Dear Folks,

Your letters keep rolling in, and my how welcome they are! Often they arrive in bunches, and doubtless this will continue, the bunches soon, however, getting bigger though, alas, further apart.

So Lempi came on Thanksgiving. It must have been nice. Ours was nothing to complain about. They give us steaks here every so often, and sometimes they’re pretty good, though not up to those at a rather ramshackled-looking place a little way down the road.

I love to hear about snow (except from poor old J.C.S., who rather overdoes the weather) not having seen anything, but a small amount recently.

That was rather typical of me wasn’t it, to overdraw the bank? I wonder, Pa, if you could send me a sort of abbreviated bank statement and also ask the Savings Bank to send me (why not via you?) a written statement showing their willingness to accept allotments (in my case all except flight pay or something over $200.00 monthly).

I hope Grandma is better and can spend Christmas at Joy’s Lane. I’m packing presents for both her and Nance along with yours, though goodness knows when they’ll arrive.

I haven’t seen anyone you know since dining at the Grays’, but have more recently run into a couple of the boys from my old Squantum class. Curiously enough both got out here about the same time I did and also for the first time.

This has been a wonderful place for sleeping, having refreshingly cool nights, and often the rains patters a “lullaby” on the roof.

The other day I explored the littoral areas nearby and was surprised to see so many weird little fish, sea urchins, etc. Unfortunately where we are has no good beaches within a good many miles. Come to think of it I haven’t swum in the Pacific since the icy plunge the three of us took in 1937. This would be less dull if I’d said all I’d like to.

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