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LETTERS FROM LEO: World Warn Correspondence to the Asheville Lions Club
by Leo Finkelstein
Patricia Beaver, Editor
published by The Center for Appalachian Studies
Appalachian State University
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�LETTERS FROM LEO
WORLD WAR II CORRESPONDENCE TO THE ASHEVILLE LIONS
CLUB
LEO FINKELSTEIN
Patricia D. Beaver, Editor
Published by : The Center for Appalachian Studies
AppaJachjan State University
Boone, NC 28608
1997
�INTRODUCTION
....
.c~c.j..,.~
l~' .Jol.A ·
Leo Finkelstein was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1905, and in 191 I began school
at the Montford Avenue Grammar School. He graduated from Asheville High School in 1922,
where he was business manager of the Hillbilly, the school monthly magazine, as well as pianist
for a musical group. From playing saxophone with the Asheville Shrine Club Maiching Band in
the 1930s to piano with the Sanctimonious Seven for the Asheville Lion' s Club in the
1990s, Leo has served his community though music, humor, business acumen, and community
leadership.
In 1922 Leo took over management of Finkelstein's Pawnshop, a downtown Asheville
institution, which Leo' s father Harry Finkelstein opened in 1903 shortly after immigrating from
Lithuania. Since his retirement from Finkelstein' s in 1970, Leo has continued to be actively
involved in the civic, fraternal, and religious life of the community.
A member of the Asheville Lion' s Club for over sixty years, Leo has regaled his fellow
Lions with his unique view oflife in Asheville and beyond. Inducted into the U.S. Army Air
Corps in 1943, Leo was seen off at the bus by Lion C. Fred Brown, past president ofthe
Asheville Lion' s Club and former Vice Mayor of Asheville, who advised Lejo to send letters back
to the local Lion' s Club. Leo complied. What follows is his record of experiences and
observations which were copied and sent back to the Asheville Lion' s Club, to be read at
meetings during World War II.
Following induction at Camp Croft, South Carolina, Leo endured Basic Training at Miami
Beach, Florida, before being sent to Tishomingo, OkJahoma for training as an Air Force Clerk.
His collected stories were recorded in a diary, given to him by Miss ~th Anderson, Leo's typing
teacher at the Oklahoma College of Agriculture, where soldiers train~ to be clerks in the Air
Force recei ..·ee iA&tA:IGtiett. The majority of the following stores, vignettes, and poems originated
in the Philippines, where Leo served until4he final days of the war.
�MY LIFE IN THE SERVICE
rhe Diaxy of Leo Finkelstein
109 Lakeshore Drive
Asheville, North Carolina
SERVICE RECORD
Transfers
Spartanburg, SC
Columbia , SC
Miami Beach, FL
Tishomingo, OK
Kearns, Utah
Pittsburg , CA
Camp Croft
Camp Jackson
414 Training Group
Murray State College
501 Training Group
Camp Stoneman
Induction
Reception
Basic Training
A.A.F.T.T.C. (E&O)
O.R.T.C.
P.O .E. (Staging
San Francisco, CA
New Caledonia
New Caledonia
Guadalcanal
Los Negros
40th Ship Co.
6th Replacement Depot
6th Staging Area
394th Bomb Sq . (H)
394th Bomb Sq. (H)
Wakde
Noemfoor
Morotai
Samar
Leyte
Seattle, WA
Fort Bragg , NC
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq.
394th Bomb Sq.
394th Bomb Sq.
93rd Repl.
Fort Lawton
P . O . E.
South Pacific
Novmea
5th Bomb GP (H)
13th Air Task
Force
F.E.A. F .
F.E.A. F.
F.E.A. F.
F.E . A. F.
P.O . E.
P .O. D.
Separation
Aree~)
Letter sent Home From
~ami
(H)
(H)
(H)
(H)
January 12 , 1943
January 19, 1943
January 23, 1943
March 29, 1943
May 31 , 1943
Oct.
Nov .
Nov.
Dec.
Dec.
20, 1943
1 , 1943
23, 1943
11 , 1943
19, 1943
Auq. 20, 1944
Aug . 22 , 1944
Sept. 26, 1944
Nov. 4, 1944
March 2 , 1945
July 14 , 1945
Aug. 20, 1945
Sept. 1, 1945
Beach
I am still on the sun- kissed shores of Miami Beach and have been well
educated in my advanced training .
I have learned six new cuss words
(especially) for top Master Sergeants , how to use an electric potato peeling
machine , how to go to Miami without a pass, how to stand at attention (while
half asleep), how to shine my shoes with the minimum amount of energy.
I have
been told that I will be shot if I go AWOL or fall asleep on guard duty and
will get half- shot if I drink too much whiskey (like I didn ' t know).
I have
had so many instructions on making beds , cleaning out toilet bowls and other
domestic duties that I think I would make a better wife than a soldier.
I
have been taught to jump off of nine foot fences on the obstacle course and if
I refused to do it - I would be locked up here.
If I did things like that at
home - I would be locked up there.
I have been taught that if a pretty girl
walks by- I c an look, think and wish, but I'm not allowed to talk or whistle
at her.
I have been taught to stand at attention and not move while a fly
does calisthenics on my nose. This is the army Air Force.
~
From Tishomingo, Oklahoma
Tishominqo was an Indian Chief who died here in the early part of the
nineteenth century and t~is place has been dead ever since. This is the spot
where the capitol of some Indian tribe was situated and today it is a spot
where 500 soldiers are studying to be technicians in the Air Corps and at the
same time improving their technique with the co-eds on the campus of this
colle ge.
*'***•**********
�nn. ~t /\\
/
/
IV -~
\
My mail has been so light lately, I'm getting to t hink my BOis reaching
all the way back to Asheville.
--***** **'* **-lf**~~t
Something happe ned to the water works in Tishomingo and the Army
Officers found that the water wasn't pure so none of the soldiers can go into
town until the town government gets the water works fixed.
T can't imagine
soldiers going to town to drink water but I guess some of t he officials are
scared one of them will get drunk and take a bath in i t .
.......... .... .. ..........
Refore the war T thought being i n the army woul d be a thrilling
adventure - but now I know Sherman was right .
I
Before the war I thought the Air Corps was a mechanized force - but now
wonder what the Hell I 'm marching for.
Before the war, I thought floors we r e to walk on - but now I 've found
they are to sweep and mop on.
Before the war, I thought the Asheville-Citizen was a rotten newspaper but now I enjoy reading one four days old.
Before the war, I would drink a cocktail before dinner - but now I drink
milk with my dinner .
Before t he war, I would go to bed sometimes at 4 AM - but now I get up
at 4 AM.
Before the wa r, I was particular about what girl T took out - but now
I'm not so particular.
Before the war , I struggled over a golf course - but now I struggle over
an obstacle course.
Before t he war, T u sed to shine at a dance - but now I shine my shoes .
Before the war, I cussed at a golf ball - but now a sergeant cusses at
me because I'm not on the ball .
Before the war, I didn ' t have much r eligion- but now I pray for a
furlough .
****** .. *****•**
In the Army you are always in a hurry to get somewhere so you ' ll have
more time to wait after you get there.
The obstacle course is so tough here that they take us on a nine mile
hike to get limbered up so we can make it .
******"*****"****
A
I reached the height of my social career in Tishomingo yesterday when my
typing teacher , Miss Anderson, invited me to have dinner with her at the
Payne Hotel in the heart of Tishomingo . Miss Anderson is not only the best
looking lady teacher on the campus , but a nice person to t~lk to and get all
the information about the r eligi ous, social, f r aternal, and political life in
~rmy
�6
this county .
I arrived at the Payne Hotel exactly on time - for who am I to keep a
lady wait ing who invites me out to dinner and pays t he check. My first view
of the interior of the hotel was depressing and to be conservative and brief
with my description of this institution (founded in the stage coach days) is
that it was a pain. Nevertheless, my companion was nice and the kindly smiles
of an understanding teacher to a lonesome soldier helped greatly to make my
evening a success.
W entered the dining room with a great deal of precision and grace,
e
dodging some water that was leaking from the second floor through the ceiling
and dripping on the dining room floor.
Part of the plaster had already fallen
from the ceiling and I felt surely the balance would come down at any minute.
The dining room was also being u sed for a linen supply room and lumber s torao~
room.
During our meal a lady would bring in dirty linen, pile it on the
floor, and carry c l ean linen out. I never could figure out why all the l umber
was stacked in the corner and was afraid to ask.
After dinner my teacher took me for a personally conducted tour through
the darkened, dirty and low-ceilinged halls to room #35 (where she lives) and
behold - there T visualized her p ride and joy, a private bathroom - the only
one in Tag Hotel .
To be continued ...
This place is thirty mi les from a telegraph office and so far from
civilization that one gets awful lonesome at times.
In fact o ne soldier got
so lonesome that he got married on the telephone last night .
This is a dry place, both in climate and drinking alcohol. It seems
that Tishomingo is so dry that even the bootleggers don't sell it.
***•***********
They believe in getting married young here and I haven ' t found a single
girl over 22 years of age, so I haven ' t found a suitable lady my age to take
out. Would take some of the younger ones out but their papas keep shotguns
and they know how to shoot straigh t out West.
Many times jn my lifetime I have heard about people seeing snakes ,
especially at moments when more spirits were absorbed than the system could
stand. This county here is very dry.
In view of this fact I realized that I
had not had a drink during the time I had been here - so it wasn ' t whiskey .
Therefore i t must be a live snake and there it was on the barrack's floor
crawling and wiggling and sticking its tongue out at me.
That is not the only type pet that is found in our barracks. Just last
week we discovered a couple of live frogs and now and then a stray dog will
walk in to look us over .
At night we are blessed with some miniature bombers to help put us to
sleep. These extra large bugs are supposed to be June bugs but I know bugs
couldn't grow that large in the one month of June. They gain a lot of
�8
Today we we~e given a demonstration of war gases. I was told to put on
my gas mask and was placed in a chamber filled with tear gas. Everything was
lovely until I was instructed to t a ke the mask off and breathe the stuff which I did very reluctantly. My eyes burned , my nose burned, my throat
burned and I cried and c ried and c~ied so they let me out into the fresh air .
After partially r ecovering , I was informed t hat I would be s ubjected to
several other popular brands of gasses and all I had to do was sniff each one
(li ke a hound dog sniffs at a rabbit track) and associate the smell with
something I had s melled i n civilian life. Thi s was easy and my a n alysis was
as follows :
Chlora-Pic knon gas smelled like corn whiskey .
Phosgene gas s me lled like scotch whiskey .
Chlori ne gas smelled like rye whi s key.
Mustard gas s melled like bourbon whis key .
Hydrogen- mustard gas smelled like otdinary coo ki ng whiskey.
****** *********
This camp is a c ross section between a conce n t ~ation camp and t h e
Buncombe County c h ain gang. They keep you i n this camp a couple of months
before you are sent to a combat zone . The y figure if you can live here t wo
months wi thout serious complications that you s hould be able to live at any
othe r point in the worl d for ten years .
. ........ * .. **'It'*****
It ' s so dirty here and I ' m so used to i t that if I ever get back home on
a fu r lough I ' ll have to s prinkle sand in the b ed so I can sleep .
We are not troubled with rats here - they can ' t live in this climate .
I went to Bunny's Beer Garden l.ast night and stayed to 5 AM a nd took
Bunny home . Bunny's husband is in the Navy . t tried to be faithful to t he
Air Corps , but I couldn ' t find an aviator's wife who owned a beer garden.
****•***+'*+ ** **
Below is a schedule of how I s p e nt a
w~ekend
here:
W
aiti n g in line to get a pass
Waiting in line to get a bus to town
Waiting in line to let an MP check your pass
Waiting in line to use phone to call q irl
Waiting to get taxi to go after gi rl
Waiting in line to get permit to buy a pint of whiskey
W
aitinq in line to buy whiskey
Waiting in line to qet seat i n restaurant
W
aiting for waitr:-e!'ls to bring gin ger ale and i ce
Waiting in lin e for street car to t ake girl home
aiting fo r girl to make up her mind (to kiss me good-night)
W
Walking to bus station
Explaining to 1st sergeant why 1 was 1ate getting back to c amp
Resting up from Satu rday night's activities
30 min .
43 min.
9 min.
10 min .
52 min .
28 min .
27 min .
40 min .
12 min.
11 min .
02 min.
13 min.
5 min .
All day Sunday
The worst food in the Army Air Forces is served in the mess halls of
Kearns Field, Utah.
A soldier here was getti n g something to eat out of a
�9
garbage can today and a Lieutenant nearby said, "Here you! Do you think you
are better than the rest of the men on this field - get on in the mess hall
and eat!"
***************
I've had details on this post from the telephone operator on the firing
range to the office boy in the Commanding Officer's office, but my most
interesting detail was handed to me today when I was made "Garbage Man" for
the Mess Hall. Now don't think that a garbage man ' s job is just an ordinary
bit of work. To the contrary, i t takes a man who can stand gruesome odors and
one who has specialized knowledge of slop and other varieties of waste.
Neatly lined up outside of the kitchen of the Mess Hall are thirty-six
GI garbage cans. My main duty was to see that the right stuff was put in the
right can. There were certain cans designated for wet garbage, dry garbage,
vegetable peelings, fruit peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, bones, ashes
and trash : You must be careful not to put coffee grounds in the slop as i t
will kill the hogs. Tea leaves will make hogs very sick and if there is any
broken glass in i t - it won ' t do the hogs any good.
I was quite proud of myself when the K.P. Sergeant complimented me on my
work. The onl y thing that worried me was that I was doing all this for the
benefit of hogs and pigs.
Recently deodorized,
Leo
I was told that every good soldier should know how to do his own
laundry, so I decide that I • m going to do some wash.ing for myself. I tried to
find out the best method for washing clothes but it seemed liked very soldier
had a different system : After much cal cul ation and thought I start on what I
think to be the correct procedure. The first thing I do is steal a bucket
from the Mess Hall. Then I go to the PX and buy a box of Rinso and a bottle
of Clorox.
I put half the box of Rinso and half the bottle of Clorox in the
bucket f illed wi th hot water and p l ace my underwear and socks therein . The
directions on the box said to soak for one hour but in o r der to do a good job
I figured I would put the bucket of clothes under my bed for a day or two.
