8404 Echelon
Nov. 26, 1944
Dear Folks:

Here it is time to write again and not a great deal to say. Got your letter this week and sure enjoyed it mum. I'm anxious to see this sun porch—or whatever you call it that pop & Uncle Bob built. I also got the gum you sent me. Sure will be a sought for feller for a while now. All the kids over here know the "Got any gum chum" chant. Got the Red Cross parcel too—or should I call it the S.S. No. 7 Overseas Club. We are eating the cake up. The cheese & crackers are already gone—and enjoyed. I got Mrs. Crowe's note and she said they packed it at the old house on the hill. Sure did do a swell job of it too. I can't write them all & thank them but I do hope you will—for me. I will drop a line to Mrs. Crowe as she asked me to. I write to Harold now & again & I thought she always read them as I had meant her to but it seems she's a bit jealous cause Harold is getting them.

You must have had a swell month if you had 26 days of sunshine. That's our quota over here for at least a year & sometimes more. This afternoon I was outside changing plugs in a kite & the sun was shining & it was snowing at the same time. It would be very dry for pop to do his ploughing—or has he got a tractor now too.

The weather is getting quite wintry here now. Its frosty in the morning with patches of ice all around the runways & perimeter tracks. I've been shoving coal into the old stove all nite & our shack is still cold. However, with a couple of roll neck sweaters I manage to keep above the freezing point. Talking of roll necks, I mentioned that I'd lost one but a bunch of boys went home last week & one of ‘em donated me his so forget all about it. I'm doing fine for clothing. All the three years over here men are either on their way back or packing to go and we were in the next bunch over so we are not going to be surprised if we get our notice within a couple of months. However, I'm quite willing to stay till its over now. Gord, Roy & I are the only supposed "Gen" men left in the hangar on the fitters side so if we go the rest of the boys will have to learn the hard way. We're getting in bags of men, mostly sergeants so I have no choice but stick it out the rest of the war in my present capacity but it makes me mad to think if I'd stayed home I could now have been earning that extra half buck a day and instead came over here to have others stay & get it & then come over & crowd guys like myself out. However, I could be in a slit trench with two blankets tonite instead of a bunk in a heated shack with six blankets so why should I mind.

Tomorrow I'm going down to Aberdeen on my day off & May is coming up from Dundee on her day off to visit her aunt & uncle so we're invited out there for dinner. It's a four hour train ride down there from here and by car you could do it in about 1 1/2 or 2 hrs—even with these crooked roads. Gord made 10 lbs playing poker tonite & I'm banking that for him for when he goes on leave. I think it'll take me all day to do the business I've been handed tonite such as sending flowers, getting films developed, pictures packed up & lighters engraved & nickel plated. I've got so much money here for such purposes that it would be a good time to go on the loose.

So old Mack King is having quite a struggle. It serves him darn well right. He may as well come out & say he's afraid of losing the French vote. Everybody knows it. He & his disunity. I say, send the zombies over & give the old fellows a chance to eat unrationed food in warm houses & billets for a change.

The armies seem to be getting ready for another big push into Germany. It would be nice if they could spend Christmas in Berlin.

So you've had a little more information about Jim. I really haven't got much hopes that he's alive but like you I'm always thinking there's a chance. I really admire the way you folks at home have taken it. I think you have just as much guts back there waiting & worrying as did Jim bucking his way around those German skies and its easy to see where he got ‘em having a paw & maw like you folks. Did you receive the picture of him which I sent a few weeks ago? The weather prevented me getting any more or better ones but I think that one is very much all Jim.

I see my babbling has carried me into two pages tonite. You see, I have the billet to myself since the 4 corporals went home & the sergeants are all at their Sun nite dance in the mess. In closing I'd like to say I hope Santa Claus is good to you as he has already been to me & that the old Christmas turkey tastes just as good as it did in the good old days when the whole gang was there to devour it. I'll be getting turkey too so I'll be thinking of you when they pass it around.

S'long now,
Willie