25-3-44

J42042
P/O Styles JM
N^o 1 AGTS
Maitland
N.S.

Dear Mom:

You asked me for the date. After asking about 6 fellows one of them said he thought it was the 25^th but wasn’t sure. around here we don’t bother about the date. Boy did I get a surprise, Two letters from you at once There is a day’s difference between air mail and ordinary mail so both of them arrived at the same time. I thought that I told you I got the parcel but maybe I didn’t. However I did so thanks a million. As for the bears and moose, I haven’t seen any yet even though we have seen a dead deer. You watch that sickness closely and call the doctor if you are sick. That’s an order. Is Mil’s leg much better. I am glad she can go for rides now Tell her I was asking for her will you? We should be paid by next Friday so if we do I will send you some toute de suite to get down to see Norma. I am afraid I won’t be able to make it although I would love to. However If I can’t I can’t so there is no use thinking about it. Too bad about Bill Phelan however I think he can blame everything on himself. He seems to have gone loco lately. Maybe he wills settle down though. By the way don’t worry about the bullets. They won’t risk a $20000 man (me) by shooting close to him. Too bad about the snaps. but see if the camera can be fixed. What was it? That same old streak of light? Don’t worry about that book you read. That was the battle of Britain. It is different now. Too bad about Mr. Mildon. However if he didn’t try to stick to the ship his odds of getting out are good. That is one thing about a navigator. He can get out fast. About that money, even if you did go the whole hog (which I know you won’t unless necessary) you have done so much for me for 19 years that I never will be able to repay it. Besides I want you to have a good time. I think that you should put some in your account and some in a joint account. Then if you get sick or something you will be able to get at all of it. And if you do ever need it don’t hesitate to take it all. Send that picture Jim took down will you? Too bad about Dorrie but I think that she will pull through all right. Yes I definitely want reading material. You can only get what you can borrow around here and that ain’t much. That is what is so disgusting, if you could read all the time it would be swell but all we can do is sleep. However now I have the cribbage board and I can while away the hours with that. I wrote Norma two letters but she hasn’t even bothered to say she got them so I won’t write again to her until I have heard from her. You should see my flat hat now. Brother is this climate ever good for hats. I look like a veteran officer. See if you can get Teeters address for me will you. I would like to write to him. I have just noticed how much I have written and am I ever amazed. Brother I didn’t think that I could write so much. The last three days we have been working in an office here (10 of us) Just think office boy at $6.25 a day. There is only one officer in the office and all the rest are everything from a sargent to AC2 So they go to work at 8.30 and we wander in around 9.15. They all look up and say “good morning sir” very sweetly to the 10 of us. They work until 12, we bugger off about 10.45 or 11 and again they say “Good Morning Sir”. The same thing happens in the afternoon. We work for about 15 minutes in the morning and about the same in the afternoon and smoke and even play crokinole (we have two boards in the office) the rest of the time. What a life. If we want anything (in the office) there is a corporal or sargent anxious to get it for us. However we aren’t shure (spell) there is any work for Monday so maybe we have lost our jobs. I hope not because we get out of classes, drill and PT with it. You should see the 10 of us file through the office going to work when the rest of the staff have been working almost an hour and then filing out again when they still can’t even smell dinner or supper. The best of it is that we volunteered for the job. Well I guess that I will go and get some sleep now.

Your loving son
Jack.

P.S. xxxx