November 8
Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we have a letter from G.I. Harry Lowell on Desert Training Center California stationery to his sister Eva in San Francisco. Harry wrote first page in German, the rest in English.
November 15, 1943
In German:
Dearest Sister,
I am writing this letter to test my knowledge of the German language. I am afraid that I will not be able to hold an intelligent, grammatically-correct conversation if I should be forced to use my knowledge of the language. With bow and arrow through mountains and valleys comes flying the Elf King… Who rides so late through night and wind. It is the father with his child. He holds the boy child in his arms, he holds him safe, he keeps him warm… Who has built you, you beautiful forest… Elf, never should you ask me, nor worry about where I come from and …
In English:
Say, that’s pretty good for me considering the fact that I haven’t uttered more than two sentences of German for four years!
Please, write me in your next letter whether I deserve an “A+” or not.
I got your letter and was glad to hear of the good job you are holding now.
I’ll be glad when somebody buys you a typewriter, for your writing isn’t getting any better with your age. Are you getting callouses on your fingers or do you suffer from diabetes; that’s the only way I explain the decline of regularity and harmony in your penmanship. (Maybe you ought to cut out night life, eh?) See my lawyer (Rechtsanwalt [correctly recalled word for “lawyer” in German]). I’m getting good.
What have you girls been doing lately in the way of athletics? (I seem to be in an insulting mood today)
How is the “snake” charming family; I think they are very nice people, indeed. I am glad you are staying with them instead of with any relatives.
You flatter me with your complaint of my talent of “How to Make Friends and Influence People” (Do you want to take a correspondence course in it?)
What’s the dirt, Myrt?
There isn’t much to tell you right now; the same thing goes on every day.
It’s getting quite late now, and I am getting quite sleepy.
Keep injecting and save your money.
Well, good night!
Your one and only brother,
HarryP.S. Say hello to everyone in your household.
This letter was written a week later than the one we saw in yesterday’s post. In both letters, Harry refers to the fact that Eva is living with the family of a friend from nursing school, rather than with their own family. I don’t know what was so difficult for my mother – it may have been that they had expectations that she was unwilling to meet, both in what she should do and how she should act. Rather than trying to get along and smooth the waters as her brother would have done, her innate honesty likely led her to be direct about her feelings and to make clear her unwillingness to follow their advice. Harry simply would have nodded, smiled, said something charming, and then done whatever he wanted to do.
On the first page of the letter, Harry practices his rusty German. At this point in his training, he does not know where he will be posted and may be thinking his German may come in handy. Harry tries to recall lines from of various songs and poems from their childhood. He begins by quoting the first stanza of a famous Goethe poem Erlkönig - Elf King – based on Erlking, a German fairy tale, which he recalls almost perfectly.
Harry will refer again to the Elf King in a letter he writes two years later (see October 13th post). This story must have been a family favorite.
The line about the forest is from a Mendelssohn song, Wer hat dich, du schöner Wald, with lyrics by Joseph von Eichendorff.