Everything was coming along fine until the Lieutenant came through the
barracks on an inspecti on tour and saw the bucket of c l othes under my bed.
I
couldn ' t explain how the bucket got out of the Mess Hall or why I was doing my
laundry during duty hours. The next thing I knew - I was restricted to the
Post for a week.
Nothing was going to stop me so I started to wash the c l othes .
I found
that the dye had run out of the socks and had got in the underwear and I
couldn't get the dye out of the underwear or back in the socks. Therefore, I
went up to t he Supply Sergeant and signed a statement of charges and got
mysel f some new underwear and socks.
Now I'm all washed up trying to wash my own washing.
***************
rrom Ca~~p Ston..aan, CA
I can't tell you where I ' m at because the censor wouldn't like it.
I can't tell you what kind of clothes I've been issued because you would
�10
know where I was going.
I can't tell you about
~he
camp because
i ~s aga ins~
~he
rules .
I can't tell you about my equipment because it would jeopardize my
security.
I can tell you this though - I had a date with a girl by the name of
Sylvia who used ~o live in Chicago, who is now living in Los Angeles and who
is visiting some friends in a city near here and she is just as sweet as ever.
***************
The PX here reminds me of a country store with a night club atmosphere .
You can buy anythi ng from beer to buttons with pret~y littl e teen-age girls to
serve you. At very reasonable prices you can have coffee, doughnuts, cakes,
sandwiches, drinks or ice cream, a gift for mother, a souvenir for sister, a
can of shoe polish, a bottle of ink, a bath towel or your favorite pipe
tobacco : A nickelodeon bell ows forth music in one corner whi le a group of
soldiers are singing favorite songs in another. A Lieutenant-Colonel walks in
without a neck tie. A captain is talking to a private in a friendly manner .
A sergeant is conversing with a smiling WAC. Here is the common meeting
ground of our f i ghting men and women - a last gathering place on ~heir nati ve
soil . Soon we will be bound for strange lands and new assignments.
***************
Pre. Boat on
Paei.~ic
oa.an
Here I am on a boat on the Pacific Ocean. While I don't have the
accommodations of a Cook's tour, I can see the same scenery that many people
pay thousands of dollars to see (ocean and sky). The sleeping quarters are a
little crowded and the bunks are so close to each other that many times I wake
up with another guy's foot in my face or his knee in my stomach. The latrine
is also a little crowded. Traffic is so heavy inside (if you can get in ) that
it would make a New York traffic cop crazy trying to keep things st~aight. If
you ever have to go, you got to go about an hour before you think you got to
go so you will get there in time to go - then it takes about twenty minutes to
get from where you go to the wash basin .
Believe me, Firestone, if I could go out to your cabin for a month and
have the privy at my disposal and that creek with fresh mountain water to do
my laundry in - I'd be the happiest man in the world .
***************
Here I am on an island in the South Pacific with nothing to write about.
I can't write about the weather , I can't say whether it's hot or cold, rainy
or dry. I can't tell the name of the island or the name of any towns near
here or even if there are any towns on the island. I can't tell you if the
country has mountains or plains or desert lands. I c a n't even tell you the
col or of the soil, I can't tell you about the animal life, the birds; the
fish or the insects .
I can't tell you if the natives are white or black or
yellow.
I can ' t tell you what language the y speak or what country owns the
island. I can't tell you if we are near an ocean, a river or a lake. I can't
tel l you about the military personnel or equipment : I can't tell you about my
duties . I can't tell you anything that would demoralize the civilians back
home - so I'll close.
�I want to tell you a story about a farmer's daughter on an island in the
south Pacific . While out walking yesterday I stopped at the farmer's house
and bought some cake and pie from the farmer's daughter. I asked her about
some music and she brought out an ant~que model Victrola with some records. I
thought I would hear some music with a South Pacific rhythm but instead it was
some good old North Carolina mountain music played by a hillbilly band.
Something always happens to remind me of home - damn it.
J'roa Gu.clac•nel
Mosquitos are big here. One lit in the runway and they put seventy
gallons of gas in it before they found out it wasn't a P-38.
***************
Back home it was said that money isn't everything in life. over here it
might be said that money isn't anything in life. There is no place to spend
it and nothing to buy. A free movie at night is the height of our
entertainment. A bottle of beer once a week is the extent of our drinking.
We look forward to mail call and chow. Mail from home is our greatest morale
booster. On the walls of our living quarters are the pictures of a girl back
home, a favorite movie star or maybe a scantly clad native girl. We see
strange animals, lizards, and insects and often wonder why they like to crawl
in bed with us. We search the region for souvenirs left by the Japs. We are
visited by natives who wear a towel where their pants ought to be. We work
hard, eat plenty and sleep well. There is no complaining here - we are just
one big happy family.
We have moved into our new wigwam known as "The Southside Social and
Society Club, South Pacific Branch, Incorporated." Believe me it is a
masterful piece of architecture in solid mahogany. Our foundation is made of
empty gasoline barrels. our roof is made of empty bomb box tins. We got our
lumber from an old torn down latrine. We did steal a few good boards after
dark when nobody was looking. Our light sockets are home made out of airplane
parts . We also have various pieces of antique furniture made out of shipping
boxes picked up at the mess hall. We have a front porch. Our roof don't leak
(very much). The entire frame-work of our house is covered with mosquito
netting and at a distance the shack appears to be a huge bird cage with
monkeys running around in it. Anyhow its home and it is good to know that we
again have a place to call our own.
***************
"Spot is a dog - a white dog with one black spot over his right eye.
Spot is the mascot of a certain crew who maintained a certain airplane at a
certain field in the South Pacific. Spot knew 'his' airplane - the airplane
his crew worked on. Spot would ride out on the bus to the field every morning
and would jump off at the bunker on which his airplane was parked. He knew
the location of his plane just like a civilian dog would know the location of
its home. He stayed by his a.irplane in all kinds of weather and admired the
splendid way his crew kept the ship in shape. Not long ago the airplane
didn't return from a flight therefore the crew didn't go out to the field.
Spot would ride out to the field on the bus as usual every morning and would
jump off at the bunker that had held his plane. For many days that followed I
could see Spot standing there, a l one, on the empty bunker, waiting for his
airplane to come home.
***************
�12
I discovered a new animal today.
It was a lizard, four feet long ,
running around in my front yard . The reptile looked like an alligator but it
didn ' t have the same disposition . It was supposed to be harmless but he
didn ' t look very sociable to me. His skin looked like it would make a good
traveling bag but since I wasn't going anywhere , I didn ' t try to capture the
thing. He finally ran down in my fox hole and I am hopin g , in the event I
have to use that fox hole some night, that he won ' t be there with a wife and
family. Anyhow, I am looking forward to the time when I can get home, where
there is nothing to bother me but house flies , bumble bees and ants .
***************
This is a dehydrated war . our breakfast is made at the mess hall with a
powder: they mix with water. 0ut of this mixture comes hot cakes , pan cakes,
flat-jacks and wheat cakes and t hey all taste alike . One gallon of dehydrated
potato powder is mixed with water and out comes five gallons of mashed
potatoes without mashing them. The dehydrated eggs at the mess hall have a
sign on them reading " eggs" because they don ' t look like eggs or taste like
eggs. The dehydrated milk turns out to be dark grey a nd putting i t in the
dehydrated coffee keeps you from getting an infection from the stuff . The
dehydrated lemonade could be used for battery acid but we use it mostly for
washing our mess kits.
If somebody would only invent dehydrated whiskey - that would be a great
a contribution to the war effort. Our mail is even dehydrated into V-mail.
Yes, everything is dehydrated around here except the weather .
I am now a politician.
of his tribe.
I was the cause of a native being made " chief "
This is how it happened.
A certain native I called "Joe" would come over to my shack to visit me
and even though he taiked very ~ittle English, I found out from him much about
his life and the customs of his people . These poor devils work for ten cents
a day. They sign up for a year and are paid in full at the end of their
contract. Joe always admired a larqe knife that I had . This knife was sent
to me from home, being one that I had jn my collection, hanging on the wall of
my bar room. Every time I showed it to Joe a big smile would come over his
face , his snow white teeth would shine like pearls, his eyes gleamed with fire
and he would say over and over, " Nice, I like. Nice, I like! " He would
carefully caress the etched figure of a lion on the blade and would gaze for
minutes at his image on the shiny steeL
One day Joe came over to see me .
He had five American dollar bills
wra pped in an old cloth bag. He offered me the five dollars and his war club
for my knife. f traded wi t h h im and he left my shack the happiest man I've
ever looked upon. I followed him over to the native village and there the
whole tribe gathered around and made him chief because of his ability to
acquire such a wonderful knife. Never would I have thought, when I nailed
that knife to the wal l of my bar at home, that someday it wou ld be the cause
of a man being made chief of a native tribe on an island in the South Pacific.
***************
There are no sheets, no mattresses, no pillows, no springs on my cot but
when I ~. ay down to go to sleep I acquire a feeling of comfort and contentment .
Sometimes I gaze at the stars shining in the t ropical heavens . Other times I
listen to the rain beating down on the tin roof . There are no pains , no
nerves, no responsibilities , no vain regrets, no anticipation of gathering
difficulties, no financial probJems to di·sturb my hard earned slumber. I wake
up in the morning and look at the mountains around me. Their lofty peaks
�13
me of the mountains at h ome . Th is is a wo nderfu l place to lead a n easy
ci f c but frankly I would not hesitate to accept a n y opportun ity to go back to
my civilian life once again .
·:e.~nd
********'*** ****
Parts of this a r ea are cov ered wi th ;ungle vegetation.
Enormous tree
trunks covered with s nake like vines , stran ge flowers and inhabited by
screeching parrots tower above the semisolid mass of bamboo , palms , ferns ,
writhing roots , creepi ng l izards a nd t housands of energetic grasshoppers .
There are hellgrammites and s piders to be had on the island but personally I
could do well without t hem, especially after seei n g t he effects of their
bites.
*********"" ••••*
Letters , letters , letters - that ' s t he only way I have to kee p in touch
with the old country (the United States) and what a problem!
Lette r s to my
mother must be dignified and cheerful. Letters to my f r aternal brothers, the
police department and some of the girls I used to go with don ' t have to b e so
dignified.
Letters to the Lions Club must be interesting and to the point.
Letters to my attorney, accountant , and manager should eKpress my appreciation
for their faithful services even though I ' m wonder ing if t hey a re o n the job .
In my letters to my Rabbi , I try to be rel igious . In my lette rs to my social
club, I try to be a beer drinker and an expert ca rd player . Letters to my
best girl must be affection ate even t hough I t h i n k she is going out with a
couple of sergeants. In my letters to my banker I am optimistic , cautious and
hopeful .
In all my letters I can ' t say anything that would demoralize the
people at home because I know they are having a tough time with ration points ,
wh iskey shortages, War Bond Drives and taKes . Finally, T have to please the
censor but he has an advantage over you - he can cut out what h e don't like .
Foxes don ' t live in a fox hole. It ' s a place we run in, crawl in, fall
in, sl ide in, scramble in o r jump in in event of an air raid. Mack and T got
orders to fill in an old one by our shack . Mack is lazy as Hell and since I
was getting up in years we decided to get a couple of natives to do the job .
Mack went over to the native village a nd negotiated for the job, usi ng two
bucks of mine for payment, which T furnished very reluctantly. W
hen the
natives started to fill the hole with dirt , a snake , five feet long , ran out .
Mack, being a country boy, picked up the snake by its tail and Powers (a
butcher in civilian life) , chopped his head off with an axe before I stopped
running. The neKt thing to come out was a ground rat. One of the natives
caught him with his bare hands and killed it before I could stop run ning . The
next thir.gs to come out were four centipedes about a foot long apiece. One
bite from one of these huge worms and you run for the dispensary as fast as
you ca n, cussing your draft board ail along the way with words unfit to write.
The fox hole is now filled up so guess I'll take a nap because I'm tired out from runnJ.ng.
•+ ............ ....., .... .., ... .
From Los Neqros-Admdralty Islands
Prior to my induction i~ the army I considered myself a respectable
upright citizen of Buncombe County , North Carolina . I was always honest
except for a few times during my childhood days when I swiped onions from Mrs .
Roberts ' garden, stole an apple from Mr. Book ' s grocery store and helped
myself to all the cherries I could eat from a n eighbor's cherry tree .
My
ch~ldhood
habits started again the other day when I volunteered (by
�14
request) to help unload several barges of beer. Even though our secret
weapons are not guarded , each barge of beer has armed guards.
I found that if
I accidentally dropped a case of beer that sometimes several bottles would
fall out and in gathering up these bottles sometimes they accidentally got
inside my shirt and as long as they were inside my shirt , I didn ' t see any
reason not to drink them .
Do you think I ' ll go to Hell for this?
********** * ****
On this beautiful (to some people) island in the Adrniralt¥ Group one can
sit under a swaying palm tree (until a coconut falls and bounces off your
head) and admire the sun- kissed shores (through sun glasses to keep from going
blind). You may breathe deeply of the fresh air (saturated with the smell of
st3gnant salt water) and gaze at the moon (providing you can see t h rough ¥OUr
mosquito net).
In the daytime you can enjoy the cool refres h ing rains (if you
don't mind getting as wet as a drowned r at) . In the evenin gs i t ' s your
privilege to see a new movie featuring William s . Hart or Fatty Arbuckle and
go back to your tent knowing you will have a good night ' s sleep (providing you
take sleeping pills) . It is thrilling to search the jungle for souvenirs (if
you don ' t mind picking up booby traps).
If you get the tooth ache you can go
to the dentist . If you don ' t feel like working you can go on sick call .
If
you get homesick you can go see the chaplain. This is an ideal place to be .
Every morning at breakfast time I am greeted by " Porkie. " He is a
little pig and a cute little pig at that . He could be part dog because he
looks up at me and wags his tail. He could be part wild boar because he
pushes me around with h is nose . Anyhow in this G·o dforsaken country I welcome
most any kind of a friend and believe me Porkie is my friend because he will
let me pet him and feed him . Nobody knows where Porkie carne from . Maybe the
Japs left him here or maybe he wandered down into the camp from the hills.
