night. Well I suppose I turned into all the colors of the rainbow and I didn’t know what to say and then Lefty asked right out loud if I wasn’t going to introduce him to the lady and she spoke up and said her name Miss Chase and then I had to say something so I said “Oh I didn’t know you was really Miss Chase or I would of acted different but I thought you was somebody else.” So she kind of give a funny smile and says “Yes you did” and then all of a sudden I heard little Al’s voice right behind hollering “There’s daddy” and I looked around and it was Florrie and little Al.
Well Al Florrie come up and kissed me right in front of the whole hotel and the next thing I know the 3 of us was away from Kramer and the dame and Florrie was telling me how she had came down to give me a Xmas supprise and she is going to stay about 3 wks. and spend some of the time with her sister over in Beaumont.
Well I took a look just as we was going up in the elevator and Miss Chase was still standing there yet with Kramer and she was looking right at me and I couldn’t help from feeling sorry for her the way she looked but a woman her age should ought to know more then start writeing letters to a guy she never seen and maybe this will learn her a lesson and I suppose she can give her sweater to somebody else and maybe Kramer has got it by this time but what he ought to have is a wallop in the jaw for butting in but what can you expect from a left hander.
Well Al I have got a leave off for over Xmas and I am writeing this letter while Florrie is out shopping and she asked me what I wanted for Xmas and I told her a sweater so I won’t loose out after all.
Friend Al: Well Al this may be the last time you will ever hear from me or at least for a long time and maybe never. I’m going over there old pal and something tells me I won’t never come back.
I can’t tell you what I am going with or when we go or where we sail from because they won’t leave us give out none of that dope and all as I can say is that about 30 of us has been picked to fill up a unit and we leave here tomorrow and meet them at the place where we sail from. Well Al its a big honor to be 1 of the men picked and it means they have got a lot of confidence in me and you can bet they are not sending no riff and raff over there but just picked men and I will show them they didn’t make no mistake in choosing me.
But its mighty tough to leave Florrie and little Al and I thought Florrie would break her heart when I told her and no wonder. But when its a question of duty I am not the kind that would back out and Florrie wouldn’t want me to but its hard all the same.
Well Al I can’t waist no more time writeing to you and I am going to meet Florrie in Houston in a little while and it may be for the last time so I will say good bye to you now and say good bye to Bertha for me and she ought to be thankful she has got a husband that stayed at home and didn’t enlist. And if we have good luck and nothing happens to us I will write you once in a while from the other side.
And Many a Stormy Wind Shall Blow
Friend Al: Well Al I suppose it is kind of foolish to be writeing you a letter now when they won’t be no chance to mail it till we get across the old pond but still and all a man has got to do something to keep themself busy and I know you will be glad to hear all about our trip so I might as well write you a letter when ever I get a chance and I can mail them to you all at once when we get across the old pond and you will think I have wrote a book or something.
Jokeing a side Al you are lucky to have an old pal thats going to see all the fun and write to you about it because its a different thing haveing a person write to you about what they see themself then getting the dope out of a newspaper or something because you will know that what I tell you is the real dope that I seen myself where if you read it in a newspaper you know its guest work because in the 1st place they don’t leave the reporters get nowheres near the front and besides that they wouldn’t go there if they had a leave because they would be to scared like the baseball reporters that sets a mile from the game because they haven’t got the nerve to get down on the field where a man could take a punch at them and even when they are a mile away with a screen in front of them they duck when somebody hits a pop foul.
Well Al it is against the rules to tell you when we left the old U.S. or where we come away from because the pro German spy might get a hold of a man’s letter some way and then it would be good night because he
