Wednesday, November 29, 1944

Dear Edith, Harry and Robert,

Hello folks, how are things going in your part of the country? I have been a little lax in writing and I hope you will forgive me. So many people have written to me it has been almost impossible to get around to answering the letters. I am getting along, Edith, in fact, I am leaving this hospital today or tomorrow, I believe. I have been placed on the alert, which means you may be shipped at any time. Don't ask me where, for your guess is as good as mine. I went all through France, all the way to Metz and was blown out of three armoured cars while making the advance. We were doing spearhead reconnaissance for the Third Army (General George Patton) and it was quite rugged. I am very thankful to be alive and also lucky. Take my word for it, on the front line everyone prays, including the so called unbelievers. There are many things I will never forget, for quite a few of the boys I trained with are gone. I hope we win the peace intelligently so that the havoc of war will not be experienced by the coming generation. Tell Robert I think of him quite often. I suppose he is getting pretty big. I'll see him one of these days, I hope. Tell Harry I was asking for him, this is one letter that I can't say, "wish you were here." I'll let you know my new address as I arrive, military secret you know. Lots of luck, and a merry Christmas to you Edith and Harry and Robert. Sincerely Jack.

P.s., Here are a couple of Francs for Robert. This is invasion money. We were given it to use as we invaded France.
-------My dad was an avid collector of "foreign money" and in the boxes of papers from my grandfather's house, I found his old coin collection and a scrap book in which he pasted letters from the older boys from his neighborhood that were fighting during WWII. My dad, at the time this letter was written, would have been 8 years old. In the scrapbook are several other letters from young men overseas. They spanned the globe during that terrible conflict. One fought in the Philippines in the Army led by General Douglas MacArthur.

I'm still trying to determine who the other letter writers were - their names were Stan, Jim, and Paul.

I think this letter from Jack expresses something dearly bought...at the huge cost of youthful innocence and the lives of his friends, so much so, that I wanted to share it with you. While Jack returned home and "recovered," he was never the same again, and was plagued for many years by his war wounds and eventually succumbed to them. His soul-felt wish for an "intelligent peace," sadly never came to pass.

Went Away...

...for the weekend - just to get away. I didn't care if it rained, or if it was cold, I justed wanted to be somewhere else. So I went down to the houseboat even though it wasn't nice enough for swim or go boating.

On my way home, I saw this huge chicken in Galena, Maryland. It stands out front of an antique shop and is for sale. I thought about a friend who had chickens that I've not heard from in a while, Marmite Toasty. I pulled over and went inside the store to check out "Super Chicken".

The price? Well, you know that old saying, "If you have to ask...?"


When I downloaded the picture to share with you - I noticed another picture in the small lot that I had taken - and I instantly put the two pictures together and wondered...


...just how big those chicken necks* were!

*Chicken necks are used by the local blue claw crabbers to bait their traps.

Angry Enough to See Red

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Well, it seems that my local government, the Lower Providence Township of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, feels like this does not apply to them. A while ago, they mailed a letter to local area residents stating that the recipients HAD to call them at a given phone number and schedule an inspection (i.e., search) of their house by not one, but two people in order to see if there was an "illegal" hookup between a sump pump and the sewers.

I was miffed that the letter didn't say, "please" or contain any common, ordinary courtesies and furthered miffed by their highhandedness in not only breaking a constitutionally guaranteed right to "feel secure in my own house." The letter insisted I had to call them, for a hearing impaired person, this is a huge imposition and propbably violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, and they couldn't even be nice about it.

Yesterday, they sent a letter saying they would add a $50 a month "punishment" charge to my sewer bill. What happen to that right to "Due Process"? I guess if you can ignore the fouth amendment, what the hell, you might as well ignore the fifth one as well.

My sewer bill is already WAY too high - as a single guy living in alone in a house, I get a flat rate bill - based on a family of four - so it's four (4) times too high to start with...

And to add insult to injury, the folks that were living in this township BEFORE they built the brand new sewer plant to handle the ADDITIONAL load brought on by ill-planned, anything for a tax dollar, new housing developments.... folks like ME are also paying for a recent 38 million dollar (by God, they must use gold plated fixtures) expansion of a poorly run sewer plant!

Furthermore, they could perform this inspection only during working hours - which means a loss of a day's pay to boot...

I'm steaming mad... and I am not at all proud of my government right now.

P.s., I don't even HAVE a sump pump. They could have pretended to be public servants and just asked the timely tax and ratepayer. Politely. But no....

The Coolest Mail!

A while back, a received a note in the mail from Rita of SoulComfort's Corner and when I opened it, this is what I saw...


I smiled to myself, for I knew this wasn't a blank note that someone had forgotten to write before mailing! It's written in secret ink!

I carried it back and forth with me to work in my briefcase for a couple months, to remind myself to scrounge around and see where I had put an old black light I had - and while the note wasn't forgotten, the location of the black light was!

And then I received in the mail, a little box containing a flashlight... a black light flashlight!! After scratching my head for some time trying to figure out how to put the three batteries into the flashlight, I at long last succeeded... and shown it on the note card...

...and the words floated up from where they had been hidden...


How cool is that!! I was transported back to the happy, sunshine-filled days of childhood... and just couldn't believe my luck getting such a great letter! Or having such a wonderful friend.

Thank you Rita!!