There have been some suggestions about killing Porkie and roasting h im over a
fire but I don ' t think there is any danger of that happening because we can ' t
eat Porkie and have him too .
***"~~"**'********•
Sometime ago while I was on a troop transport a warning came over the
loud speaker than a Jap battleship and two destroyers had been sighted .
I was
playing checkers , some other guys were playing cards , some reading . You could
hear a number of wise cracks about the situation but nobody seemed to be
disturbed .
We were all in the same boat and i t appeared that regardless of our
religious beliefs, political opinions , social or financial standings in
civilian life, that being in the same boat under these conditions united us in
the closest bonds of fellowsh ip . True this war has made soldiers of us but in
(doing so it has not destroyed that individuality, humor and tolerance we
possessed . In my opinion it has cemented firmer in us these necessities of a
peaceful democratic society .
(Adapted from an instruction booklet)
Suppose you got lost in the jungle . You would have nothing to worry
about as far as food is concerned . You may eat , with safety, anything that
the monkeys eat and you can even eat the monkeys. They are considered a
delicacy by the natives.
�15
More than likely you would start your day off with a breakfast of
grasshoppers. The legs and wings pulled off , toasted on the end of a stick or
fried in coconut oil, they are not at all displeasing to the taste. Of course
if you dcn't like grasshoppers you could eat winged ants , or termites
particularly the queens and the eggs of ants .
For dinner I would suggest roasted rat smothered with lizard tails .
Rats are plentiful and have a taste similar to large fruit bats. Lizards are
also plentiful and the meat from the hindquarters is preferred. A nice
seaweed salad would be appropriate. Strangely enough seaweeds are not very
salty and their water content is fairly fresh.
In general, the pink, purple
and the reddish or green seaweeds are best.
For dessert I would recommend
water lilies with chopped white grub worms.
Supper should be your biggest meal. You could start out with snake meat
sliced li ke bologna, wild sweet potato chips and fern tips. All s nakes are
aood to eat - even the poisonous ones , if the head is cut off immediately
after capture . Your soup could be turtle soup season ed with bamboo shoots and
the buds of palm trees . A salad of bananas and figs would go good i f you
could find some. Your main course may be porcupine stew or broiled kangaroo
steaks with hard boiled bird eggs on the side.
Seriously speaking all the items I have mentioned in this letter are
edible and you don't need any ration points to get them.
Was just thinking what i t would be like to have an Asheville Social Club
here. To begin with you wouldn't have a modern building like the one at home.
It would be a frame building covered with n etting or straw. The structur e
wouldn ' t need a heating plant because we have an abundance of that here. You
wouldn ' t be able to sell beer. The members would have to drink chlorinated
river water and like it . The poker players wouldn't be able to concentrate on
their hands as the roar of airplanes overhead would disturb them. You
wouldn't be able to call a taxi to go home. You would have to wa lk - maybe in
some pretty deep mud. You couldn't hold a dance as there are no women to
dance with . The rummy players would have to be satisfied with old dilapidated
cards as new ones are rare. The trustees would hav~ no worries since there is
no place to spend any money. There would be one advantage of havi ng the Club
here - you guys wouldn't have your wives calling you up at 1 AM to come home.
***************
I got caught with my pants down. I went into the latrine this morning
to enjoy a good smoke and to read the funnies. Gracefully, I made myself as
comfortable as possible on the GI equipment therein, relaxing and watching the
flies , red ants, and lizards playing football , follow-the-leader , and other
games on the rafters and walls . Suddenly, I noticed a spider sitting right
beside me - not an ordinary one with wire size legs , but one whose size
reminded me of the lobsters I used to eat at home, and whose legs reminded me
of those of Gloria Swanson . The gruesome and monstrous creature crawled
slowly toward me and J. had no trouble doing my duty - it scared it out of me.
In order that you might become acquainted with my dai ly routine here , I
am listing activities below:
6 AM
Wake up. Complain about the heat. Shake my shoes to see if any
centipedes are parked inside .
Put on my clothes .
6 : 0 4 AM
Think about washing my hands but decide it is too much trouble
so I start for chow.
�16
6 : 06 AM
Look for Porkie (the pet pig) but he don't seem to be around
G~ess he is still asleep - the l ueky hog.
yet.
6 : 15AM
After a short argument I get the cook to turn my egg over
becau se I don't li ke it half done .
6 : 35 AM
wash my mess kit and complain about the heat .
I
Go back to my tent .
6 :4 0AM
decide to postpone the job .
boo ks like it n eeds clean i ng up bu t
6 :41 AM
Lay down on my cot and read a f e w pages of a wild west story .
7 : 10 AM
Complain about the h eat.
7:30 AM
Cl imb on a GT truc k and ride ou t to my office at the field.
The truck jars so much i t almost shakes my kidneys loose .
7 :4 5 AM
Arrive at my office (a tent) and dust off the furniture . I
don' t have to s weep the floor because it is a dirt floor and it don ' t do no
good to s weep t he d irt off of d i rt.
8 : 00 AM
Sgt . Luec k comes in singing. Can ' t imagine why he is
singing so early i n the morning.
I soon find out the reason - he made Staff
Sergeant on a new rating list .
Sgt . Lueck says that I didn ' t make C::orporal on t he n e w list:
8 : 05 AM
because the squ adron is lou sy with corporals and some of them will have to
die , transfer, go home or get promoted before I cou l d get another stripe .
Capt . Gardn e r comes in and offers S/Sgt. Lueck congratulations
8 : 20AM
a nd me h is sympathy . He tells me t hat h e d i d h is b e st: to get me a rati ng a n d
he thin ks he will be able to push me up n e xt time.
9 : 00 AM
Pfc . Runnels comes in a nd wants to know if I ma de corporal.
W
hen he found o u t I didn't he s uggested I e nter a complaint .
I explained that
I wasn' t makin g the a rmy my ca r eer and it didn't make mue h difference one way
or another.
do the same thing I d i d at 7 : 10AM.
10 : 00 AM
I
11 : 00 AM
Leave t h e field for the camp area in the same kidney-shaking
11 : 15 AM
Arrive at the camp area .
truck .
11 : 20 AM
Stop at the PX and since they were sold o u t of candy, cookies
and food , I didn ' t buy anything.
11 : 31 AM
Thought that
I
would wash up but
I
go to chow instead.
11 : 59 AM
Lay down on my cot fo r my noon time nap.
heat and fall asleep .
Complain abou t the
1 : 30 PM
1 : 45PM
that
I
Wake up and j ump on the truck going back to the field .
Arrive at the offiee a nd it is so hot I
take my s h irt off .
1 :47 PM
The flies , using my back for a landing field , worry me so much
put my shirt back on .
2 : 10 PM
Some pilot does a buzz job with his p l ane over
~y
tent a nd I
�17
go out to see if the tops of the coconut trees are still there.
3 : 00 PM
I do the same thing I did at 10 AM only twice as much!
4:00 PM
My day's work done.
I hop on the truck for the camp area .
Caught one of the new easy riding trucks wi th eight wheels and no spring.
4:20 PM
Went by the mail room for my mail which didn ' t arrive.
4:30 PM
Against my better judgement I took a shower.
5:00 PM
Chow.
5:15 PM
Write letters.
7 : 00 PM
Moving picture sta r ts .
previous occasions , I go see it again.
Since I ' ve seen i t on only three
10 : 00 PM
Lights out . Discussion of various topics goes on between the
members of the tent. The subjects under discussion will be omitted for the
benefit of any person under eight years of age who might read this.
In this area we have the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy.
I
am in the Army Air Forces and my old friend , Harry Murdock, former assistant
circulation manager of the Asheville Times, is in the Navy. Now, we see each
other often , and in order to show how much the Navy will cooperate with the
Army , Harry agreed to procure for me an item that the Navy has and the Army
has not.
(The method of obtai n i ng this item will not be revealed at t his
time . ) I had not looked upon one of these luxuries for nine m
onths and when
he brought it to me, it was too delightful to d~scribe - too wonderful to
believe . It was more welcome than an umbrella in t he rain, an ice cold drink
on a hot day or a fur coat by a chorus girl. There wa s never such beauty in
the mountains of western North Carolina at autumn time - no such glamour in a
sunset on the ocean or a bathing beauty content. It was more invigorating
than a scotch and soda or a banana split. Never before had I bestowed upon me
such a gift and now when I go to sleep on that second hand "Navy issue "
mattress , I ' ll dream of days to come when I can be home again .
**************•
Dear Mom:
When I try to eat this GI food, T think of how I ate at home - it ' s then
I think of you dear mom.
When I look at my floor of dirt , I think of how the floors at home were
so shiny and clean - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I try to go to bed at night, T think of the soft bed T had at home
with clean sheets and clean pillow cases - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I have the toothache and nobody here seem to care - it ' s then I
think of you dear Mom.
When buttons c ome off I try to sew them on - it ' s then T think of you
cear M
om.
Yo u were my cook, my nurse, my advisor, and my teacher and now when I
n eed o ne of these - it's then I think of you dear Mom .
�18
'**************'*
If you should become ill all you would have to do is call the doctor and
h e usually fixes you up.
A sick airplan e is a different story . To begin with t h ere is a c rew who
makes general repairs on t he ship . Besides t h is crew there are propeller
specialists , engine specialists , hydraulic specialists , bomb-sight
specialists , men who specialize in changing engines , radio men who repair the
radios , a tire c h a nge departme n t , a section that looks after parachutes, life
rafts , emergency rations , oxygen bottles and fire e x tinguishers , a supply
department for parts needed, a refuel u n it to service the ships with gas and
oil , inst r ument specialists , welders , sheet metal men , electrical experts ,
painters , ordnance men to load bombs, armamen t men to look after the guns,
carburetor specialists , guards to guard the planes , a clerical staff to keep
the records, inspectors , crew chiefs to supervise the crews, flight chiefs to
supervise the cre\ol chiefs a nd line chiefs to sup ervise the flig h t c h iefs .
Aren ' t you happy t h at you do not requi r e as muc h atten tio n as a n
airplane to keep you i n shape?
•• ••***********
Over here, far a way from home , I think a lot a nd what do you think I
think about?
First of all , I think a good deal about my family , my loved o n es and my
friends I left behind .
ountain, Pack Square , Vance M
onument , Mom's
I also think abo ut Sunset M
cooking , the shiny floors i n my hous e - t he
gr~en
grass i n the yard.
Happenings that didn ' t seem important at the time now seem to be great
events .
I think of the time when I was in the second grade of grammar school
and stole an apple from M . Book's Grocery Store on Cherry S treet . I remember
r
the fjrst licking my daddy gave me for throwing a rock at my sister- he s h ook
me so hard that the cuff links fell out of my shi r t sleeves and I never could
find them . I thi n k about the first time I went fish ing and caught a fish.
I
remember the time I went hunting , killed a deer, and was s orry that I did it.
T t h ink about my golf games at Beaver Lake. I can recall the ti me J almost
had a fight with Dr . Robinson at a Temple Club meeting. I think of the time I
beat John Vance i n an e l ection for trustee of t h e Elks Lodge. M fondest
y
memories are of the c h ildren around town who called me "Uncle Leo. " I think
about the Christmas day whe n I played Santa Claus with the members o ·f the
Lions Club at the Salvation Army Chapel .
I think of the n ight that I , a
bachelor, presided at a Father and Son Banquet at Congregation Be th-HaTephila .
I think very little of the materialistic things I left behind. I
realize now that the important things in my lifetime - the things that mean
the most to me now were just little things , j u st everyday happenings.
•****""*********
Corporal Mark is a great g u y and that is why t like to do a favor fo r
him if I can . Well, I am the guy who makes up the de t ail list and Corporal
Mark requested that I put hi.m on the roving guard detail. Now, a r oving guard
has a comparatively easy job . He gets a jeep , rides around all night and sees
that no one steals one of our heavy bombers (weight 60 , 000 pounds). Corporal
Mark is very efficient in his guarding because he goes beyond the usual call
of duty and guards, not only the bombers , but the mess hall and other places
where food and supplies are stored. Corporal Mark is very successful in
�19
obtaining various types of edibles while on guard duty and during the early
morning hours h e and I devour this food wi t h a great deal of pleasure and
satisfaction to our always hungry stomachs. Now Corporal Mark is an upright
and honest fellow and T think he was getting the idea that we weren ' t justly
e n titled to the extra stuff to eat . That idea soon vanished because I told
him about the amount of taxes the government was hitting me for while I was
over here fighting for world peace so we decided that we could go on procuring
this nourishment without hesitation and with a clean conscience.
** * ************
From Waltda , New Guinea
I
Wanna Go Home
Here T ~m ~n enli~ted man ,
Getting along the best I can,
The officers h ave stea k while I eat Spam,
I wanna go home.
W
omen I c ~ave the~e is no doub t ,
Can ' t have nurses here about,
Because the officers take them out ,
I wanna go home.
M n like me will get the blues,
e
No whiskey for us a nd that ain ' t news,
Because the officers get all the booze ,
I wanna go home.
I can ' t get a furlough regulations say,
I can ' t rest and I can't play,
But the officer s manage to find a way,
I wanna go home.
*****'"'**** .. ****
The Engineering Office sent sergeant Reville and me over to the other
side of the field to get a new bomber for our squadron.
I sure felt important
when the fellow over there asked me to sign a receipt for the ship. Can you
imagine Pfc. Finkelstein signing for $250 , 000 worth of airplane? I assure you
it was less trouble for me to get that airplan e than it would be for you to
kiss a bride at a wedding . I climbed up in the pilot ' s cockpit while Sergeant
Reville hooked his eletrac to the nose wheel of the plane . Now Sergeant
Reville can pull these 60 , 000 pound monsters around the field with his eletrac
just like a baby pulls a wagon around the living room and knocks over all the
furniture only Sergeant Reville never knocks anything over . He pulled me and
the airplane down the taxi strip to our area where I stopped the gasoline
truck and said, " Hey Corporal , fill her up . I think she will take about 3000
gallons. "
As he was filling it up I recalled the time when I was home on my
furlough and needed a little extra gasoline to drive my girl up to my favorite
parking place on Beaucatcher Mounta in and return home (at a decent hour - of
course) . Well, I went to the rationing board and they would only give me five
gallons - the stingy devils. Wish they could see me now getting 3100 gallons.
