Jan. 11/46

Dear Mom & Dad,

Many thanks for the swell birthday box. It came today at noon. I am writing with this swell new pen. Did I ever tell you I bought a good pen in Lachine before coming over. Well somebody stole it just before we left Bombay. The one I've been using is one I bought in Chittagong on the way back. By the way, was the pen a hint to write more often? I'll try. That's a swell razor too. I was still using the same razor & brush you gave me on my sixteenth birthday, with the words "Here keep your face tidy." Joyce & Jim gave me a ‘Valet' razor kit for Christmas, but I haven't used it yet. I was glad to see the raisins and other good things too. I'm enclosing a picture I had taken the last time I was in the big town. Judging by the proofs, they printed & enlarged the wrong one. They came in the mail today. Perhaps you can have one reproduced from the one with the sickly grin instead of the sickly expression. It's been raining & blowing hard here ever since the evening of the ninth. The wind blows the rain under our door so that we are constantly mopping up. It's bad when we come in from work. There's a crack in the roof which leaks down narrowly missing my bed. We might as well be back in the tents in Burma during the Monsoons. There I go, grousing again. I said I was going to make the best of it until next Sept., didn't I? They cancelled our next leave on account of the seven days we had upon our return to England. Pretty dirty of them, eh? I hope you decide not to move away from Hamilton. You've got me worried about that. What will I do when I come back? If it so happens that the wise thing for me to do is to go back to the Coke Plant, then I'll have to board some place, because I can't work in Hamilton and live near Toronto. I might as well stay in the permanent force, and knock around the country for the rest of my life. I'm sort of used to it now anyway, having been from San Francisco to Rangoon within 12 months. Well I guess you'll let me know what happens so I'll say good night for now hoping to hear from you soon

Your loving son,

Joe.