Post #69 - September 15, 1941 Second Honeymoon

This is the last letter I have from 1941, as my father was discharged from the army. The new modest home into which they so lovingly dreamed of moving, and which they often wrote of decorating, never materialized. They did not pass for the mortgage. As a result, during the war years, my mother moved back to a neighborhood in Philadelphia called Logan to live with her own mother, father, three brothers, and sister. Eventually, the whole extended family including me and my brother and sister, all lived in the same row home until such time as each one of us married. My father’s mother, who was widowed at a very early age, moved to a neighborhood called Oxford Circle to live with my father’s younger brother, Harry, and his wife, Goldie. Philip returned to the armed services in September of 1942 as the war ramped up. More letters will follow. 

These are the last items I have dated 1941. The telegram is from my father’s youngest brother, Jack. The Christmas card is from my mother’s best friend, Anne. They stayed in touch all their lives, and Anne came to visit my mother when my mother was in her eighties.

Post #68 - September 12-14, 1941 Unusually Panicky and Worried and I am Discharged—Definitely

Post #67 - September 10, 1941 Grandmother’s Heart Attack

Post #66 - September 9, 1941 Salt Water Taffy from the Browns and Leaving for Caroline County, VA

Post #65 - September 8, 1941 Dreaming of Your Discharge and The 22-lb. B.A.R.*

*From Wikipedia:

The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that US forces had previously been issued.

The BAR was designed to be carried by infantrymen during an assault^[1] advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder, or to be fired from the hip. This is a concept called "walking fire"—thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare.^[2] The BAR never entirely lived up to the original hopes of the war department as either a rifle or a machine gun.^[3]

Post #64 - September 5, 1941 The Van Sciver’s Bedroom Set

Post #63 - September 4, 1941 A Scare from the Refrigerator and A Happy Man

Many people don’t realize that I have been making recordings while reading each letter aloud, a result of friends telling me that they have trouble deciphering the handwriting. So in each post, I have made a slideshow that flashes past while I am narrating the letters. Just make sure your sound is on and click on the arrow on the slideshow.

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To enlarge the pages of the letter so that they are legible, click on the first page. This will allow you to enlarge for reading and will provide access to the other pages along the bottom of the screen.