The only trouble over here is that I got no automobile and no girl to drive up
a mountain.
******* .................. .
Thousands of Japs had landed ,
�20
Near the land of the rising sun ,
On an island in the Pacific ,
They had nowhere else to run .
Now on this tiny island,
A good size town was found ,
The Japs - they took it over,
And wandered all around.
Our bombers got their orders,
And took off on the mission,
To save the town if possible,
And bomb the Jap position.
One bombardier was fearless,
And always on the ball,
This flight he made a grave mistake ,
ith no excuse at all .
W
He aimed right at the target,
He carefully fjxed his sight,
He missed the Jap position,
Hit a house with a big red light.
Now when we take that island,
And give the Japs a trimmin ',
W 'll still be cussin ' the bombardier,
e
Who blew up all the women .
**************
It all started when I received one of Finkelstein's $7;95 rebuilt
watches. A guy offered me an old radio and twenty- five dollars in cash for it
and I traded . Money is almost useless over here but I managed to give the
twenty-five dollars to another guy who gave me a half gallon of home-made
drinking beverage wh ich I think was made out of fe~ented canned corn and 100
octane gasoline.
I pooled my half-gallon of imitation "Carolina corn " with a
fellow who had a case of beer and we proceeded to drink it all up but he
passed out before we finished and I had ten cans of beer left on my hands as
my share of t h e party . I traded the beer for a pipe , ten packages of tobacco ,
a pocket knife and a fountain pen. I traded the knife for a flashlig ht and
three cans of beans. I ate the three cans of beans and traded the fountain
pen for an electric light socket , a cigarette lighter and two dollars.
I
invested the t wo dollars i n a crap game, won eight dollars, took the proceeds
and bought a radio tube to fix my radio.
I traded the radio for a boat which
later sank. I traded three packages of tobacco for four cigars and three air
mail stamps .
I smoked the cigars and used the three air mail stamps to write
to three friends back i n t he States requesting from each a box of food. Now,
when and if I receive these boxes of food , I will be able to render to you a
complete financial statement as to how I came out on the watch.
******* * *•*****
Here in the jungle we don ' t have houses fo r house flies to live i n but
we do have house flies . These flies look like the flies at home ~who have
survived the fly swatter , but they don't lead the same kind of life. They
follow us wherever we go but they don't follow us to the mess hall because
they don't like the Gl food t he mess sergeant slings at us no more than we do.
Once in awhile, if a fly gets about half starved, he will fly around the mess
hall looking for something to eat . They are persistent devils and they won ' t
~
�21
be shoo'd away like the American flies.
Quring din ner one made eighteen dives
at my mess kit before I got him. Many of these brave flies , who dare eat our
food, just turn over on their backs after the first bite , kick their legs up
in the air and die.
It ' s a rough war- even for flies .
The war seems to be getting longer every day.
***************
From Noamfoor
Starvin ' Marvin's real name is Sgt . Marvin Binion but we call him
Starvin ' Marvin because he never gets enough to eat. In fact none of us get
enough to eat - only he complains about it more than we do.
Now Starvin' Marvin has given everybody in our tent a name . Luke the
Droop is really Sgt. Lueck, chief engineering clerk. Ed the Red is a crew
chief on an airplane. Herman the German is chief clerk in Tech Supply and Leo
the Hero is nobody else but me, an ordinary clerk who is fed up with the setup.
Luke the Droop has been overseas thirty months and expects to go back to
the States on the "Rotation Plan" only i t hasn't rotated far enough to reach
him yet. on this account he is very cautious during air raids because he
figures he is going home soon and he wants to get there in good shape .
One night Hoim the Woim (which is a short name for Herman the German)
woke us up yelling "Air Raid. " Luke the Droop was dressed and in a fox hole
before any of us got out of bed. By the time I put on my shoes and grabbed my
clothes everybody was gone including Ed the Red who moves very slowly
especially when it comes to doing any work on his airplane.
I wandered out of the tent , the moon was shining brightly and everything
seemed peaceful to me . It wasn ' t peaceful long and I beat five guys to a jeep
and crawled under it. It was my first air raid experience and now I imagine
I ' l l be know as " Foxhole Finkelstein" instead of Leo the Hero .
************** ...
Written from Morotai
My Helmet
My helmet is a useful thing ,
To wear upon my head,
It's made of good materials ,
And feels almost like lead .
My helmet makes a wash bowl,
I can use it any place ,
I fill it up with water,
And wash my hands and face.
My fox hole roof is awful low,
I can ' t stand up in there,
So I put my helmet on the floor ,
And use i t for a chair .
Now if I want a ba5ket,
To hang down from my bunk,
�22
It sure does make a lovely thing,
To hold all kinds of junk.
Now if I ' m sentimental ,
For flowers and that rot ,
I fill it up with good old dirt,
~nd I got a flowe r pot.
Now if I want to take a nap,
Beneath a weeping willow,
I place it down upon the ground ,
And U5e i t tor a pillow.
No w when I ligh t a candle ,
need a candlestick ,
I tur n the helmet upsid e down,
It always does t h e t r ick .
~d
Now when my socks get di r ty ,
the odor isn ' t right ,
I fill the thing with soapy water,
~nd let them soak all njght .
~d
Now hard boiled eggs are something ,
I always did admire,
So I fill the helmet full of water ,
~nd put them on the fire.
Now when we had a dim out,
There ' s no use to be afraid ,
I put the helmet on the light ,
And use i t for a shade .
Now when this war is over,
(I ' ve often heard it said) ,
The helmet ' ll be a useful thing ,
To keep beneath the bed.
finis
***********•***
Littl e Wacs
Real cute
They want
Parachute.
In c hute
Silk cloth
Real cl~a n
Very so ft.
Love pilots
With skill
Get c hutes
~t will.
Take back
To shanties
Make many
�23
Pair panties .
Interesting facts about Life on the South Pacific Islands with the Air forces:
A whiskey still can be made out of hydraulic tubing , an oxygen tank and
other airplane parts.
Corn whiskey can be made out of fermen ted canned co rn .
American whiskey may be bought from S35 to S60 per quart.
A motor boat can be con structed from two airplane belly tanks and a
small power unit.
The silk cloth in parachutes may be used to make panties for nurses and
Wacs .
All natives are friendly - there are no cannibals.
In trading with the n a tives you can get more with a Bible or a piece of
cloth tha n you can get with money or jewelry.
100 octane gasoline may be used for cigarette lighter fluid.
Gasoline is easier to procure than water. Sometimes it requires written
permission to get five gallons of wate r for laundry purposes . Gasoline is
available in any quantity for any purpose.
There are more sna kes per square mile in the mountains of North Ca rolina
than in the j ungle.
It is safer in a fox hole during a n air raid than riding in a n
automobile back home wi t h you r wife drivi ng it .
********* .. *'****
All natives are friendly i n these parts. There are no cannibals .
That's more than I can say for the tax collector back home .
Taking a bath o u t of a helmet is more complicated than you thi nk.
Nevertheless , the job can be done without exerting too much effort if t he
following di r ections are complied with:
Never try to sit in the helmet.
P1ace it o n a corne r p o l e o f a tent a nd
stand beside it . Buckle the c h in strap and let i t h a ng down like a flower
basket.
rill t he helmet full of water . Get the water i n a legitimate manner
if you can, otherwise steal it from the mess hall or the officer ' ~ showers there is ~J ways plenty there .
Place a copy of you r home town n e wspaper on the
ground (the Sunday edition is best because i t has more pages and makes a
softer bath mat) . Take a cake of soap and using the water in the helmet
lather up from feet to head or head to feet - it don't make no difference.
Before the soap drjes , fill the helmet with fresh water and pour ove r top of
head. This is repeated until all the soap is washed off. If the water is too
cold , there is nothing you can do about it . Dry with a towel either clean or
dirty. Shake all a nts and bugs out of towel before using.
In the event of an
air ra1d during the p r ocess of taking the bath , go to your fox hol e at o nce.
ALter the " all clear" start all over from the beginni ng.
�24
************ .. **
A j ungle snake,
on Guadalcanal ,
Went crawling over ,
To see his gal.
He found his gal,
Did not feel fit ,
She had a cold,
That wouldn't quit.
And every time,
That she would cough ,
The jungle snake ,
Would get hissed off .
Master Sergeant Johnson and I started the evening off by opening a can
of salmon a nd ended up by opening a gold mine or at least we planned to open
o n e after the war.
Sergeant Johnson, after looki ng at the label on t he above mentioned
salmon can, told me that he was once foreman of the cannery in Alaska that
canned this particular can of salmon. He insisted on telling me about the
different species of salmon , the white salmon , the pink salmon and I forgot
the other colors he mentioned. Anyway I wasn ' t i nterested in the colors of
salmon in Alaska because I was hungry and the only salmon I was i nterested in
at that particular time was the salmon in the can .
In order to be sure we wouldn ' t get poisoned by the salmon, we took
several shots of Jungle Juice before and after eating the fish .
For you r
information Jungle Juice is made of 190 proof medical alcohol, colored and
flavored with burnt sugar and diluted w.itl'l a small quantity of water.
Jungle Juice seems to build up conversation and the conversation drifted
all around Alaska. We finally got on the subject of gold and gold mi nes.
According to what Sgt. Johnson said , he had done a goodly amoun t of gold
hunting in Alaska and was well versed in mineralogy . We figured we could buy
a seaplane after the war from the Navy at a fraction of the original cost , fly
to Alaska, land on the many i naccessible lakes , pan their shores for gold and
get rich quick (if the income tax man don ' t find us) .
I have written all my friends back horne offering to sell them stock in
the Finkelstein- Johnson Expedition to Alaska.
Smoky Joe's horne is just a little bit south of Asheville, North
carolina. He is one of the cooks down at our Mess Hall, a good guy, and a GI
who can sympathize with all the other G.Is who have to eat the food he
prepares.
Before the war Smoky Joe owned a Load house on the highway going south
from Asheville, and, after talking with him I found that I had patronized his
institution on numerous occasions during my younger years . Since we were
practically neighbors in eivilia n life 1 we felt that we should eontinue over
here as good neighbors and so we are . There is no better friend in the Army
than a cook because when you get hungry - he is the only man who can help you
out .
In passing , I might mention that Smoky Joe, Starvin' Marvin and I have
on numerous i nstances enjoyed eating surplus stoeks of food from the M
ess
•
�25
Hall.
Smoky Joe told me about Sheriff Brown taking his automobile away from
hi m enee beeause the Sheriff had feund some whiskey in it that he (Smoky) was
transporting to his road house . Now, Smoky is fighting to get his freedom his freedom to go home and dodge the Sheriff some more, and there is Starvin'
Marvin who wants to go home to see his wife and two year old boy; a child that
he has never seen~ and so it is with me - I want te go home - I just want to
go home.
***************
Less than twenty four hours after we landed here we found it - a path
that wound its way through the jungle to a dance hall. Now I have danced in
New York night clubs, patronized dine and dance places in Mexico, attended
parties in exclusive social clubs in Havana, and participated in barn dances
in the hills of North Carolina but never have I witnessed a set-up like this
one. The dance hall was a native hut with a grass roof and a wood floor. The
admission price two pesos. The band consisting of a saxophone, banjo and drum
played familiar tunes like "Johnnie Get Your Gun" and "A1exander's Ragtime
Band." Seated around the dance floor were several Filipino girls in their
recently washed dresses. It was your privilege to dance with them but before
doing so you had to remove your shoes and place them under the girl's chair.
GI shoes are dangerous weapons, while jitter-bugging with these fair (slightly
dark) bare-footed girls and it is while dancing in your socks that you get the
true meaning of "socks appeal".
********** *****
I made Corporal but:
1.
It was easier for me to date a New York chorus girl.
2.
I expended less energy in climbing to the top of Ht. Mitchell.
3.
I had fewer headaches going through the depression of 1933.
4.
It was less trouble to figure out my 1942 income tax return.
5.
course.
6.
It took a smaller amount of skill to break a hundred on the golf
It took less will power to stay sober on New Year's Eve .
(I expect to make Sergeant during World War III.)
**************
Since Finkelstein, Silverstein and Stein live in tent 99 anything is
liable to happen. We play. We play gin rummy almost every night and I do not
hesitate to take Stein and Silverstein on in any gambling activity that might
be beneficial to my financial status. I am glad to take their pesos as both
smoke my cigars without any offer of payment for same. Silverstein talked so
much that the CO made him news commentator for our radio station. Stein's old
man manufactures shirts in New York City and his son, a chip off of the old
Stein, tries to take the shirt off the back of everybody he does any trading
with. So with the oratorical ability of Silverstein, the progressive attitude
of Stein and my Finkelstein knowledge of big business, we procured ten gallons
of ice cream at a cost of 8 3/10 cents per gallon. It may interest you to
know that the market price of ice cream on this island is $7 per gallon.
�26
I will relate to you with brevity just how this trade was made.
I
received from Finkelstein's an item of merchandise retail value $9.75. Stein
and Silverstein, under my supervision, traded this item for the ten gallons of
ice cream . Off hand it would seem that the cost of the ice cream would be 97
~ center per gallon but that is not true.
I do not expect to pay
Finkelstein ' s Inc. for this item of merchandise , and as a stockholder i n said
corporation I have instructed them to c harge the accoun t off as a loss . They
will not lose the $9.75 as the wholesale cost is less than this amount and
furthermore they can deduct the loss from their income tax returns. After
much scientific calculation I find that my stock in Finkelstein ' s Inc. has
decreased in value 83 cents therefore the cost of the ice cream to me was 8
3/10 cents per gallon.
