L.A. But not half as much as some of the boys. It surprises me the way some people literally play with their money - they just throw it away. Many's the time I remember boys back in C-57 losing 50 bucks at poker, craps, etc.
Haglund was turned down by the Board because he told them he was terrible at math, and didn't think he could handle the engineering course. - He was a sophomore at Iowa State Teachers' College when called, and most of his subjects were history. He was working as a typist in the office at Pasadena, and the lst time I saw him - last Sunday - he believed he was leaving soon for Camp Roberts. ---Frank Hanlin is a Basic I engineer here. He's a very nice kid - likes classical music, too.
I was actually cold this evening coming back from Inglewood.
Some of the boys folks haven't even received their first bond yet, so I guess we're lucky.
[NOTE: This is the first letter that just ends without a signature]Collection
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Title
Letter Home from Pvt. Robert C. Spalsbury, ASTU 3938, Loyola University, Los Angeles 34, California to his parents Mr. and Mrs. George C. Spalsbury, 806 South Eleventh Street, Saint Joseph, Missouri. Post Marked AUG 13, 1943, 1:30 PM, Los Angeles, Calif., 6 cent 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 and is now stationed at Loyola University in Los Angeles, CA for additional training.
This letter is four pages, front & back, written in blue ink on plain stationery. The letter was mailed in a plain envelope, larger than the stationery with a 6 cent Air Mail stamp. The stationary is folded in thirds.Condition
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Very GoodRelationships
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Person or Organization
Robert C. Spalsbury
