Letters Ray To Shirl a WWII Love Story

  Oct. 25, 1945       Ahoy Matey      Downright party paper you got from W. Von Sp.   Now you all can be my little Madame Butterfly all.        Honey, you a faker, a sos and so and an ole fud.   You keep telling me what a bad cook and stuff like that there you are and then every so often you tell me about how good a cake or a dinner was that you cooked.   You Jeckyl and Skin you.   And what the beJesus ever happened to that cake you were going to send me?   Well??      Ya know been spending lots of time thinking about me.   Got her all figured out.   I’m sort of Sleeping Beauty and I don’t get awakened till I get kissed by Princess Charming (that’s you).   So all that time I’m away from you is just a dream and after the first kiss from you I wake up and start living.   Garman must be the seven dwarfs rolled into one.   He and Cathy are still estranged.     ...

  Oct. 23, 1945       Darlingest,       Ya know, fate is a very unpredictable hunk of character!   Now take last night - I needed some matches - they have them at the club, so off to the club goes me.   It happens to be free beer night.   This usually doesn’t interest me to much so I got the matches and was about to leave when the organess started to play Clare De Lune.   Dya ever freeze in your tracks?   That sort of upside downed me and created a mood.   I got “that way” on free beer and “Clare De Lune” was played several more times and each time I got sadder.   This morning was sort of sad too, but after some T. Juice and B coffee living conditions improved - but not much.   There’s a jukebox in the mess hall and some Joe was playing “there’s no you” all through breakfast.   Ole helpful Harry!!         There are lots of rumors floating around.   Might as well tell you about them, ...

  Oct. 19 7:30 pm 1945 Sweetheart,      Your letter came this morning and brought a heap of sunshine with it.   It was a swell letter Darling.   I remember coming back on the train I was pretty low so I threw my coat over my head and thought about you pretty hard.   After about two hours I looked out the window.   We were at the depot.   The sign on the spot - Rutledge.   Today I was looking through “life”.   There was an add for the Boca Raton Club.   There’s always something that has to do with you.   It’s nice that way.         Honey, that pass case I lost had those two small pictures of you in it.   Everything else is replaceable.   Could you dig up a couple more small ones?   This is sort of secret, just between you and me, but I really did carry them next to my heart.   You wouldn’t want me to go around with my heart unshielded would’ya ?         Tell Bill t...

  Oct. 19, 1945 Hey there prettier than me,      Doggone, there shouldn't ought to be nights like this when a guy ain’t with his gal.   Tain’t fair.      I got your letter yesterday the one before the leave.   O.K. so I’m naiver than you.   You old Pedigog you. Bob is driving me berserk. He’s got gal troubles.   He changes his mind about Cathy every ten minutes.   Also, he is not very musically brilliant.   Last night I was playing different tunes for him on my harmonica and he was supposed to guess what they were.   My playing may not be super colossal but ain’t horrible.   Anyway, he didn’t guess one out of about twenty so I figured sump’n was wrong.   I played the star spangled banner.   He looked puzzled and said that he thought that he heard it before but couldn’t remember the name.   Then I played America.   This he called “Coming Round the Mountain”.        This was ...