******* ********
Assorted Duties:
chopping down trees
digging a well
hauling poles
hauling fire wood
hauling coal
fighting forest fires
sorting merchandise at warehouse
sorting salvage merchandise
smashing tin cans
hauling water
finance clerk
detail clerk
runner for headquarters
stacking lumber
pulling weeds and grass
cleaning barracks
watering trees
loading and unloaaing trucks
loading and unloading freight cars
loading barracks bags on boats and trucks
cleaning hatches on boats
latrine orderly
painting machinery
communications clerk
engineering cler k
�27
Editor's Note: At the end of his tour of duty, Leo Finkelstein returned home to Asheville, North
Carolina to resume management of Finkelstein's Pawn Shop. Leo recalls meeting Webb Ellis,
another Asheville Lion's ~ub member, on the boat coming back to the United States from the
Phillipines. The boat landed in Seattle, Washington the day the war was over with Japan, and
they were discharged at Fort Bragg N.C. on September I, 1945. Ten days later Leo and Sylvia
Bein were married by a judge in the Harlem section of New York City. In deference to hjs
mother's wishes, they were again married agaifl by Rabbi Unger in Asheville. Leo and Sylvia,
parents of Leo Finkelstein, Jr., a faculty member at Wright State Uruversity in Dayton, Ohio,
reside at The Summit Retirement Community in Asheville, where Leo is pianist with "The
Sanctimonieus Seven" and active member of the Asheville Lic:m's Club.
�.
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LETTERS FROM LEO
WORLD WAR II CORRESPONDENCE TO THE ASHEVILLE
LIONS CLUB
LEO FINKELSTEIN
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�INTRODUCTION
Leo Finkelstein was born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1905, and in 1911 began his
education at the Montford Avenue Grammar School. Leo graduated from Asheville High School
in 1922, where he was business manager of the Hillbilly, the school monthly magazine, as well as
pianist for a musical group. From playing saxophone with the AsheviJie Shrine Club Marching
Band in the 1930s to piano with the Sanctimonious Seven for the Asheville Lion's Club in the
1990s, Leo has served his community though music, humor, business acumen, and community
leadership.
In 1922 Leo took over management of Finkelstein's Pawnshop, a downtown Ashevillt>
institution which Leo's father Harry Finkelstein had opened in 1903 . Since his retirement from
Finkelstein's in 1970, Leo has continued to be actively involved in the civic, fraternal, and
religious life of the community.
A member of the Asheville Lion' s Club for over sixty years, Leo has regaled his fellow
Lions with his unique view oflife in Asheville and beyond. Inducted into the U.S. Army Air
Corps in 1943, Leo was seen off at the bus by Lion C. Fred Brown, past president of the
Asheville Lion's Club and former Vice Mayor of Asheville, who advised Leio to send letters back
to the local Lion' s Club. Leo complied. What follows is his record of experiences and
observations which were copied and sent back to the Asheville Lion's Club, to be read at
meetings during World War II.
Following induction at Camp Croft, South Carolina, Leo endured Basic Training at Miami
Beach, Florida, before being sent to Tishomingo, Oklahoma for training as an Air Force Clerk.
His collected stories were recorded in a diary, given to him by Miss Ruth Anderson, Leo's typing
teacher at the Oklahoma College of Agriculture, where soldiers trained to be clerks in the Air
Force. The majority of the following stories, vignettes, and poems originated in the Philippines,
where Leo served until the final days of the war.
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SERVICE RECORD
Transf'ers
Spar tanburg , sc
Columbia, sc
Miami Beach , FL
Tishomingo , OK
Kearns , Utah
Pittsburg , CA
Camp Croft
Camp Jackson
414 Training Group
Murray State College
501 Training Group
Camp Ston eman
San Francisco , CA
New Caledonia
New Caledonia
Guadalcanal
Los Negros
40th Ship Co .
6th Replacement Depot
6th Staging Area
394th Bomb Sq. (H)
394th Bomb Sq . (H)
Wakde
Noernfoor
Morotai
Samar
Leyte
Seattle, WA
Fort Bragg , NC
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq .
93rd Repl .
Fort Lawton
?------ ---
Letter Sent Home From
~ami
(H)
(H)
(H)
(H)
Induction
Reception
Basic Training
A. A. F . T . T.C . (E &O)
O.R. T . C.
P . O. E . (Staging
Area)
P . O. E .
South Pacific
Novmea
5th Bomb GP (H)
13th Air Task
Force
F .E.A. F .
F . E . A. F .
F .E. A. F .
F .E. A.F.
P . O. E.
P . O. D.
Separation
January 12, 1943
January 19, 1943
January 23 , 1943
March 29 , 1943
May 31 , 1943
Oct .
Nov.
Nov.
Dec.
Dec.
20 , 1943
1, 1943
23 , 1943
11, 194 3
19, 1943
Aug. 20 , 1944
Aug . 2: , 1944
Sept. 2b , 1944
Nov. 4 , 1944
March 2 , 1945
July 14 , 1945
Aug. 20 , 1945
Sept. 1, 1945
Beach
I am still on the sun-kissed shores of Miami Beach and have been well
educated in my advanced training .
I have learned six new cuss words
(especially) for top Master Sergeants , how to use an electric potato peeling
machine, how to qo to Miami without a pass , how to stand at attention (while
half asleep) , how to shine my shoes with the minimum amount of energy . I have
been told that I will be shot if I go AW
OL or fall asleep on guard duty and
will get half- shot if I drink too much whiskey (like I didn ' t know). I have
had so many instructions on making beds , cleaning out toilet bowls and other
domestic duties that I think I would make a better wife than a soldier . I
have been taught to jump off of nine foot fences on the obstacle course and if
I refused to do it - I would be locked up here. If I did things like Lhat at
home - I would be locked up there.
I have been taught that if a pretty girl
walks by - I can look, think and wish, but I ' m not allowed to talk or whistle
at her. I have been taught to stand at attention and not move while a fly
does calisthenics on my nose . This is the Army Air Force .
From Tishomingo , Oklahoma
Ti shomingo was an Tndian Chief who died here in the early part of the
nineteenth century and this place has been dead ever since. This is the spot
where the capitol of some Indian tribe was situated and today i t is a spot
where 500 soldiers are s tudying to be technicians in the Air Corps and at the
same time improving thejr technique with the co-eds on the campus of t h is
college.
***************
�5
My mail has been so light lately,
all the way back to Asheville .
I ' m getting to think my BOis reaching
***************
Something happened to the wa ter works in Tishomingo and the Army
Officers found that the water wasn ' t pure so none of t h e soldiers can go into
town until the town government gets the wate r works fixed.
I can ' t imagine
soldiers going to town to drink water but I g u ess some of the officials are
scared one of them will get drunk and take a bath in it.
Before the war I thought being in the army would be a thrilling
adventure - but now I know Sherman was right.
I
Before the war I thought the Air Corps was a mechanized force - but now
wonder what the Hell I 'm marching for.
Before the war, I thought floors were to walk on - but now I ' v e found
they are to sweep a nd mop on.
Before the war, I thought the Asheville-Citizen was a rotten n ewspaper but now I enjoy readi n g one four days old.
Before the war , I would drink a cocktail before dinner - but now I drink
milk with my dinner .
Before the war, I would go to b ed sometimes at 4 AM - but now I get up
at ll AM .
Before the war, I was particular about wha t girl I took out - but now
I ' m not so particular.
Before the war, I struggled over a golf course - but now I s truggle over
an obstacle course .
Before the war, I used to shine at a dance - but now I shine my shoes.
Before the war , I cussed at a golf ball - but now a sergeant cusses at
me because I ' m not on the ball .
Before the war, I d i dn ' t have much religion - but now T pray for a
furlough.
***************
In the army you are always in a hurry to get somewhere so you ' ll have
more time to wait after you get there.
*********'******
The obstacle course is so tough here that they take us on a nine mile
hike to get limbered up so we can make i t .
I reached the height of my social career in Tishomingo yesterday when my
army typing teacher, Miss Anderson , invited me to have dinner wi th her at the
Payne Hotel in the heart of Tishomingo . Miss Anderson is not only the best
looking lady teacher on the campus, but a nice person to talk to and get all
the information about the religious , social , fraternal , and political life in
�6
this county.
I arrived at the Payne Hotel exactly on time - for who am J to keep a
lady waiting who invites me o ut to dinner and pays the check. My first v iew
of the interior of the hotel was d epressing a nd to be conservative and brief
with my description of this institution (founded in the s t age coach days) is
that it was a pain. Nevertheless , my compan jon was n ice and t he kindly smiles
of an understanding teacher to a lonesome soldier helped greatly to make my
evening a success.
We entered the dining room with a great deal of precision and grace ,
dodging some water that was leaking from the second floor through the ceiling
and drippi n g on the dining room floor.
Part of the p laster had already fallen
from the ceiling and I felt surely t he balance would come down at any minute .
The dining room was also being used for a linen s upply room and lumber storage
room.
Du ri ng our meal a lady would bring i n dirty line n, pile i t on t h e
floor , a nd carry clean lin en out. I never could figure out wh y all the lumber
was stacked in the corner and was afraid to ask .
After dinner my teacher took me for a personally conducted tour through
the darkened, dirty and low-ceilinged halls to room #35 (where she livesl and
behold - there I visualized her pride and joy , a private bathroom - the o~ly
one in ~ iotel.
1"'""' I"
To be continued ...
This place is thirty miles f rom a telegraph office and so far from
civilization that one gets a wful lonesome at times . In fact one soldier got
so lonesome that he got married on the telephone last night.
This is a dry place, both in climate and drinking alcohol. It seems
that Tishomingo is s o dry that even the bootleggers don't sell it.
••*************
They believe in getting mar r ied youn g here and I haven ' t found a single
girl over 22 years of age , so I haven ' t found a suitable lady my age to take
out . W
ould take some of the younger ones out but their papas keep shotgut:s
and they know how to shoot straight out W
est.
Many times in my lifetime I have heard about people seeing snakes,
especially at moments when more spirits were absorbed than the system could
stand. This county here is very dry.
In view of this fact I realized that I
had not had a drink during the time I had been here - so it wasn ' t whiskey.
Therefore it must be a live snake and there it was on the barrack ' s floor
crawling and wiggling and sticking its tongue out at me.
That is not the only type pet that is found in our barracks. Just last
week we discovered a couple of live frogs and now and then a stray dog will
walk in to look us over .
At night we a re blessed with some miniature bombers to help put us to
s l eep . These extra l a rge bugs are supposed to be June bugs but I know bugs
cou l dn't grow tha t l arge in the one month of June. They gain a lot of
�7
altitude and all of a sudden will dive at you and manage to find the one bare
place that is out from under t h e cover .
Otherwise t here is nothing much to bother you in Tishomingo. No pretty
girls to get your mind off of your studies and you don ' t even have to be
afraid of Indians because they are all tame .
************* * *
From Kearns , Utah
My frie nds never seemed so numerous - my bed never felt softer - my
heart never beat faster - my Hudson never purred so smoothly - days never went
by quicker - Mama's food never tasted so delicious - Patton Avenue never
looked so glorified - the mountains were never more thrilling - the grass
never looked greener - the girls never seemed prettier - the sun never shone
brighter - and The Lions Club never looked better as i t did on my furlough
home .
Don ' t know what the city debt is now but take my word for it - Asheville
is worth every damned penny of it.
***************
Am here at an overseas replacement training center and considering the
tough training I ' m getting now - it looks like the Army is going to make a
commando out of me instead of an Air Force Clerk .
****** *** ***** *
The Air Corps is just like our G.I. laundry:
you get out of it just
what you put into it , but you ' d never recognize it.
***************
(Copied from another source)
~J~~
~\.
"After returning from my Homing uevice' (furlough), I went to Salt Lake
City and done some Blind Flying (date with a girl one has never seen). W
e
we nt to the USO and had some Battery Acid (coffee). The Hash Burner (cook)
didn ' t do so well that n ight so we didn ' t eat , instead we went out to look for
some Serum (intoxicating beverage). After a few drinks I had to tell her to
roll up her flaps (stop talking) . Then she left me and I had to go on ~
Patrol (search for more female companionship) . Believe me, I walked so much
that night that I was ready for a Dog Show (foot inspection) ."
***************
Yesterday I went on a ten mile hike in the blazing sun and a dust storm
with GI shoes on my feet , leggings on my legs , a steel helmet on my head, a
cartridge belt around my waist with a first aid kit and a canteen full of
water beating against my side, a gas mask on one shoulder , an eight pound
rifle on the other, a pack on my back with a tent, a tent pole, 5 tent stakes,
a tent rope , a raincoat, a blanket , a knife, a fo rk, a spoon, a cup, other
mess equipment , a suit of underwear, a pair of socks, a handkerchief, a towel ,
shaving cream, shaving brush, toothpaste , a comb , a razor, a mirror, soap, a
bayonet i n my belt and two hand grenades in my packet .
I spoke several cuss words out loud before I returned.
I'll be court marshaled for that?
***************
Do you think
�8
Today we were given a demonstration of war gases. I was told to put on
my gas mask and was placed in a c hamber filled with tear gas. Everything was
lovely until I was instructed to take the mask off and breathe the stuff which I did very reluctantly. My eyes burnedt my nose burned, my throat
burned and I cried and cried and cried so they let me out into the fresh air.
After partially recovering, I was informed that I would be subjected to
several other popular brands of gasses and all I had to do was sniff each one
(like a hound dog sniffs at a rabbit track) and associate the smell with
something I had smelled in civilian life . This was easy and my analysis was
as follows:
Chlora-Picknon gas smelled like corn whiskey.
Phosgene gas smelled like scotch whiskey.
Chlorine gas smelled like rye whiskey.
MUstard gas smelled like bourbon whiskey.
Hydrogen-mustard gas smelled like ordinary cooking whiskey.
This camp is a cross section between a concentration camp and the
Buncombe County chain gang. They keep you in this camp a couple of months
before you are sent to a combat zone. They figure if you can live here two
months without serious complications that you s hould be able to iive at any
other point in the world for ten years.
***************
It's so dirty here and I'm so used to it that if I ever get back home on
a furl ough I'll have to sprinkle sand in the bed so I can sleep.
***************
We are not troubled with rats here - they can't live in this climate .
•••••••••••••••
I went to Bunny's Beer Garden last night and stayed to 5 AM and took
Bunny home. Bunny's husband is in the Navy . I tried to be faithful to the
Air Corps, but I couldn't find an aviator's wife who owned a beer garden .
...................
