Letters to America

Saturday, February 5th, 1944

Darling Joan,

No sooner do I write telling you off for not writing than we get a letter. Two arrived this morning, after such a long wait that we had almost given up hope of hearing again. Weren’t we silly? We were so sorry to hear how ill everybody had been and do so hope that now you are all fit and well again and will continue so. It is really everyone’s war job to keep fit because of the shortage of doctors and nurses.

Apparently you had two lots of illness in the house, one lot before Xmas which you escaped and another lot after which you didn’t. I hope you didn’t miss too much schooling and picked it up later. We were amused to see your memory sketch of this house which is perfectly correct and proves that you do really remember quite a lot. I am sorry to say that the swing has at last broken away at the bottom of one of the posts and I won’t be able to repair it properly until the war is over and it becomes possible to get materials again.

We weren’t surprised to hear what a job you had getting Xmas presents and you can realise what it must be like over here when you think that we were in this war two years before the U.S.A. Still, one day we will have all the nice things back again and some more besides, I hope, and all this will seem like a bad dream after you awake in the morning.

We are going to a friend’s this afternoon to see his home-made talkie(1). The twins are going to see some Mickey Mouse films with sound, and are looking forward to it immensely.

The weather is absolutely grand today, lovely sunshine but cold, in fact it is still freezing despite the warm sunshine. This is unusual weather for us, -------------------------------------------------------------- censored(2) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Oh, and we are also pulling down the glass-house that I built before you went away, it being in a very bad state of repair and there not being the slightest chance of getting it even repainted. Tomorrow I am starting my spring planting by putting in my shallots, which go in so much earlier than other things. Over here in fact you are told to plant them on the shortest day and gather them on the longest, but I don’t think that suits our cold wet clay at all and like to leave it until a suitable time in February.

Cheerio(3) and lots of love from
Daddy
xxxxxxxxxxx

  1. Most home-made films were silent at this time, but a talkie was a film with sound.
  2. All letters sent abroad were censored by government officials who removed unapproved text with scissors or blacked them out with a marker. This is the only letter to Joan which was censored.
  3. People sometimes say 'cheerio' as a way of saying goodbye, especially in British English.