Stewart Letter #7

 Note: This letter was formerly numbered #5, but I found two letters mailed earlier, so it is now #7. See post for July 6, 2019 where #5 is now.



                                                                August 17, 1944

Dear Dad,

            I'm writing this on regular typewriter paper because we are all out of V-mail forms, which shows how many letters we have written since there are quite a few in one package. I hope sincerely that you settle down pretty soon so that you can receive the mail that we have been sending you for the last month and a half or more.[i]

           

            I have been doing quite a bit of corresponding outside of writing to you, what with sending letters to Congressman Gale,[ii] telling him that I could not take the Annapolis or West Point mental examinations,[iii] and sending for information about the ASTRP,[iv] and sending for my birth certificate, and participating in a round robin letter system started by my cabin counselor at Ihduhapi. I am keeping my adeptness at typing in trim anyway.

            Every time that I think of how much money I am saving by having my dental work at the Dental College,[v] I feel glad that I am having it done there. All that I have to pay for is the filling , as the student cannot charge for his work, and has to pay for his own burrs, and on my hard teeth that means he has to buy plenty, and at fifteen cents apiece! I have learned that the front surface of the teeth is called the mesial, the biting surface the occlusal, and the back surface the distal.  I have also learned the system for locating teeth in the mouth, although this is not a very great accomplishment since they are typed as lower or upper, then right or left and the number of teeth, from the front.

            Both the war in the Pacific and in Europe looks good, though there is still a lot of fighting left, but we have such large forces ready that there can be no doubt about the final outcome.

            There is a possibility that I might not pass the physical examination for the ASTRP, because the lump just above my ankle has not yet disappeared, and I cannot run yet. In that case, I think I would have my teeth completely fixed at the Dental College, since my present dentist said that I have a cavity in practically every tooth in my mouth. Having these fixed might clear up the lump, since the doctor said it was caused by a toxic infection.[vi]

            I have bought a bond and I have it with the bonds that you have bought. I bought stamps at intervals at school, and finally collected $18.75 worth.[vii] Also I have opened a savings account with the Farmers and Mechanics Bank.[viii] I started out with a deposit of sixty dollars.

            I cannot help but think how lucky I am to be seventeen years old and already graduated from high school,[ix] for competition in skilled, unskilled and professional work after the war will be high, and the sooner I'm through with my University training, the better. That is my motive for deciding to enlist in the ASTRP, since I would start at the beginning of September, if accepted. I understand that the work will require much intense mental concentration, but I am supposed to thrive on that, I believe.

            Thanks for the swell letters that you have sent to us. They certainly do present England as a picturesque location.[x]

                                                             Your eldest,

                                                                 Stewart

           

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[i] Dad landed in France on August 22, so he did  "settle down pretty soon" after this letter was written.

[ii]This would be Richard Pillsbury Gale (October 30, 1900 – December 4, 1973) who was a U.S. Representative from Minnesota. He was born in Minneapolis; attended the public schools of Minneapolis, The Blake School in Hopkins, Minnesota, the Minnesota Farm School, and the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis; was graduated from Yale in 1922; became engaged in agricultural pursuits and securities in 1923; was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1939 and 1940 and elected as a Republican to the 77th and 78th Congresses, (January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1945). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1944 to the 79th congress; author of newspaper articles on social, economic, and political life of people in various foreign countries; returned to agricultural pursuits and resided at his Wickham Farm near Mound, MN.  He died in Minneapolis, December 4, 1973. Gale was defeated by a Democrat in the November, 1944 election in which FDR was swept into a fourth term.

[iii] One of a Congressman's jobs is to deal with applications for the military academies.

[iv] ASTRP = Army Specialized Training Reserve Program, a program for 17-year-olds (but not older than 17 years, 9 months), in which the Army sent you to college until you turned 18, at which time you would go into basic training. This program appealed to Stewart because it would give him a head start on college. 

ASTRP Recruitment poster

[v] This was the College of Dentistry at the University of Minnesota.  It was cheap, but you had to be willing to be worked on by students. Stewart manifested his frugality at an early age!

[vi] Again, unbelievable - a broken bone, and the doctor didn't recognize it!

[vii] The cheapest War Bond sold for $18.75 and was worth $25.00 at maturity in ten years. I also bought war savings stamps at school; when you filled a book, you could convert it into a bond. I still have an incomplete book of stamps that was never redeemed.

[viii] In 1944, the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank in Minneapolis was located at 88 S. 6th Street - a beautiful Art-deco building which today is a Westin Hotel. The FMSB itself no longer exists. 

The Minneapolis FMSB building in 1944 = note the bas relief sculptures of s farmer and a mechanic .

[ix] Stewart actually graduated at age 16 and turned 17 ten days later.

[x]  When dad arrived in England, he learned that the D-Day casualties among chaplains were less than feared, and he was not immediately needed. Thus he had six weeks or more in England as a virtual tourist.The letters Stewart refers to have not survived, but we have an account of this period that dad wrote after the war.