Below is a schedule of how I spent a weekend here:
Waiting in line to get a pass
Waiting in line to get a bus to town
Waiting in line to let an MP check your pass
Waiting i n line to use phone to call girl
Waiting to get taxi to go after girl
Waiting in line to get permit to buy a pint of whiskey
Waiting in line to buy whiskey
Waiting in line to get seat in restaurant
Waiting for waitress to bring ginger ale and ice
Waiting in line for s treet car to take girl home
Waiting for girl to make up her mind (to kiss me good-night)
Walkinq to bus station
Explaining to 1st sergeant why I was late getting back to camp
Resting up from Saturday night ' s activities
30 min.
43 min.
9 min.
10 min.
52 min.
28 min.
27 min.
40 min .
12 min.
11 min.
02 min.
13 mi:n.
5 min.
All day Sunday
•••••••••••••••
The worst food in the Army Air Forc es is served in the mess halls of
Kearns Field, Utah. A soldier here was getting somethinq to eat out of a
�9
garbage can today and a Lieutenant nearby said, "Here you! Do you think vou
are better than the rest of the men on th~s field - get on in the mess hall
and eat!"
•••••••••••••••
I've had details on this post from the telephone operator on the firing
range to the office boy in the eommanding 0fficer's office) but my most
interesting detail was handed to me today when I was made "Garbage Man" for
the Mess Hall. Now don't think that a garbage man's job is just an ordinary
bit of work. To the contrary, it takes a man who can stand gruesome odors and
one who has specialized knowledge of slop and other varieties of waste.
Neatly lined up outside of the kitchen of the Mess Hall are thirty-six
GI garbage cans. My main duty was to see that the right stuff was put in the
right can. There were certain cans designated for wet garbage, dry garbage,
vegetable peelings ) fruit peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, bones, ashes
and trash . You must be careful not to put coffee grounds in the slop as it
will kill the hogs. Tea leaves will make hogs very sick and if there is any
broken glass in it - it won't do the hogs any good .
I was quite proud of myself when the K,p , Sergeant complimented me on my
work. The only thing that worried me was that I was doing all this for the
benefit of hogs and pigs.
Recently deodorized,
Leo
***************
I was told that every good soldier should know how to do his own
laundry, so I decide that I'm going to do some washing for myself. I tried to
find out the best method for washing clothes but it seemed liked very soldier
had a different system. ALter much calculation and thought I start on what I
think to be the correct procedure. The first thing I do is steal a bucket
from the Mess Hall. Then I go to the PX and buy a box of Rinso and a bottle
of Clorox. I put half the box o f Rinso and half the bottle of elorox i n the
bucket filled with hot water and place my underwear and socks therein. The
directions on the box said to soak for one hour but in order to do a good job
I figured I would put the bucket of clothes under my bed for a day or two .
Everything was coming along fine until the Lieutenant came through the
barracks on an inspection tour and saw the bucket of clothes under my bed. I
couldn't explain how the bucket got out of the Mess Hall or why I was doing my
laundry during duty hours. The next thing I knew - I was restricted to the
Post for a week.
Nothing was going to stop me so I started to wash the clothes. I found
that the dye had run out of the socks and had got in the underwear and I
couldn't get the dye out of the underwear or back in the socks. Therefore, I
went up to the Supply Sergeant and signed a statement of charges and got
myself some new underwear and socks .
Now I'm all washed up trying to wash my own washing .
•••••••••••••••
l'roa
ea~~~p Ston~,
CA
I can't tell you where I'm at because the censor wouldn't like it.
I can't tell you what kind of clothes I've been issued because you would
�10
kn~w
where I was going.
I can't tell you about the camp because its against the rules.
I can't tell you about my equipment because it would jeopardize my
security.
I can tell you this th(!)ugh - I had a date with a girl by the na.me of
Sylvia who used to live in Chicago, who is now living in Los Angeles and who
is visiting some friends in a city near here and she is just as sweet as ever.
'***************
The PK here reminds me of a t'!C!)Unt.r:y st(!)re with a night elub at.JIIC!)sphere.
You can buy anything from beer to buttons with pretty little teen-age girls to
serve you. At very reasonable prices you can have coffee, doughnuts, cakes,
sandwiches, drinks or ice cream, a gift for mother, a souvenir for sister, a
ean of shoe polish; a b~ttle ~f ink; a bath towel or your favorite pipe
tobacco. A nickelodeon bellows forth music in one corner while a group of
soldiers are singing favorite songs in another. A Lieutenant-Colonel walks in
without a neck tie. A captain is talking to a private in a friendly manner.
A sergeant is conversing with a s~l i ng WA~ . Here is the common meeting
ground of our fighting men and women - a last gathering place on their native
soil. Soon we will be bound for strange lands and new assignments .
•••••••••••••••
l~ ~AaJ/~
rra. Boat on Paoif'ic ocean
Here I am on a boat on the Pacific Ocean. While I don't have the
accommodations of a Cook's tour, I can see the same scenery that many people
pay thousands of dollars to see (ocean and sky). The sleeping quarters are a
little crowded and the bunks are so close to each other that many times I wake
up with another guy's foot in my face or his knee in my stomach. The latrine
is also a little crowded. Traffic is so heavy inside (if you can get in) that
it would make a New York traffic cop crazy trying to keep things straight. If
you ever have to go, you got to go about an hour before you think you got to
go so you will get there in time to go - then it takes about twenty minutes to
get from where you go to the wash basin.
Believe me, Firestone, if I could go out to your cabin for a month and
have the privy at my disposal and that creek with fresh mountain water to do
my laundry in - I'd be the happiest man in the world •
•••••••••••••••
rroa
Hew caledonia
Here I am on an island in the South Paeifie with nothing t.o write about..
I can't write about the weather. I can't say whether it's hot or cold, rainy
or dry . I can't tell the name of the island or the name of any towns near
here or even if there are any towns on the island. I can't tell you if the
country has mountains ~r plains or desert lands. I ean't even tell you the
color of the soil. I can't tell you about the animal life, the birds, the
fish or the insects. I can't tell you if the natives are white or black or
yellow. I can't tell you what language they s peak or what country owns the
island. I can't tell you if we are near a n ocean, a river or a lake. I ean•t
tell you about the military personnel or equipment. I can't tell you about my
duties. I can't tell you anything that would demoralize the civilians back
home - so I ' ll close.
�11
**************1r
I want to tell you a story about a farmer ' s daughter on an island in the
South Pacific. While out walking yesterday I stopped at the farmer ' s house
and bought some cake a nd p)e from t h e farmer ' s daughter.
T asked h er about
some music and she brought out an antique model Victrola with some records . I
thought I wo uld hear some music with a South Pacific rhythm but instead it was
some good old North Carolina mountain music played by a hillbilly band .
Something always happens to remind me of h ome - damn it.
*'** *•**** .. *'***?
From Guadacana.l
Mosquitos are big here. One lit in the runway and they put seventy
gallons of gas in i t before they found out it wasn't a P-38.
******* ********
Back home it was said that money isn't everything in life. Over here it
might be said that money isn ' t anything in life. There is no place to spend
it and nothing to buy. A free movie at night is the height of our
entertainment . A bottle of beer once a week is the extent of our drinking .
We look forward to mail call and chow. Mail from home is our greatest morale
booster . on the walls of our living quarters are the pictures of a girl back
home, a favorite movie star or maybe a scantly clad native girl . We see
strange animals, lizards , and insects and often wonder why they like to crawl
in bed with us. W search the region for souvenirs left by the Japs . We are
e
visited by natives who wear a towel where their pants ought to be. We work
hard, eat plenty and sleep well. There is no complaining here - we are just
one big happy family.
We have moved into our new wigwam known as " The Southside Social and
society Club, South Pacific Branch , Incorporated. " Believe me it is a
masterful piece of architecture in solid mahogany . Our foundation is made of
empty gasoline barrels. Our roof is made of empty bomb box tins. We got our
lumber from an old torn down latrine. We did steal a few good coards after
dark when nobody was looking. Our light sockets are home made out of airplane
parts . We also have various pieces of antique furniture made out of shipping
boxes picked up at the mess hall. We have a front porch. Our roof don ' t leak
(very much) . The entire frame-work of our house is covered with mosquito
netting and at a distance the shack appears to be a h uge bird cage with
monkeys running around in it . Anyhow its home and it is good to know that we
again have a place to call our own .
***************
"Spot is a dog - a white dog with one black spot over his right eye .
Spot is the mascot of a certain crew who maintained a certain airplane at a
certain field in the South Pacific. Spot knew ' his' airplane - the airplane
his crew worked on . Spot would ride out on the bus to the field every mo rni ng
and would j~p off at the bunker on which his airplane wa s parked.
He knew
the location of his plane just like a civilian dog would know the location of
its home . He stayed by his airplane in all kinds of weath ~r a nd admired the
splendid way his crew kept the ship in shape . Not long ago the airplane
didn't return from a flight therefore the crew didn't go out to the field .
Spot would ride out to the field on the bus as usual every morning and would
j ump off at the bunker that had held his plane .
For many days that followed I
could see Spot standing there, alone, on the empty bunker , waiting for his
airplane to come home.
********* ******
�12
I discovered a new animal today.
It was a lizard, four feet long,
running around in my front yard . The reptile looked like an alligator but it
didn ' t have the same disposition. Tt was supposed to be harmless but he
didn't look very sociable to me . His skin looked like it would make a good
traveling bag but since I wasn ' t going anywhere , I didn ' t try to capture t he
thing. He finally ran down i n my fox hole and I a m hoping , in the event I
have to use that fox hole some night, that he won ' t be there with d wife and
family . Anyhow, I am looking forward to the time when I can get home , where
there is nothing to bother me but house flies, bumble bees and ants.
**********"*****
This is a dehydrated war . Our brea k fast is made ~ t. the mess hall with a
powder they mix with water. Out of this mixture comes hot cakes , pan cakes ,
flat - jacks and wheat cakes and they all taste alike . One gallon of dehydrated
potato powder is mixed with water and out comes five gallons of mashed
potatoes without mashing them . Th e deh ydrated eggs at the mess hall have a
sign on them reading " eggs " because they don ' t look like eggs or taste like
eggs. The dehydrated milk turns out to be dark grey a nd putting it in the
dehydrated coffee keeps you from getti n g an infection from the stuff. The
dehydrated lemonade could be used for b attery acid but we use it mostly for
washing our mess kits .
If somebody woul d only i n ven t dehydrated whis ke y - that wo u ld be a g reat
a contribution to the war effort . Our mail is even dehydrated into v-mail .
Yes, everything is dehydrated a r ound here except the weather.
*****•*** ... ****
I am now a politician.
of his tribe .
This
i~
I was the cau se of a na t i ve being made " chief "
how it happened .
A certain native J called " Joe'' would come ove r to my shack to visit me
and even though he talked very little English , I found out from him much about
his life and the customs of his people . These poor devils wor k for ten cents
a day. They sign u p for a yea r and are paid in full at the end of their
contract . Joe always admired a large knife that I had. This knife was sent
to me from home , being one that I had in my collection , hanging on the wall of
my bar room. Every time I showed it to Joe a big smile would come over his
face, his snow white teeth would shine like pearls, his eyes gleamed with fire
and he would say ove r and over , " Nice , T like . Nice, I like! " He would
carefully caress the etched figure of a lion on the blade and would gaze for
minutes at his image on the shiny steel .
One day Joe came ove r to see me .
He had five American dollar bills
wrapped in an old cloth bag. He offered me the five dollars a nd his war club
for my knife.
I traded with him and he left my shack the happiest man I ' ve
ever looked upon. I followed him over to the native village and there the
whole tribe gathered around and made him chief because of his ability to
acquire such a wonderful knife. Never would J have thought, when T nailed
t hat knife to the wall of my bar at home , that someday it would be the cause
of a man bei ng made chief of a native tribe on an island in the south Pacific.
**********'*****
There are no sheets, no mattresses, no pillows, no sprin gs on my cot but
when I lay down to go to s leep I acquire a feeling of comfort and contentment.
Sometimes I gaze at the stars shining in the tropical heavens . Other times I
l is t e n to the rain beating down on the tin roof. There are no pains , no
nerves, no responsibilities, no vain regrets , no anticipation of gatherin g
difficulties , no financial problems to disturb my hard earned slumber . I wake
up i n the morning and look at the mountains around me . Their lofty peaks
�13
remind me of the mountains at home. This is a wonderful place to lead a n easy
life but frankly I would not hesitate to accept any opportunity to go back to
my civilian life once again.
Parts of this area are cove r ed with j ungle vegetation . Enormous tree
trunks covered with snake like vines , stra nge flowers and inhabited by
screeching parrots tower above the semisolid mass of bamboo , palms, ferns ,
writhing roots , cree ping lizards and thousands of e n ergetic grasshoppers .
There are hellgrammites and spiders to be had o n the island but personally I
could do well withou t them, especially after seeing the effects of their
bites.
Letters, letters , letters- that ' s the only way I have to keep i n t ouc h
with t h e old country (the United States) and what a problem ! Letters to my
mother must be dignified and cheerful .
Letters to my fraternal brothers , the
police department and some of the girls I used to go with don ' t have to be so
dignified.
Letters to the bion s Club must be interesting and to the point.
Letters to my attorney, accountant, and manager should express my appreciation
for their faithful services even though I ' m wondering if they are on the job .
In my letters to my Rabbi , I try to be religious . In my letters to my social
club, T try to be a beer drinker and a n e xpert card player . betters to my
best girl must be affectionate even though I think she is going out with a
couple of sergeants.
In my letters to my banker I am optimistic , cautious a nd
hopeful.
In all my letters I can ' t say anything that would demoralile the
people at home because I know they are h aving a tough time with ration poi n ts,
whiskey shortages , War Bond Drives and taxes . Finally, I have to please the
censor but he has an advantage over you - he can cut out what he don ' t like .
Poxes don ' t live in a fox hole . Tt ' s a place we run i n, crawl in , fall
in , slide in , scramble in or jump in in event of an air raid . M
ack and I got
orders to fill in an old one by our shack . Mack is lazy as Hell and since I
was getting up in years we decided to get a couple of natives to do the job .
