Sunday, December 12, 2010

2/6/1944 Jim Erwin to Gladys Dahlstrom

Jim at Lakeland Army Air Base in Florida
Gladys at Hotel Guyon in Chicago

Dear Glad,

We arrived here in Florida last night. The place looked bad in the dark. You should see the place with the lights on. Woo ---.

The only thing missing are the camels to go with the sand.

Last night was cold. Today I’m dripping with perspiration inside the barracks. Outside the wind is blowing hard and sand fills the air.

Some of the fellows moved into tents that didn’t have floors or electricity. I, being one of the more fortunate, am living (pardon me – existing), in a tar paper shack.

The post exchange is over 1/2 a mile away and then it would give a small coal bin a close race.

Lakeland is seven miles away and has a population of approx. sixty thousand. Tampa is only thirty-five miles from here.

There is only one bus an hour taking fellows into town. One bus handles so many fellows you know.

There is an 11:30 curfew in town seven days a week. Don’t even let up on the weekends. Guess they want us to be good little boys and stay home.

Strangely enough, they do have a few airplanes. Six in all, I believe. The payoff is there isn’t a hangar on the place.

I work in a sub-depot which we don’t have either. The latest rumor is all men in the same boat are going to McDill Field in Tampa. Certainly hope we leave here.

Our train ride was okay. Had nice pullman cars and our meals were good. Everybody had just gotten paid so played cards. I made $29.00 on the train and seven more this morning. Okay huh. Don’t tell Mom.

I’ll write again soon and let you know all that happens.

With love,
Jim

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