February 8, 1945

No 8 C.I.T.R.

Can Army O/S

8 Feb 45

 My dear Isobel:

Well, darling, at last I received a letter from you and I sure was overjoyed to get it. It was written on 1 Feb, Frankie’s Birthday & got here pretty fast. I don’t understand the way the mails are. I wrote you right away as soon as I got here & a day or two afterward started to write other letters. I wrote one to Wilbur & Jennie and got a reply from them today too, & their letter was written on the 2^nd of Feb. Jennie would like you to write to her – the address is 2733 Mark St., Victoria. By the way, did you hear anything from them about the Christmas parcel we sent? She didn’t say a word in her letter & I am wondering about it, whether they got it or not.

Yes, dear, I’ll start numbering my letters from now on, just to see if you get them all. I think too, that we can write these kind of letters instead of the air mail ones. They are cheaper to send (they don’t cost me anything at all) & are almost as fast. If there is anything important comes up, send an air mail & I’ll do the same. I think I’ve written you about 15 times since I arrived over. Glad to hear you got the cable o.k. & hope you got the one I sent to Frankie. At that time I didn’t know you were in the Glen [Skye Glen, Cape Breton, NS] so I sent it to Kentville [NS].

Have you made any plans for the future & where are you going to live? I know, dear, it must be a dreadful problem on your mind and I sure wish that I could be there to help out on the situation. Did you find a place in Whycocomagh [Cape Breton, NS] or nearby? What about that house of Annie Bishop’s? Did you try the Hotel? What are you doing with the house in Kentville? Are you renting it? And by the way, in case you didn’t get the letter that I wrote with this in it before, I had £ 5 sent to you to the Royal Bank of Canada in Kentville. Please contact that Bank about it right away if you haven’t already done so. My pay has all been queered up since I came over & it won’t be straightened out until after the end of this month.

It’s too bad Jack & Flo have moved away. What have they done with their place? I wrote them but didn’t get a reply yet.

I was in to London yesterday – drove in by truck & took some stuff in. An officer had to go with them so I was it. It was rather a good trip – had to follow the road by map & that’s a bad proposition here, because the roads go in all directions, especially going through the towns. None of the streets in the towns are straight. They wander all over the place in London. We saw a lot of bombed buildings and believe me they sure look bad. – walls down, roofs in, no glass in the windows for blocks around. The strange thing is that the people don’t say too much about it. I saw a letter in the paper the other day that a woman wrote & she finished it this way – “I’ll give you my name if you want it, but I can’t give you my address – I lost it last week.” And that seems to be the attitude – no one complains but believe me it’s plain hell, just the same. The rockets still come over & there is just a note in the paper to say that 5 were killed & 10 injured & 12 houses knocked down, or something like that. However they have taken a heavy toll & you never know where they are going to land, because they travel faster than sound & you can’t hear them.

About the parcels, darling, don’t worry about them for me at all – I’ll settle for letters from you. Honestly, dear, I’m not short of anything. My cigarettes are coming along now, at the same price as you can get them for, & we only have to wait for about 10 days or so. We get a cup of tea or something to eat every night so that’s over – we didn’t get that at first & I missed it very much. About the soap – we can’t get good soap here. It is rationed & we have no points to buy any. We are issued with two cakes of toilet soap a month, which is not of very good quality, & is really only a good type of laundry soap. There is no issue of laundry soap so we have to go around picking up soap wherever we can get it & get our laundry done. So darling, if you send me a parcel, would you put one toilet soap in it, about 3 or 4 cakes a month would be swell.

I was able to get some flashlight batteries in town the other day, so I don’t need them. The weather has turned mild so I won’t need my heavy underwear any more this year. So you see I’m doing o.k. However if you send me a parcel would you send me some shaving cream. A stick would be preferred & some toothpaste. By the way, if you can, will you try to get me a holder for a stick of shaving cream. I’ve tried to get one & can’t.

There was a movie here in the mess last night so I went to see it. It was quite good. About a Polish airman who married an American girl.

Alex Sutherland is here now or I should say “still”. He was a Captain but since he was acting & not confirmed, he had to take his third pip down & is now a Lieutenant. Jonnie & I are both confirmed so we are o.k. Gerry Merser is here too. He was asst. Adjt at Aldershot when I took over the job. He has been over to France & has been wounded & is back again.

Well, darling, I must close now. Keep well, dear, & don’t get blue. I’m thinking of you all the time, darling, & I love you very much. Love to the children & everyone.

Your own Frank

xxxxx