Mack went over to the native village and negotiated for the job, using two
bucks of mine for payment , which I furnished very reluctantly . When the
natives started to fill the hole with dirt , a snake , five feet long , ran out .
ack , being a country boy, picked up the snake by its tail and Powers (a
M
butcher in civilian life) , c hopped his h ead off w1th a n axe before T stopped
running. The next thing to come out was a ground rat . One of the natives
caught him with his bare hands and killed it before I could stop running. The
next things to come out were four centipedes about a foot long apiece. One
bite from one of these huge worms and you ~un for t h e dispensary as fast as
you can , c ussing your draft board all along the way with words unfit to write.
The fox hole is now filled up so guess I ' l l take a nap because I'm tired out from running .
From Los Negros-Admiralty Islands
Prior to my induction in the army I considered myself a respectable
upright citizen of Buncombe County , North Carolina. I was always honest
except for a few times during my childhood days when I swiped onions from Mrs .
Roberts ' garden , stole an apple from Mr. Book ' s grocery store and helped
myself to all the cherries I could eat from a neighbor's cherry tree .
My childhood habits started again the other day when I volunteered (by
�14
request) to help unload several barges of beer . Even though our secret
weapons are not guarded, each barge of beer has armed guards . I found that if
I accidentally dropped a case of beer that sometimes several bottles would
fall out a~d in gathering up these bottles sometimes they accidentally got
inside my shirt and as long as they were inside my shirt, I didn ' t see any
reason not to drink them. Do you think I'll go to Hell for this?
***************
On this beautiful (to some people) island in the Admiralty Group one can
sit under a swaying palm tree (until a coconut falls and bounces off your
head) and admire the sun-kissed shores (through sun glasses to keep from going
blind). You may breathe deeply of the fresh air (saturated with the smell of
stagnant salt water) and gaze at the moon (providing you can see through your
mosquito net).
In the daytime you can enjoy the cool refreshing rains (if you
don't mind getting as wet as a drowned rat).
In the evenings it's your
privilege to see a new movie featuring William s. Hart or Fatty Arbuckle and
go back to your tent knowing you will have a good night ' s sleep (providin g you
take sleeping pills). It is thrilling to search the jungle for souvenirs (if
you don ' t mind picking up booby traps).
If you get the tooth ache you can go
to the dentist. If you don't feel like working you can go on sick call. If
you get homesick you can go see the chaplain. This is an ideal place to be .
******* ... '**'~~~'***'*
Every morning at breakfast time I am greeted by " Porkie ." He is a
little pig and a cute little pig at that.
He could be part dog because he
looks up at me and wags his tail . He could be part wild boar because he
pushes me around with his nose . Anyhow in this Godforsaken country I welcome
most any kind of a friend and believe me Porkie is my friend because he will
let me pet him and feed him. Nobody knows where Porkie came from. Maybe the
Japs left him here or maybe he wandered down into the camp from the hills .
There have been some suggestions about killing Porkie and roasting him ove r a
fire but I don ' t think there is any danger of that happening because we can ' t
eat Pork]e and have him too .
Sometime ago while I was on a troop transport a warning came over the
loud speaker than a Jap battleship and two destroyers had been sighted. I was
playing checkers , some other guys were playing cards , some reading.
You could
hear a number of wise cracks abo u t the situation but nobody seemed to be
disturbed.
We were all in the same boat and it appeared that regardless of our
religious beliefs, political opinions, social or financial standings in
civil ian 1 if~, that being in the same boat under these conditions united us in
the closest bonds of fellowship.
True this war has made soldiers of us but in
doing so it has not destroyed that individuality, humor and tolerance we
possessed. In my opinion it has cemented firmer in us these necessities of a
peaceful democratic society.
*************•*
(Adapted from an instruction booklet)
Suppose you got lost in the jungle. You would have nothing to worry
about as far as food is concerned . You may eat, with safety, anything that
the monkeys eat and you can even eat the monkeys. They are considered a
delicacy by the natives.
More than likely you would start your day off with a breakfast of
�15
grasshoppers . The legs and wings pulled off , toasted on the end of a stick or
fried in coconut oil , they are not at all displeasing to the taste . Of course
if you don ' t like grasshoppers you could eat winged ants , or termites
particularly the quee n s and t he eggs of ants.
For dinner I would suggest roasted rat smothered with lizard tails .
Rats are plentiful and have a taste simi l ar to large fruit bats.
Lizards are
also plentiful and the meat from the hindquarters is preferred . A nice
seaweed salad would be appropriate . Strangely enough seaweeds are not very
salty and their water content is fairly fresh .
In general , the pink, purple
and the reddish or green seaweeds are best .
For dessert I would recommend
water lilies with chopped white grub worms .
Supper should be your biggest meal .
You eould start out with snake meat
sliced like bologna, wild sweet potato chips and fern tips. All snakes are
good to eat - even the poisonous ones , if the head is cut off immediately
after capture.
Your soup could be turtle soup seasoned with bamboo shoots and
the buds of palm trees . A salad of bananas and figs would go good if you
could find some .
Your main course may be porcupine stew or broiled kangaroo
steaks with hard boiled bird eggs on the side .
Seriously spea king all the items I have mentioned in this letter are
edible and you don't need any ration points to get t h em.
*** .. **'*********
Was just thinking what it would be like to have an Asheville Social Club
here. ~o begin with you wouldn't have a modern buildin g like the one at home.
It would be a frame buildjng covered with netting or straw. The structu re
wouldn ' t need a heating plant because we have an abundance of that here.
You
wouldn't be able to sell beer.
The members would have to drink chlorinated
river water and like it. The poker players wouldn't be able to concentrate on
their hands as the roar of airplanes overhead would disturb them.
You
wouldn ' t be able to call a taxi to go home . You would have to walk - maybe in
some pretty deep mud . You couldn' t hold a dance as there are no women to
dance with . The rummy players would h a ve to be satisfied with old dilapidated
cards as new ones are rare.
The trustees would h a v e no worries since there is
no place to spend any money. There would be one advantage of having the Club
here - you guys wouldn ' t have your wives calling you up at 1 AM to come home.
**** •* *********
I got caught with my pants down.
I went into the latrine this morning
to enjoy a good smoke and to read the funnies . Gracefully, I made myself as
comfo.r table as possible on the GI equipmen t therein, relaxing and watching the
flies, red ants , and lizards playing football, follow-the-leader, and other
games on the rafters and walls.
Suddenly, I noticed a spider sitting right
beside me - not an ordinary one with wire size legs , but one whose size
reminded me of the lobsters I used to eat at home, and whose legs reminded me
of those of Gloria Swanson. The gruesome and monstrous creature crawled
slowly toward me and I had no trouble doing my duty - it scared i t out of me .
In order that you might become acquainted with my daily routine here, I
am listing activit~es below :
6 AM
Wake up . Complain about the heat . Shake my shoes to see if any
centipedes are parked inside .
Put on my clothes.
6 : 04 AM
Think about washing my hands but decide it is too much trouble
so I start for chow.
6 :06 AM
Look for Porkie (the pet pig) but he don't seem to be around
�16
yet.
Guess he is still asleep - the lucky hog.
6:15AM
After a short argument I get the cook to turn my egg over
because I don't like i t half done.
6:35 AM
wash my mess ki t and complain about the heat.
I
6:40 AM
Go back to my tent.
decide to postpone the job.
Looks like it needs cleaning up but
6:41 AM
Lay down on my cot and read a few pages of a wild west story.
7:10AM
Complain about the heat.
7:30 AM
Climb on a GI truck and ride out to my office at the field .
The truck jars so much i t almost shakes my kidneys loose.
7:45 AM
Arrive at my office (a tent) and dust off the furniture. I
don't have to sweep the f l oor because it is a d~rt f l oor and i t don't do no
good to sweep the dirt off of dirt.
8:00 AM
Sgt. Lueck comes in singing. Can't imagine why he is
singing so early in the morning. I soon find out the reason - he made Staff
sergeant on a new rating l i st ,
8:05 AM
Sgt. Lueck says that I didn't make Corporal on the new list
because the squadron is lousy with corporals and some of them will have to
die, transfer, go horne or get promoted before I could get another stripe.
8:20 AM
Capt. Gardner comes in and offers S/Sgt , bueck congratul ations
and me his sympathy. He tells me that he did his best to get me a rating and
he thinks he will be able to push me up next time.
9:00 AM
Pfc. Runnels comes in and wants to know if I made corporal.
When he found out I didn't he suggested I enter a complaint . I explained that
I wasn't making the army my career and it didn't make much difference one way
or another.
10:00 AM
I
11 : 00 AM
beave the f i e l d for the camp area in the same kidney- shaking
11:15 AM
Arrive at the camp area .
do the same thing I did at 7:10AM.
truck.
11:20 AM
Stop at the PX and since they were sold out of candy, cookies
and food; I didn't buy anything .
11:31 AM
Thought that I would wash up but I go to chow instead.
11:59 AM
Lay down on my cot for my noon time nap.
heat and fall asleep.
Complain about the
1:30 PM
Wake up and jump on the truck goi ng back to the field ,
1:45 PM
Arrive at the office and i t is so hot I take my shirt off.
1:47 PM
The flies, using my back for a landing field, worry me so much
that I put my shirt back on.
2:10 PM
Some pilot does a buzz job with his plane over my tent and I
go out to see if the tops of the coconut trees are still there.
�17
3:00 PM
I do the same thing I did at 10 AM only twice as much!
4:00 PM
My day's work done.
T hop on the truck for the camp area.
Caught one of the new easy riding trucks with eight wheels and no spring.
4 : 20 PM
Went by the mail room for my mail which didn ' t arrive.
4:30 PM
Against my better judgement I took a shower.
5 : 00 PM
Chow.
~ : 4~
PM
Write letters .
7:00 PM
Moving picture starts.
previous occasions , I go see it again.
Since I ' ve seen it on only three
10 : 00 PM
Lights out. Discussion of various tepics goes o n between t he
members of the tent. The subjects under discussion wi ll be omi t ted for the
benefit of any person under eight years of age who might read this.
Tn this area we have the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy . 1
am in the Army Air Forces and my old friend , Harry Murdock, former assistant
circulation manager of the Asheville Times , is in the Navy. Now, we see each
other often, and in order to show how mu~h the Navy will cooperate with the
Army, Harry agreed to procure fo r me an item that the Navy has and the Army
has not.
(The method of obtaining this item will not be revealed at this
time.)
I had not looked upon one of these luxuries for nine months and when
he brought it to me , it was too delightful to describe - too wonderful to
believe.
It wa s more welcome than an umbrella in the rain, an ice cold drink
on a hot day or a fur coat by a chorus girl. There was never such beauty in
the mountains of western North Carolina at autumn time - no such glamour in a
sunset on the ocean or a bathing beauty content . It was more invigorating
than a scotch a nd soda or a banana split. Never before had I bestowed upon me
such a gift and now when I go to sleep on that second hand " Navy issue''
mattress , I'll dream of days to come when I can be home again.
Dear Mom:
When I try to eat this GI food, I think of how I ate at home - it's then
I think of you dear mom.
When I look at my floor of dirt, I think of how the floors at home were
so shiny and clean - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I try to go to bed at night, I think of the soft bed I had at home
with clean sheets and clean pillow cases - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I have the toothache and nobody here seem to care - it's then I
think of you dear Mom.
When buttons come off I try to sew them on - it ' s then I think of you
dear Mom.
You were my cook, my nurse, my advisor , and my teacher and now when I
need one of these - it's then I think of you dear M .
om
~-*~** *********
�18
If you should become ill all you would have to do is call the doctor and
he usually fixes you up .
A sick airplane is a different story . To begin with there is a crew who
makes general repairs on the ship. Besides this crew there are propeller
specialists, engine specialists, hydraulic specialists, bomb-sight
specialists• men who specialize in changing engines; ~adio men who repair the
radios, a tire change department, a section that looks after parachutes, life
rafts, emergency rations, oxygen bottles and fire extinguishers, a supply
department for parts needed, a refuel unit to service the ships with gas and
oil• i nstrument specialists, welders, sheet metal men; electrical experts,
painters, ordnance men to load bombs, a~ent men to look after the guns,
carburetor specialists, guards to guard the planes, a clerical staff to keep
the records, inspectors, crew chiefs to supervise the crews, flight chiefs to
supervise the crew chiefs and line chiefs to supervise the flight chiefs.
Aren't you happy that you do not require as much attention as an
airplane to keep you in shape?
................
over here, far away from horne, I think a lot and what do you think I
think about?
First of all, I think a good deal about my family, my loved ones and my
friends I left behind.
I also think about Sunset MOuntai n, Pack square, Vance Monument, Morn's
cooking, the shiny floors in my house - the green grass in the yard.
Happenings that didn't seem important at the time now seem to be great
events . I think of the time when I was in the second grade of grammar school
and stole an apple from Mr. Book's Grocery Store on ~herry street. I remember
the first licking my daddy gave me for throwing a rock at my sister - he shook
me so hard that the cuff links fell out of my shirt sleeves and I never could
find them. I think about the first time I went fishing and caught a fish. I
remember the time I went hunting, killed a deer, and was sor~y that I did it.
I think about my golf games at Beaver Lake. I can recall the time I almost
had a fight with or. Robinson at a Temple Club meeting. I think of the time I
beat John vance in an election for trustee of the Elks Lodge. My fondest
memories are of the children around town who called me "Uncle Leo." I think
about the Christmas day when I played Santa Claus with the rne.m bers of the
Lions Club at the Salvation Army Chapel. I think of the night that I, a
bachelor, presided at a Father and Son Banquet at Congregation Beth-HaTephila.
I think very little of the materialistic things I left behind. I
realize now that the important things in my lifetime - the things that mean
the most to me now were just little things, just everyday happenings.
Corporal Mark is a great guy and that is why I like to do a favor for
him if I can. Well, I am the guy who makes up the detail list and Corporal
Mark requested that I put him on the roving guard detail. Now, a roving guard
has a comparatively easy job. He gets a jeep, rides around all night and sees
that no one steals one of our heavy bombers (weight 60,000 pounds). Corporal
Mark is very efficient in his guarding because he goes beyond the usual call
of duty and guards, not only the bombers, but the mess hall and other places
where food and supplies are stored. ~orporal Mark i s very successful in
obtaining various types of edibles while on guard duty and during the early
morning hours he and I devour this food with a great deal of pleasure and
�19
satisfaction to our a : ways hungry stomachs. Now Corporal Mark is an upright.
l
and honest fellow and I think he was getting the idea that we weren't justl y
entitled to the extra stuff to eat . That idea soon vanished because I told
him about the amount of taxes the government was hitting me for while I was
over here fighting for world peace so we decided ~hat we could go on procurin g
this nourishment without hesitation and with a clean conscience.
