Dear Folks,

So the principal news is that Henry’s engaged. May he and Mary thrive in the years to come, and perhaps marriage is what will do the most toward that end!

With “vacation” over and the “brats” back it must nevertheless be a real satisfaction to see that Jack thrived at Merryweather even if the other camp wasn’t so successful. Yes, Jack must have got a lot out of it, though he was already a pretty damn good kid. May his next ten years or so prove more successful than my corresponding ones, which, in retrospect, appear to have included little besides a developing interest in birds that was as constructive as desirable; but then, I must have been a ridiculously sensitive or moody youth, or something.

How about Nance at the controls of a snappy plane! A nice picture of her recently arrived, with a on her left shoulder. Isn’t that where her A.A. insignia was, or is it the other side?

As usual there isn’t much news from here. The new training squadrons have 15 instead of 10 students, but Bill Bentley, whom I’m still working with, and I are hoping for another assistant instructor to come along. For a while I hoped for two consecutive days off before we got well started with the new outfit, but since the boys have now finished their familiarization hops in SBDs, instructors will be needed to start them on formation tactics. Though I haven’t been flying so much the last couple of weeks, we’ve both been busy giving lectures, cockpit checkouts, etc., and observing landings. Starting this P.M. we’ll all be spending more time “upstairs.”

Days off have been unexciting. On the last but one I relaxed, recovering from some sort of food poisoning. The latest was spent at Gainesville, the seat of the Univ. of Fla., where I sought, with limited success, all available publications of possible interest on the local fauna and flora, but it was a dullish trip, involving a change at Jacksonville. My bicycle is undergoing major repairs—and that’s the news.

Love to All

Toots

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