Re-Post: Christmas Letter

Plaquemine, LA
August 23, 1943


My dear J. E.,

It seems sort of strange to be writing my Christmas Greetings to you now in the hot summer time, but now is the time if I want you to get your Xmas Wishes from all of us – who love you and miss you very much.

Close your eyes and think hard – I’m sure you can picture the stars shining brightly, the church bells ringing out for midnight mass – after you enter the pew you gaze around – the altar beautifully decorated, the choir singing Silent Night, Father and the altar boys coming out for Mass, the beautiful sermon Father delivers, then Holy communion, remember I’ll be praying and thinking of you at the Blessed Virgins Altar the manger, the little Infant in the manger, Mother Mary, St. Joseph, the shepherds, sheep, oxen, the cedar trees, evergreens, can’t youjust see it all, I know you can my dear.
Remember the sermon about the New born Infant, he is watching over you for us – back home – the Christmas gifts, nothing very expensive, just a remembrance, we will have the usual Xmas excitement at Grandmas, I will be thinking of you my dear.

We were hoping you might be with us for the happy day – I suppose we will have to make our plans for next year. I hope you enjoy the Christmas box from home – there were so few things we could put in, besides our love. We will be able to send a package every sixty days. Next time, will put in a football, and bedroom slippers, we had only two days to get the Christmas box off in – you should have seen us madly rushing around – Freda was on nite duty at the hospital – but regardless she took me to Baton Rouge early the next morning – it was hard to get the things they specified we managed pretty well – Auntie sent most of the drug store items, Grandma sent some, Mr. Frank Danna sent the cards and dice, Daddy and I the rest.

We are still waiting for a few lines from you – remember this was written in August – maybe we will have had news from you when you get this – I often wonder if you received the cable – only a few words but from home – after such a long time, last Christmas I was so worried and upset, this year we feel much better and have hopes of seeing you sometime soon.

Peter G. was in an accident he has a leg injury he may limp a little nothing serious. He is away from home – last time I saw him we talked of the good old days and Gizzard, - Lester Carville was in an accident also he was hurt about the face, nothing serious he will be home with his folks for a month, he is fat looks grand, still has plenty of freckles, Tootie has been away from home almost a year, Elizabeth sure misses him we all do.

We all wish you a Happy, happy Christmas, and New Year, be sure you make a few New Year’s resolutions, and wishes. We all send you a big, big hug and kiss, and remember, we are praying hard for you, hope you and your friends have a nice Christmas, until we meet again, my dear.

Love,

Mama

Re-Post of Letter to Parents Letting Them Know He Was Free

This was the first thing that Grandma got after daddy was liberated. They didn't know whether to believe it or not. Grandma's father, Dr. Landry, wrote to someone he knew who was in the military to find out if it was legitimate or not.




This is the reason that daddy gave for sending his parents this note. They were told they could write a telegram home and to get a piece of paper to write on - daddy only had a piece with a Japanese censor stamp on the back (he didn't know it was there).

I needed a piece of paper to write twenty-five words telegram to my mother. So I wrote, “Am free and safe. Will be home soon.” And I printed it all out and gave it to the guy and he took it. And what happened, my mother tells me when I got home, that they knew that the Philippines had been re invaded but they didn’t know whether we were released or not. And she got this letter in the mail from some colonel that she never saw, never heard about written to her and she opened it up and my little slip of paper was in there, not a telegram. So she looks at it. It says, “Am free. Will be home soon.” It was all printed. She looked on the back and there is a Japanese censor thing on the back and they didn’t know what that was. So she didn’t know whether to believe that it was authentic from me or whether it was a cruel trick that someone was playing on her. So she took it up – she had someone take it up to LSU to someone who knew Japanese up there and they couldn’t tell what it was. It was what they call a chop block or something that - - it’s a stamp but they call it a chop block, I think. Anyway, that Japanese character on it, the people at LSU didn’t know what it was. So she went around the air strip and the people around town and they didn’t know anything. And word hadn’t come out yet that we had been freed so it was maybe a week following that she got a telegram from the Marine Corp that I was free. But I still had that paper. And then, of course, it was all authentic. But evidently they couldn’t get it telegrammed being censored. This guy who was in charge, he just brought out an envelope and stuck it in the envelope, no explanation or anything. It’s strange but that’s what happened. That was the only communication we made while I was in prison camp.