633 11/18/1944 Jim Erwin to Sadie Erwin

Jim Erwin 497th Service Sqdn. 44th Service Group, APO 487, NY Saturday, November 18, 1944

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Cliff and I are in Calcutta now. Arrived yesterday on a twenty-day furlough. Cliff’s furlough was to be cancelled but we left before the orders came in. We talked to our B.O. and he said it was okay. We all believe that the lieutenant that I don’t get along with tried to stop Cliff so we couldn’t come together. Our furloughs are for fifteen days with five days traveling time plus one day of grace. We left the noon before and caught a plane. It only took a few hours to get here. We hope to catch a plane back too. Calcutta is the second largest city in the British Empire so there is plenty of it. We have reservations here at the Red Cross Club in town. Everything is very reasonable. Our lodging is only one rupee per day (30¢). The dining room is lively and serves very good food. Our dinner cost less that fifty cents and we were really full. In a few days, three more fellows are coming down from our squadron so we intend to have a wonderful time. In the past two weeks, I’ve only written one letter and that was to you. Since my transfer from the shop came through, I’ve really been busy. I got a softball league started and a big program lined up for Christmas Day. It is a change for a while and like it very much so far. Capt. Beck is the special service officer and he reminds me so much of Chuck Smith. Capt. Beck was a football coach too. A couple more packages of funny papers arrived and the package of legion material came too. Thanks. The map from the paper arrived. You know where we are or at least close by. The large town is the one we usually go to on our days off. You can also see what river we went swimming in. I looked at the state register book here at the club and saw Frank Hickenbottom’s name. I don’t know him personally. Just that he is Ed’s brother. He was the only one from Enumclaw. There are quite a few from down in the valley though. The clippings were good. Especially those from Gracie Allen’s articles. Sorry to hear about Tom’s death. Hope they find the fellows. Don’t suppose you are too happy over the results of the election. We got the returns over the radio as the election was going on. Glad you got some new front seat covers. Do they match the back at all. It’s saving the upholstery though, and it will look like new when we turn the car in. Think it’s awful that somebody is stealing things off of cars. You will have to park the car in the garage all the time. Hope you will be able to get the wheel discs from the garage. Cliff and I have been eating ice cream at every meal. Can’t get enough of it. Seems swell getting it again. Can get cokes too. Close for now. With love, Jim