Stewart Letter #8

Here is Letter #8 in the Stewart series. This is the letter in which Stewart reports on his Army physical and the discovery that the lump above his ankle, which the family M.D. had brushed off as unimportant, was actually caused by a broken bone which Stewart had been walking on for almost six months.                                   

                                       Letter #8

August 28, 1944

Dear Dad,

            Last  Tuesday I went to the Federal Offices Building at 8 o'clock and took the qualifying mental examination.[i]  In reality, the test is for qualifying for the Air Corps but one applying for ERC[ii] takes just two-thirds of the questions. To pass, one needs seventy out of 150, and I scored on 79 out of 100. The average individual is expected to get about half. Then on Tuesday afternoon, I went out to the Fort[iii] to have my physical examination. I told the officer who inspected joints about the lump on my leg, and he had me sent to the base hospital to have it X-rayed. Then I waited that afternoon, the next morning and part of the afternoon until the report came back,[iv] and I found out that my leg had been broken six centimeters above the ankle, the fibula, which runs along the side of the leg, being the bone broken, and not the tibia, which is the main bone. The tibia acted as a sort of splint and kept the fibula in place, or otherwise it might not have set straight.  I am supposed to go back in another month, since the healing was not yet complete, and no wonder, because I have been walking on it ever since early March, when the pain started. Aug. 26th was my last day, however, at Spencer-Kellogg.  I will be able to fix the wood that Larry and I have been able to get from Chevrolet down on the far corner of Hennepin and thirteenth.[v]

Also I am planning to do some extensive reading , since I have the complete works of Washington Irving. However, I know that there are some other good books that we have on our shelves, for instance, I have just finished reading Green Light by Lloyd Douglas.[vi] I hope that by sleeping each morning until I wake up normally, that I can help my leg to heal completely, which will be evident when the lump goes down, which is a heavy callous formed around the break.

            Mother has changed the front bedroom into a bedroom for Larry and me together. It has plenty (of room)  for both of our beds and dressers and my desk, the big black library table.[vii]

            In getting to the Reception Center, where I had my physical, I had to take the streetcar [viii]   that runs from the end of Fort Snelling car line to the Reception Center, about a mile and a half. I ate two meals; neither was exceptional.[ix] But then, I suppose one would have to eat there for a whole week to get the benefit of their menu. There were about seventy-five or so inductees being examined when I was, and most of them had a "don't-care" attitude, and in the waiting-room, a special building, they had to wait for their names to be called when their papers were completed, and most of them smoked incessantly, making the atmosphere unpleasant to me.[x]

            It certainly does look as though the war in Europe will soon be over, so we must be concerned about what Congress does in preparing for the peace to come, since the fall of Japan fairly soon after Germany is an almost certain thing. [xi] I truly hope that the joke: "Pro" is the opposite of "Con," as in "Progress"/ "Congress"  is not true when applied practically.

            I must leave now to get my watch, since it has been a week since I left it at the jeweler's. The hands came too close together and the luminous material in them caught, and in getting them apart, I inadvertently loosened the material.

            I hope that you can keep well despite the conditions that you are living under. I wish with all my heart that I could be with you.[xii]

                                                                        Your loving son,

                                                                                    Stewart

---

[i] The Federal Office Building at that time was located at 212 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis. 

Federal Office Building

[ii] Enlisted Reserve Corps. In that era, there was a difference between men who enlisted and men who were drafted. Technically, they were in two different armies. Stewart was enlisting through the ASTRP.

[iii] Fort Snelling was reached by streetcar from our house. It took almost an hour to get there, as I recall. Fort Snelling is a National Historic Landmark today, but in 1944 it was still an active military installation used to process recruits and also the prime army facility for teaching the Japanese language.

Fort Snellng Administration Building

[iv] I hope this doesn't mean he had to spend the night there, but probably not.

[v] I remember the Chevrolet building  Stewart is referring to, but I have no memory of the wood he is talking about.

[vi] "Lloyd Cassel Douglas (1877-1951) was born in Columbia City, Indiana, the son of a Lutheran minister.  He became a Lutheran minister himself in 1903 and married Bessie Porch in 1904.  Between 1903 and 1911 Douglas preached in Indiana, Ohio, and Washington D.C. From 1911 through 1915, he was director of religious work at the University of Illinois.  After that, he preached at various churches around the United States and Montreal, retiring from the ministry in 1933. His first successful novel was 1929’s Magnificent Obsession.  He remained extremely popular for the rest of his life, appearing on Publishers Weekly’s  top ten annual bestsellers list thirteen times from 1932 to 1953, taking the number one spot four times. 

Green Light starts with the stock market crash in 1929, signalling the beginning of the Great Depression.  The protagonist, a doctor named Newell Paige, is preparing for surgery with his friend and mentor, Dr. Endicott.  The latter, shaken by his financial loss, makes an error in the surgery, resulting in the death of the patient, one Mrs. Dexter, with whom Dr. Paige had grown close over the preceding weeks.  Dr. Paige, hoping to save Dr. Endicott’s reputation, takes the blame and runs off under an assumed name. There are two major plotlines and a few subplots.  The other major plotline deals with Mrs. Dexter’s daughter, Phyllis, who falls for Dr. Paige, meeting him under his assumed name.  But both major plots and almost all the subplots are tied together by Dean Harcourt of Trinity Cathedral, whose philosophy and advice spur on the novel’s other characters."

Lloyd Douglaa

[vii] Boy, I hadn't thought about this piece of furniture for a long time. It was beautiful. It had scrolled pediment legs and a glossy, black finish. I wish I still had it - it would make a great desk.

[viii] This letter is evoking strong feelings of nostalgia for me. The Minneapolis Street Car system was really wonderful, and I loved the street cars themselves, which were yellow and had beautiful caned seats. 

Minneapolis Street Car

 

[ix] It would be interesting to know what would have made a meal "exceptional" for Stewart at that time.

[x] I'm afraid that Stewart - and me too, of course - had lived a sheltered existence. This was probably his first introduction to what "Army life" would be like.

[xi] Germany surrendered May 8, 1945 and Japan surrendered September 2, 1945. So in a way, I guess, Stewart was right. But when he said "soon be over," he probably was thinking a shorter time.

 

[xii] This must have touched dad's heart. I wonder if this was just a way of saying "I love you," or whether Stewart might also have been really eager to get away from home - i.e., mother and me.