Show Kathleen Norris Says S-ays Before You Write rite to Him Think Hint Think Bell Syndicate Features I Ilie r rJ 1 If i r J 1 l l i if f rr 1 r 1 He lie also married an English girl whose feet after alter five years ears of 0 war privations were probably solidly on the ground By KATHLEEN NORRIS Y FOLKS write me so MY much about trouble that ni Ill be if I want to go home again writes Private Tom Willoughby from a post somewhere in northern north north- ern England Its got so bad the letter goes on that I kind of hate to open the letters My mother my father my sisters all write rne me as if they'd be glad to change places with me I wish they could for a few weeks I was in the hospital four weeks I didn't write them anything about that until I was almost well Ive I've been over German towns in a bomber seventeen times Ive I've been wet and cold and scared and hungry more than once and homesick all the time But my letters arent aren't half as depressing as theirs are Its all rising prices and shortages shortages shortages short short- ages and manpower scarcity and how dull the town is in wartime with no men to dance with and no gas to go anywhere They tell me that the fellows who arent aren't in the service are getting a long head start starton on me in business and that Roger and Bat have just bought darling homes out in the new development and that both their wives are having having hav hav- ing babies Ma writes me about her arthritis and Dad about his business business business busi busi- ness troubles the girls dont don't write often but when they do its it's one long yelp about not having anything to do nor any fun and wishing the rotten old war was over My sisters are 17 and 15 I am 19 You dont don't know how it makes us feel out here to know that theres there's so much trouble at home Every fellow fellow fellow fel fel- low I know wants to get home dreams of baked beans and Main street the local newspaper and the familiar faces To have the lucky I ones who can stay there knocking it all the time is about the limit I Sometimes I think Ill I'll make a fresh start on my own when I get home and live in some other place I know all news vs cant can't be good but I should think they could pick out enough that was decent to sort of buck us I up over here Tom I think so too And I know many mothers and wives who do manage to keep their letters cheerful cheerful cheerful cheer cheer- ful and inspiring How eagerly and with what passionate delight those letters are received by our lonely far-away far boys only those boys know Your mother and father and sisters not only should select for you whatever pleasant news there is but they should do something to I build it up I I mean they should definitely plan something for your homecoming that will mean a real welcome for you One mother who wrote me had taken the room over the family garage and turned it into a study for her son where he can some da dad ask his friends to drop in in for talking talking talking talk talk- ing and smoking his own especial part of the house not to be used by anyone else Before he went away he shared a room with a younger brother Another mother and father and sister sister sister sis sis- sis sis- ter have bought three small farms 1 11 1 r Y Try to cheer him up LETTERS FROM HOME Fighting men have enough to endure without wit having to read about the h hardships hips back home They depend a great deal dealon I on letters from home to keep up I their morale When these letters arc are merely a constant recital o of f complaints about shortages and rationing difficulties o of f travel and the scarcity of interesting young men they may be worse morse than titan no letters at all To the man at the front tired and homesick and living in constant constant constant con con- stant peril these sort o of oj f letters are just one more burden He would be better belter off oj without them one each for their absent boys Still another devoted family is going to present their boy when he comes home with a substantial bank account account account ac ac- ac- ac count enough to give ive him a three- three years-start years on the career he has al always always always al- al ways dreamed of as an architect When one of our boys came home suffering from a nervous complaint a few months ago his parents sent him his brother a hound dog and two horses up into the Sierras for a along along along long summer He went thin and trembling and nervous he came home last week as hard as iron and brown as an Indian He already has a good job All AIl that costs money protest the whining voices Of course it costs money But surely saving for forthe forthe forthe the boys boy's return and if possible a definite plan for that return is the least we can do A thousand dollars dollars dollars dol dol- dol- dol lars five hundred hundred even even one hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred dollars ought to be awaiting him to save his pride to give him time to look about him for his work in hi the new world Three Times a Day An engaged girl Dean Davis writes me the other side of the picture She is so deeply in love that she writes her Georgie two and three times a day Georgie is out somewhere in the Phillipines Three times a day I think is too much Especially as Georgie probably probably probably ably gets these letters in bunches of 30 or 40 Glad as he is to know that he is so constantly in your thoughts there is a certain amount of boredom involved in opening 30 or 40 letters that all say the same thing Three times a week weck is better than three times a day and a good healthy inclusion of clippings from the newspaper and from magazines will give him more pleasure than too much love making One girl of whom I heard wrote such incessant and poetical letters to her young man that he answered by asking her not to expect him to match quotations from Coventry or to tell her which of Millay's poems he liked best He lie also married married married mar mar- ried an English girl whose feet after five years of war privations were probably solidly on the ground What Wha t we all have to do is to try to put ourselves in the places of these lonely homesick hard- hard pressed boys and contribute what we can to their comfort with their needs rather than our own in view |