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Today’s letter is from soldier Harry Lowell to his cousin Hilda Firestone. Harry lived with Hilda and her husband Nathan when he first arrived in San Francisco.
Philippines
June 19, 1945Dear Hilda,
I wasn’t going to write you for another two weeks, however, circumstances compel me to break my resolution and send you a letter now in order to avoid misunderstandings that may be caused by a letter from my Colonel to Eva – a letter of recommendation in which he mentions that I have been hospitalized. Well, I want you to know right now that I am in full enjoyment of all my faculties including my good humor. I am enjoying the long-forgotten luxury of sleeping on clean white sheets and pillows, not forgetting the comfortable pajamas I wear all day.
I am writing you all this because I remember the last time the Coloner wrote a letter home he made me the hero of the family; this time he probably made me a martyr. The fact is that I turned in to the hospital because my metabolism has an aversion to tropical climate and a strong affinity, under the present circumstances, to the climate in the USA.
Here you have the story of my martyrdom in a nutshell; no Purple Heart, DSC, or pension. If I should get back I’ll have an opportunity to volunteer for the other side and be of help at least. So much for that.
I received your letter of April 3 and enjoyed it very much as usual. It is with misgiving that I look upon your menagerie; no good will become of it. Anything may happen in this fast-moving era of ours. What if Penelope and Mouffle ignore the instincts and conventions of nature and become pioneers of a new breed? Should offspring result from this mésalliance, I would suggest to add to the next potential litter a strain of canary or nightingale to give that revolutionary breed a bit of culture. (Maybe I ought to enter into the field of animal husbandry after the war.) Anyway, don’t let anything happen until Dr. Lowell arrives.
I should give you a description of the Philippines but I think I’ll narrate my experiences over the dinner table one of these days. I’m glad to have had the opportunity of seeing quite a lot in the Philippines.
In regards to your questions about the packages I was to receive, I haven’t received them yet, however, they are undoubtedly following me all over the Pacific. I did receive a package from a friend of mine the other day. Whatever had remained of a once-delicious fruitcake arrived here in a very pitiable condition. The contents of the moldy package consisted of half-inedible cake and half a collection of bugs, ants, caterpillars, and spiders. It was a very distasteful sight.
By the way, please tell everybody not to write me unless I write first from my new address. It’ll take letters a long time now to reach me. If anything important should come up, tell Eva to cable me at my old address – only when absolutely necessary.
Well Hilda, there isn’t much more to say. I hope everyone is well and happy. Please give my best regards to all. I hope to see you soon.
Love,
HarryP.S. Please tell Eva not to answer the Colonel’s letter until I see her; I have something on my mind in regards to that letter. Thank you.
I continue to be amazed how the letters and documents in my archive answer most questions or corroborates stories I heard growing up. We saw the letter Harry refers to in my post of June 18. I assume the “other side” he considers volunteering for would be in Europe, where his language skills would have been extremely valuable.
Harry’s postscript might refer to another memory I have of something my mother told me – Harry probably showed his fellow soldiers photos of his sister (he often asks for photos in his letters), and the Colonel may have been interested in dating her upon his return. Harry would not have mentioned that she had married earlier in the year!
I do not know the breed (or species!) of Penelope, but we’ve seen photos of Mouffle in earlier posts. The letters continue to answer questions. In the February 21 post, the first letter that mentioned Mouffle, I guessed that Mouffle was the dog in the photo with Nathan and Hilda. In a letter posted a few weeks later, it became clear that Mouffle was indeed Hilda’s dog.
Below is a photo with Eva, Harry, and Mouffle:
I looked through the photos I have of Hilda and Nathan and found one with a cat – perhaps this is Penelope?
