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- May 4, 1943 envelope
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- May 4, 1943, p. 1
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- May 4, 1943, p. 2
Letter transcription:
May 4, 1943
Lieut R.S. Yegerlehner USNR
Navy 60
F.P.O. San Fran. Calif.
Dear Mother,
Believe it or not I made garden yesterday. I was able to get 3 good sized potatoes and by carefully cutting them so that I had plenty to eat out of the center I got 20 nice fine eyes to plant. Not knowing the time for planting potatoes here and not knowing if the light of the moon or dark affect spud growth here I am at a little loss but I haven’t put out any financial funds and not too much physical effort – so if my crop is a failure I’ll not be disappointed.
Our mail is lagging again – True I’ve gotten some letters but the latest one was that which you wrote at Clay City so you see that is getting rather old now in fact I think it was just a month ago today that you wrote that.
Somehow I never did get word as to whether or not you received that second necklace I sent. There were some other things in that box but I don’t even remember now what they were – you may have received it and the letter saying so did not reach me.
I guess school will soon be out and the boys will be home to help you more or maybe hinder you more but I guess from the way you talk you will all be busy with your gardens and yards, but I hope you don’t try to work too hard on those things, and surely your food tickets will be sufficient. I’m really expecting that the locker meat
[page 2] will be rationed in one way or another. Wish you could send out a frozen chicken. That would be a real treat.
We I mean (chappic) chaplin and I are alone in the tent and he is reading his Bible so you see I’m able to write a little longer letter but probably just as drab to you as the others before hand – we have no library or place to go to write and when one is off duty others are also and since I’m the only daily writer I have to write in the midst of heated arguments and various un written writable phrases.
I’m anxiously waiting the arrival of a few packages of seed so that I can go into the garden business much more elaborately.
In Noumea we could see the female sex occasionally some white French live there but here I’ve seen only one such animal and she at some distance but dressed in native attire wich which consisted of the skirt only so In all probability when we do get to civilization we will just stand and stare. When one actually thinks of the thing it is preculiar and reminds one of that old song “Ruben, Ruben I’ve been thing what a queer world this would be etc”
Well, I’ve rambled enough so
Love Daddy
©2014 copyright owned and transcribed by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/05/22/potato-eyes-roscoe/
Genealogy Lady 
His farm-boy roots are sure in evidence here, planting the eyes of the potatoes.
My goodness this brought back memories, i.e., the song “Rueben, Rueben”–I do remember that from my childhood, although not that version. My parents were not fond of country & western music. But what a great video clip you attached. Great fun!
So interesting the care and thought put into garden/eating and also the strange wording about the women.
Yes, I thought the wording was strange too. Like Gladys would know that the men were talking inappropriately…I can understand telling her that the men were engaging in such language. But the wording was strange…
That’s what I thought.
Did she get the necklace?
I can’t remember. There were a couple necklaces that were sent. The first one was used in the pictures that were taken in January 1943, but the string broke, and then they had to retake the pictures because they turned out so badly.
Does having such a large collection of letters cause you to have more questions about their day to day life? Questions like, “Did she get the necklace?”, and where is the necklace now and so on?
The letters answer lots of questions that I didn’t even know existed, and they definitely create more questions. They have been very helpful in helping me with the collection of photographs. I think I have finally figured out who an older couple in one photograph is because the letters talk about events that happened around the time the picture was taken. I will be posting that letter in the next couple of weeks.
That is pretty great. 🙂
Also it is somewhat frustrating to me that I have been sucked into my grandparents’ lives in the 1940s, but I have virtually no correspondence through 1960, basically a 15 year gap. Then once my Dad went away to college, the letters began again, pretty much through the 1980s.