Lt. Col. Carlton J. Cook
Ord. Sec., Hq. M.B.S.
A.P.C. 600, NYC
Sept. 3, 1943. Letter # 2
My Darling Jeanette,
Am well again now, my dear, after my cold. It is just about all over but was a rather mean one while I had it. I hope you are well as ever now. I suppose it is beginning to get a little cooler at home now. It stays just as warm as over here and I guess will for a month or two yet. How is Dorothy getting along now? And are all the other folks well?
On the first I received your letter of Aug. 19th, # 12 and yesterday, your letter of Aug. 22, #14 so I now have all of your letters thru that date except for #1 for Aug. If that was a V mail it must be lost. If it is a regular letter, it should be getting here before too long now. Have you received my July 10th letter with the money orders yet? If not then I will start a tracer on it, as it surely should arrive in seven weeks.
I was
surely pleased when dad wrote and then you about the $1000 being paid on the
mortgage. I suppose you have paid the
balance by now. Perhaps the $200 I sent
will arrive in time for that or at least for the Sept. installment of the
income tax. I see in the daily paper that army personnel do not have to file
the Sept. return but you might as well do so since you have all the information
for it. Are you going to include the
amount paid by dad on the mortgage as income with the Sept. installment or
later? I wrote dad that I want it
considered as a director’s fee for me as I want to include it in my yearly
income. That is definitely settled in
my mind and nothing to the contrary will change my mind about it. So will you tell dad that, so he can report
it. I want you to include it on the corrected
yearly income return filled later if you do not include it with the Sept.
return. We will well be able to pay the
tax on it and I want to do it. So that
is that on the matter.
I will probably mail the schedule of payments on the mortgages back to you when it is completed, if you wish or otherwise I will destroy it as you have one there to keep. I have too much stuff around anyway, if I should ever have to move. Prospects aren’t that I will have to this year though. It is possible that this may turn into my longest army assignment yet. It is almost ten months now that I have been here. That only has to go six more to equal La.
Now to answer your letters. Your Aug. 19th. I had another invitation for when I could come to the Frenchman’s home where I went once but I’ve not gone yet. I don’t get too much of a kick out of going out as my French is not good enough yet to carry on a conversation with people who cannot speak some English. One never realizes what a barrier language is until you are in a foreign country. It is not nearly so pleasant to go visiting here on that account as it was in Ireland. You asked if I remembered the evenings in front of the fireplace at home. How well I do and how much I long for them again with the many other things we used to do. You mentioned Ginger. I would like to see him again but would probably have to get acquainted all over again. Does Sylvia hear from Verner regularly? You have not mentioned.
Your letter of Aug. 22nd. I should think mother would go to a good specialist, if there is still one around, instead of some chiropractor. I don’t think much of them either. If you send a cable about Dorothy, using the forms listed. I’ll know what you mean. I won’t be like one officer who got such a cable and couldn’t figure it out since he had been gone for over a year. But he finally discovered it was his sister’s baby also. Write also as the V mail might arrive sooner. Let me know what the income tax is in Sept. and for the year estimate. Col. Wis picture was taken in Ireland in July last year on maneuvers, which I missed being in the Base Section there. Yes it surely will be wonderful to know the house is all ours this month, and we can be proud of it, in just six years. Must say goodnight with all my love, sweetheart, to my wonderful wife.
Carlton