Plain Jane Plain Talk
Journals from the road, trails and at sea
Category: From France
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Dear Willard and Grace; Have received your letter of the 25th OK and was certainly surprised to know that you have not received any mail from me dated after May the 7th. I certainly can’t figure that one out. I would say that you should have around a half dozen since then. This is the…
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Dear Helen and Wilson; Well you can see now that I’m in another country. And so far it has been quite an experience. Have certainly seen fresh results of war. Saw the City of St Lo which was totally destroyed. You can’t imagine it. You may have seen newsreels of it by this time. People…
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Dear Willard and Grace; I have received the pictures — about 5 or 6 different letters. Don’t send any more though, because I should have liked to have had them while I was in ___. So hold back for a while. As for Christmas package – I’ll tell you how I feel about. First, I…
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Dear Elizabeth; Well, what do you think of where I am now. It sure was some experience coming here though. I saw a lot of stuff. If I could write every detail as I saw it I could probably write a book, but there’s a lot you can’t write, and eventually I’ll probably forget some…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Thought I’d better get this letter out to you while I think about it. It’s to let you know that reverse lease-lend is at work. Yes I’ve sent a package addressed to you, and if and when it comes, here’s how I would like you to dispose of it. There’s a…
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#2Dear Willard and Grace; Now that I have told you what to do with the package, I’ll give some of the latest dope. Am not in the same place where I wrote to you from the last time. We’re in a place that was once used by the Germans. Might just as well be in…
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Dear Howard; Now after you read this letter, why don’t you sit down and drop me a line and let me know just what the hell you are doing. The only way I find out anything about you is when your wife writes to me. Yeah, I got a letter from her today, and in…
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Dear Willard and Grace: I now have your V-Mails of 5 and 21 Oct and needless to say I was glad to receive both. One I received yesterday, and the other today. There seems to be some delay in the mail somewhere along the line or else most of my customers are not writing. I…
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Dear Helen and Wilson; What a country this is. All people are strangers. You can’t speak with them, nor they with you. About all you can do is gesticulate. At least it was that way when I first got here. Each town has its narrow winding streets with portions of most buildings overhanging same to…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Have your V-Mail letter of the 11th. You apparently haven’t received the package I sent to you nor the letter explaining how the contents should be distributed. Anyway, both are on the way somewhere. Have been away from here about a week, having been in four more countries — Belgium, Holland,…
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Dear Willard and Grace; I received your 2 V-Mail letters of the 28th of November, and they were the fastest mail that I have received from the states in some time. No, I haven’t received any letter from Willard at this writing. I’m glad to hear that the package arrived and in good condition. The…
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Dear Romayne; It seems to me that I got a letter from you a long time ago and never answered it. So I thought I’d drop you this line today. We’re having floods on this side of the ocean right now and it’s pretty sloppy. The water has been higher than at any time in…
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Dear Willard and Grace: Just thought I’d drop you a line and tell you that yesterday I received the first copy of the Saturday Evening Post. The date of the copy was Nov 18. Glad to get it at last. Got a letter from Mildred this A.M. and she told me it was sort of…
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Dear Elizabeth; You’ve probably been wondering whether or not I’ve received the package which you sent. I got it just before Christmas and in good condition. So I want to thank you all for it. We’re having our first taste of winter here now, with the ground being covered with snow, but it wasn’t very…
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Dear Helen and Wilson; Guess it’s pretty nearly time that I dropped you a line and let you know where I stand again but I hardly know what to begin to say. Anyway, winter has finally caught up with us over here and the ground is covered with a fine layer of snow. The snow…
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Dear Willard and Grace; I know that I owe you a letter, but have been holding off just to see if the package you had sent would arrive. Said package arrive this morning and the contents were in good condition. Thanks a lot for it. I want to especially thank you for the pocket dictionary…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Haven’t had any mail for several days now, but neither has anyone else. Won’t have any for a few days yet, and then there’ll probably be a lot of it. I have received several packages that I never expected, and if every guy over did as well, it can be readily…
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Dear Willard and Grace; By the time you receive this letter you probably will have received a letter which will answer most of the questions in your V-Mail of the 14th. There seems to be a “nigger in the woodpile” as far as Don is concerned, as we have a lot of fellows like him…
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Dear Helen and Wilson; Well, I can understand that you are having a real winter now. It should be swell for skiing with all that snow. But how about the floods later. Now listen to this. The weather here has been so warm for the past few days that we’ve been tossing baseballs around. I’ve…
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Dear Willard and Grace; I thought I’d better answer your V-Mail of January 26 which I’ve had for quite some time now. From all indications up to the time I received it, you had no word that I did receive the package with the French-English dictionary in it, but I did mail you a letter…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Well, I guess the best way to start this letter is to tell you that you can certainly anticipate my needs to a “T”. I had a hunch all along that you would probably return the money I sent, doggonit…Anyway, I want to thank you for your thoughtfulness.. I certainly glad…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Guess I’ll have to call this a business letter. To start things off, I am going to ask you if you will do another favor for me. Enclosed are two numbered packets of colored negatives; one is marked No. 1 and the other marked No. II. I would appreciate if you…
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Dear Elizabeth; Well, I received your Easter Card with the letter. I intended to write a lot sooner, but I simply had nothing about which to write and consequently, just kept putting it off until this afternoon. To start off, thanks for sending me the pictures. That one is the first one that I’ve had…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Well, I was a good boy this morning and went to Church, it being Easter Sunday. To give you some idea of what the surroundings were like, I’ll give you a short description. The services were conducted in one end of what was once a truck garage used by the Germans.…
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Dear Helen and Wilson; Yesterday I received three packages; two from you, with jam cookies and candy and the other with cheese spreads, etc, all in good condition. The one from Mildred was in good condition and had been on the way since Nov. Oh yes, I got the film OK, Thanks. I showed the…
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Dear Willard and Grace: I thought I’d get off a few lines to you to let you know I’m still kicking. Lately we have been able to buy Coca Cola in the PX here just about every day. They sure taste good the last few days as it has been quite warm and skies are…
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HeadquartersEuropean Civil Affairs DivisionG-2 Section MWB/rfwAPO 65818 April 1945 Subject: Information concerning S/Sgt. Russell F WadsworthTO: Commanding Officer, Headquarters Company, E.C.A.D. In compliance with your request for information concerning subject enlisted man, the following data is furnished: A. SuperiorB. ExcellentC. This non-commissioned officer has demonstrated for a period of one year the ability to take…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Happened to think that it is just about time that I dropped a few more lines to you. I was in a French home the other night and was asked to sit down. Now there is nothing wrong with being asked to sit down, but the expression itself was funny to…
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Dear Willard and Grace; Well, if you look at a map of France, you will find this place on the channel coast not far from Le Havre. It is here that we have come to be “processed” for our furloughs to England. By that I mean, getting clean clothes, money changed, showers and getting all…
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Dear Helen and Wilson; Thought I’d drop you a line from this little resort town located here on the northern coast of France, right on the channel. We’re all set to go on furlough to England and are scheduled to cross tomorrow sometime. We have to get up at 4AM. Down at the beach yesterday…
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Russell Wadsworth (left)Judd Lewis (right)Camped near the Chateau, Southwest of Paris
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(left to right)Bob Barker, Russell Wadsworth, Judd LewisHeadquarters ECAD (European Civil Affairs Division)Troyes, France 1944
Plain Jane Plain Talk 