No 166

GS Andrews, Major, RCE

Survey, HQ First Cdn Army O/S

16 May 43

Dear Jean:

The weather has settled down at last, today was just about as perfect as one could imagine, but cool if not in the sunshine. I was on work all day but took an hour off after lunch for a sunbath in our garden. It was quiet in the office so I got some good work in, there are many interruptions and disturbances during the week. Yesterday was fine too, and very warm. Maybe summer had come at last. It was a busy week, your airgraph of 2 May got here in 10 days even. I suppose it will be a while now before I get another one, I'm so glad you enjoyed Alice Fife's visit. I will try to get a note off to her. She and Ashton, her brother, were at the station at Kenora when I passed through there enroute overseas. They gave me some chocolates or something, anyway it was kind of them to turn out just to see me for a moment or two. When I mentioned in a former letter that the army had made the 10 yrs younger. I didn't mean that being away from home was the cause. I really meant that I had to start right out again from scratch and adapt myself to an entirely new manner of living, just as though I were 18 and just starting out in the world also, I think in the army more than in any other job I've ever experienced, one lives in the future, in hope of winning, and returning to the girl you left back home, and I think that makes one younger too. There are a few more grey hairs though, and you will likely see some difference. Mrs Morris made me a present of Sabatini's book "Columbus", which I enjoyed reading, although I wouldn't' compare it to Morojkowski's "Leonardo da Vinci". I will be packing up a parcel of books to send home soon, and you might find one or two of them interesting. It is wonderful to learn that Churchill and Roosevelt are missing up some fresh brew for the Axis. The papers are running riot on speculation of the next move. Well eventually we will be put into battle, and I hope we give a good account of ourselves. No doubt this is a turning point in the war, I certainly envy Bill Hall, a veteran of the African campaign and the wonderful 8th Army. I've been up to the MO about some boils, and be is giving me some anti-toxin, which he thinks will clear up the trouble. I wish I'd be able to take that remedy 10 or 15 years ago. It would have saved up a lot of misery. If our Mary should inherit her father's bad skin, we will know what to do before it goes as far as it did with me. I guess the world is progressing in many ways, and it should breed a healthier stock, both in mind and body. I had the navel experience of meeting a Lieut Col in the Cdn OWACd. Her name is Kennedy, and she has lived in Victoria in recent years. She was telling about all the cheap housing going up in Victoria, but says that it is still quite unspoiled in the direction of 110-mile Point. Bert Hammond came over to Morris's for the weekend, and they had me up for dinner last night, and for supper tonight. They like having Bert and me at the same time,

LOVE -GER.