777 5/10/1945 Jim Erwin to Stella Benson

Jim Erwin 497th Service Sqdn. 44th Service Group, APO 487, NY Thursday, May 10, 1945

Stella Benson 1446 Laframbroise, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Stella and Harold, Your nice letter written April 1st just arrived. You sent it to my old APO number 9898. That is the reason for the long delay. My number now is 487. I should have written to you long ago. Mother said that you read all my letters to her so have just let it go at that. Your house must be nice. Being larger, it means more cleaning for you to do. Imagine Bernice is big enough to help you now though. The announcement of V.E. Day was wonderful news. There will be millions of boys that will return home for good. It will speed up the war with Japan now. We have a little over fourteen months credited time now overseas. If the war doesn’t end within the next ten, we will more than likely stay over here until it is. A radio commentator said that he is willing to wager any amount that Japan will quit inside of eight months. Hope he is right but am inclined to think eighteen months is closer. In any case, we’re on the last lap. The measles epidemic was something. Imagine the school kids would just as soon have the school close for a week or so. One of the Red Cross girls here came down with them and the medics figured on a bad time but it didn’t spread. Christensen’s are nice people and you’re fortunate in having such neighbors. They like to have parties too. Do Jack Thim’s folks live in town somewhere or did they leave? They sold their house before I left. I’m anxious to see Bob’s wife. Being from California imagine she is pretty and plenty of fun. Seems as though all my friends are or getting married. Won’t be anybody to run around with. I want to attend the University of Washington so guess there will be plenty of people there. Having milk shakes and sandwiches sounds good. We have been getting quite a bit of ice cream lately. We were here over eight months before receiving any at all. The party given you sounded like a lot of fun. Especially the barrel of beer. We’ll have to have a lot of them when I get home. I can drink beer all night. What did mother think of it? I’m going to educate them in a hurry. Perhaps Dad will indulge in a bottle now and then. Mother would go crazy if I brought Dad home swacked some evening. Imagine the castle is still doing a terrific business. Hope you had fun. Do you still have your V-8? How is it running if you do? You mentioned selling it sometime back so don’t know if you have a car or not. It was tennis that I went to Calcutta for. Didn’t do too badly. I’m also the Group table tennis champ. Have won a lot of prizes. While in Calcutta, I was seeing a British Major’s wife. He came home unexpectedly one night while I was there. He didn’t think anything of it. Passed out drinks and we had a good time. He invited me to their home the following evening for a very nice dinner. He also said he hoped his wife hadn’t tried to rape me. How about that? With the war in Germany over now, doubt that they will be inducting many more men. Especially married men with families. The thing I don’t like is the married men now in the service, receiving so many points for discharge because of children. Many of them enlisted in the service. The fellows were practically in favor of letting it be first in, first out. That wouldn’t affect me but think it is more fair. Mother mentioned how cute Vivian’s baby is. She can’t help but to become spoiled with so much attention. Mrs. Armstrong can do that with anybody. She even spoiled Jack and myself. Mother also told me about Gertrude losing her baby. I was certainly sad to hear that. Having it snow at Easter was something different. This coming year, you should get more gas and be able to do a lot of skiing. I’m going to sign off for now. The pictures of the children were very nice. I would like to have some pictures of both of you. I haven’t a single one. See what you can do. With love, Jim