***************
From Wakde , New Guinea
l
WfiDDil
Go Home
Here I am an enlisted ma n ,
Getting along the best I can ,
The officers have steak while I eat Spam,
I wanna go home.
Women I crave there is no doubt ,
Can ' t have nurses here about ,
Because the officers take them out ,
I wanna go home .
en like me will get the blues ,
M
No whiskey for us and that ain ' t news ,
Because the officers get all the booze ,
I wanna go home .
can't
can ' t
But the
I wanna
I
I
get a furlough regulations say,
rest and I can ' t play,
officers manage to find a way,
go home .
********"'**"**'*1r
The Engineering Office sent Sergeant Reville and me over to the other
side of the field to get a new bomber for our squadron . I sure felt important
when the fellow over there asked me to sign a receipt for the ship. Can you
imagine Pfc . Finkelstein signing for $250,000 worth of airplane? I assure you
i t was less trouble for me to get that airplane than i t would be for you to
kiss a bride at a wedding . I climbed up in the pilot ' s cockpit while sergeant
Reville hooked his eletrac to the nose wheel of the plane . Now Sergeant
Reville can pull these 60,000 pound monsters around the field with his eletrac
just like a taby pulls a wagon around the living room and knocks over all the
furniture only Sergeant Reville never knocks anything over. He pulled me and
the airplane down the taxi strip to our area where I stopped the gasoline
truck and said, " Hey Corporal , fill her up.
I think she will take about 3000
gallons ."
As he was filling it up I recalled the time when I was home on my
furlough and needed a little extra gasoline to drive my girl up to my favorite
parking place on Beaucatcher Mountain and return home (at a decent hour - of
course) . W
ell , I went to the rationing board and they would only give me five
gallons - the stingy devils. W
ish they could see me now getting 3100 gallons.
The only trouble over here is that I got no automobile and no girl to drive up
a mountain.
***************
Thousands of Jnps had landed,
Near the land of the rising su~ ,
On an island in the Pacific,
�20
They had nowhere else to run .
Now on this tiny island ,
A good size town was found ,
The Japs - they took it over ,
And wandered all around.
Our bombers got their orders,
And took off on the mission,
To save the town if possible ,
And bomb the Jap position.
One bombardier was fearless,
And always on the ball ,
This flight he made a grave mistake,
With no excuse at all .
He aimed right at the target ,
He carefully fixed his sight,
He missed the Jap position ,
Hit a house with a big red light.
Now when we take t hat island,
And give the Japs a trimmin ' ,
We ' ll still be cussin' the bombardier,
Who blew up all the women.
It all started when I received one of Finkelstein's $7 . 95 rebuilt
watc h es . A guy offered me an old radio and twenty-five dollars in cash for it
and I traded. Money is almost useless over here but I managed to give the
twenty-five dollars to another guy who gave me a half gallon of home-made
drinking beverage which I think was made out of fermented canned corn and 100
octane gasoline.
I pooled my half-gallon of imitation "Carolina corn " with a
fellow who had a case of beer and we proceeded to drink it all up vut he
passed out before we finis h ed and I had ten cans of beer left on my hands as
my share of the party. I traded the beer for a pipe , ten packages of tobacco ,
a pocket knife and a fountain pen. I traded the knife for a flashlight and
three cans of beans.
I ate the three cans of beans and traded the fountain
pen for an electric light socket, a cigarette lighter and two dollars. I
invested the two dollars in a crap game, won eight dollars, took the proceeds
and bought a radio tube to fix my radio.
I traded the radio for a boat which
later sank. I traded three packages of tobacco for four cigars and three air
mail stamps . I smoked the cigars and used t he three air ma il stamps to write
to three friends back in the States requesting from each a box of food.
Now,
when and if I receive these boxes of food , I will be able to render to you a
complete financial statement as to how I came out on the watch.
Here in the jungle we don ' t have houses for house flies to live in but
we do have house flies. These flies look like the flies at home who have
survived the fly swatter , but they don't lead the same kind of life . They
follow us wherever we go but they don't follow us to the mess hall because
they don ' t like the GI food the mess sergeant slings at us no more than we do .
Once in awhile , if a fly gets about half starved , he will fly around the mess
hall looking for something to eat. They are persistent devils and they won ' t
be shoo'd away like the American flies.
During dinner one made eighteen dives
at my mess kit before I got him. Many of these brave flies, who dare eat our
�21
food , j ust turn over on their backs after the first bite , kick their legs up
i n the air and die.
It ' s a r o ugh war - even for flies .
************** *
The war seems to be getting l onger every day .
* ******* ** *****
From Noemfoor
Starvin ' Marvin ' s real name is Sgt . Marvin Binion but we call h im
Starvin ' Marvin b e cause h e n ever gets enough to eat . In fact none of us get
enough to eat - only he complains about it more than we do .
Now Starvin ' M
arvin h as given e ve rybody in our tent a name . Luke the
Droop is really Sgt. Lueck , chief e ngineering clerk. Ed the Red is a crew
chief on a n airplane . Herman the German is chief clerk in Tech Supply and Leo
the Hero is nobody else but me , an ordinary clerk who is fed up with the setup .
Luke the Droop has been overseas thirty months and expects to go back to
the States on the " Rotation Plan '' only it hasn ' t rotated far enough to reach
him yet . on this account he is very cautious during air raids b ecause he
figures he is going home soon and he wa nts to get there in good shape .
One night Hoim the Woim (which is a s h ort name for Herman t h e German )
woke us up yelling "Air Raid. " Luke the Droop was dressed and in a fox hole
before any of us got out of bed. By the time I put on my shoes and grabbed my
clothes everybody was gone including Ed the Red who moves very slowly
especially whe n i t comes to doing any work on his airplane .
I wa ndered out of the tent , t he moon was shining brightly a nd everything
seemed p eaceful to me . It wasn ' t peaceful long and I beat five guy s to a jeep
and crawled under it. It was my first air raid experience and now I imagine
I ' ll be know as " Foxhole Finkelstein " instead of Leo the Her o .
************k**
Written from MOrotai
My Helmet
M helmet is a useful thing ,
y
To wear upon my head,
It ' s made of good materials ,
And feels almost like lead .
My helmet makes a wash bowl ,
I can use it any place,
I fill it up with water,
And wash my hands and face .
M fox hole roof is awful low,
y
I can ' t stdnd up in there,
So I put my helmet on the floor ,
And use it for a chair.
Now if I want a basket ,
To hang down from my bunk ,
It sure does make a lovely thing,
To hold all kinds of junk .
�22
Now if I ' m sentimental ,
For flowers and that r ot ,
I fill it up with good old djrt,
And I got a flower pot.
Now if I want to take a n ap,
Beneath a weeping willow,
I place it down upon the ground,
And use it for a pillow .
Now when I ligh t a candle ,
And n eed a candlestick,
I turn t he h e lmet upside down,
It al wa ys does t he tric k.
Now whe n my socks get dirty,
And the odor isn ' t right ,
T fill the t hing with soapy water,
And let them soa k all night.
No w hard boiled eggs are somethi ng,
I always d i d admire ,
So I fill the helmet full of water ,
And put them on the fire .
Now when we had a dim out ,
There ' s no use to be afraid ,
T put t h e helmet o n t he light,
And u se it fo r a shade .
Now when this war is ove r,
(I ' ve often heard it said) ,
The h e lmel ' ll be a useful thing,
To keep beneath the bed.
finis
*********""'*****
Little W
acs
Real c ute
They wa n t
Parachute.
In chute
Silk cloth
Real clean
Very soft .
Love pilots
W
ith skill
Get chutes
At will .
Take back
To shanties
Make many
Pair panties .
�23
Interesting Facts about Life on the South Pacific Islands with the Air Forces:
A whiskey still can be made out of hydraulic tubing, an oxygen tank and
other airplane parts.
Corn whiskey can be made out of fermented canned corn.
American whiskey may be bought from $35 to $60 per quart.
A motor boat can be constructed from two airplane belly tanks a nd a
small power unit .
The silk cloth in p arachutes may be used to make panties for nurses and
Wacs .
All natives are frie ndly - there are no cannibals.
I n trad i ng wi t h t h e nati ves yo u ca n get more with a Bible or a piece of
cloth than you can get with money or jewel ry.
100 octane gasoline may b e used for ciga r ette lighter fluid.
Gasoline is easier to procure than water . Sometimes it requires written
permission to get five gallons of wa ter for laundry purposes. Gasoline is
available i n any quantity for any purpose .
There are more s na kes per s quare rn.i le in the mountains of North Ca rolina
t han i n the jungl e .
Tt is safer in a fox h ole during a n air r aid than riding in an
automobile back home with your wife driving it .
All natives are friendl y in these parts . There a re no cannibals .
That's more t h a n T ca n say for the tax col lector back home .
Taking a bath out of a helmet is more complicated than you thi nk.
Nevertheless, the job can be done without exerting too much effort if the
following directions a r e complied wi th:
Never try to sit in the helmet.
Place it on a corn er pole of a tent and
stand beside it . Buckle the chin strap and let it hang down like a flower
basket .
Fill the helmet full of water . Get the water i n a legitimate manner
if you can , othe rwise stea l it from the mess hall or the officer ' s showers there is always ple nty there .
Place a copy of your home town n ewspaper on the
ground (the Sunday edition is best because it has more pages and makes a
softer bath mat) . Take a cake of soap a nd using the water in the helmet
lather up f r om feet to h ead or h ead to feet - it do n ' t make n o difference .
Before the soap dries , fill the helmet with fresh water and p o ur ove r top of
head . This is repeated until all the soap is washed off . If the water is too
cold , there is nothing you can do about it . Dry with a towe l either clean or
dirty. Shake all ants and bugs out of towel before usi ng .
I n t h e event of an
air raid during the process of taking the ba t h , go to you r fox hole at once .
After the "all clear" start all over from the beginning.
* * ******* **** **
A jungle snake,
On Guadalcanal,
�24
W
ent crawling over,
To see his gal.
He found his gal,
Did not feel fit ,
She had a cold,
That wouldn ' t quit.
And every time ,
That she would cough,
The jungle snake ,
Would get hissed off.
Master Sergeant Johnson and I started the evening off by opening a can
of salmon and e nded up by opening a gold mine or at least we pla nned to open
one after the war.
Sergeant Johnson , after looking at the label on the above mentioned
salmon can , told me that he was once foreman of the cannery in Alaska that
canned this particular can of salmon.
He insisted on telling me about the
different species of salmon, the white salmon, the pink salmon and ! forgot
the other colors he mentioned. Anyway I wasn ' t interested in the colors of
salmon in Alaska because I was hungry and the only salmon I was interested in
at that particular time was the salmon in the can.
In order to be sure we wou ldn ' t get poison ed by the salmon , we took
several shots of Jungle Juice before and after eating the fish.
For your
information Jungle Juice is made of 190 proof medical alcohol , colored and
flavored with burnt sugar and diluted with a small quantity of water.
Jungle Juice seems to build up conversation and t h e conversation drifted
all around Alaska . W fi nally got on the subject of gold and gold mines .
e
According to what Sgt. John son said , he h ad done a goodly amount of gold
hunting in Alaska and was well versed in mineralogy. W figured we could buy
e
a seaplane after the war from the Navy at a fraction of the original cost , fly
to Alaska , land on the many inaccessible lakes , pan th~ir shores for gold and
get rich quick (if the income tax man don ' t find us).
I have written all my friends back home offering to sell t h em stock in
t h e Finkelstein-Johnson F.xpedition to Alaska.
Smoky Joe ' s home is just a little bit south of Asheville , North
Carolina. He is one of the cooks down at our Mess Hall , a good guy, and a GI
who can sympathize with all the other GTs who have to eat the food he
prepares .
Before the war Smoky Joe owned a road house on the highway going south
from Asheville , and, after talking with him I found that I had patronized his
institution on numerous occasions during my youn ger yea r s . Sin ce we were
practically neighbors in civilian life , we felt that we should continue over
here as good ~eighbors and so we are. There is no better friend in the Army
than a cook because when you get hungry - he is the only man who can hel p you
out .
Tn passing , r might mention that Smoky Joe, Starvin' Marvin and I have
on numerous instances enjoyed eatin g s urplus stocks of food from the M
ess
Hall .
Smoky Joe told me about Sheriff Brown taking his automobile away f rom
him once because the She riff had found some whiskey in it t h at he (Smoky) was
�25
transporting to his road house. Now, Smoky is fighting to get his freedom his freedom to go home and dodge the Sheriff some more, and there is Starvin'
Marvin whe wan~s te go heme ~o see his wife and two year old boy; a ehiid that
he has never seen, and so it is with me - I want to go home - I just want to
go home .
................
rraa s-r; Phi.l.ipp:lna za.
Less than twenty four hours after we landed here we found it - a path
that wound its way through the jungle to a dance hall. Now I have danced in
New York night clubs, patronized dine and dance places in Mexico, attended
parties in exclusive social clubs in Havana, and participated in barn dances
in the hills of North Carolina but never have I witnessed a set-up like this
one. The dance hall was a native hut with a grass roof and a wood floor. The
admission price two pesos. The band consisting of a saxophone, banjo and drum
played familiar tunes like "Johnnie Get Your Gun" and "Alexander's Ragtime
Band." Seated around the dance floor were several Filipino girls in their
recently washed dresses. It was your privilege to dance with them but before
doing so you had to remove your shoes and place them under the girl's chair.
GI shoes are dangerous weapons, while jitter-bugging with these fair (slightly
dark) bare-footed girls and it is while dancing in your socks that you get the
true meaning of "socks appeal".
***************
I made corporal but:
1.
It was easier for me to date a New York chorus girl.
2.
I expended less energy in climbing to the top of Mt. Mitchell.
3.
I had fewer headaches going through the depression of 1933.
4.
It was less trouble to figure out my 1942 income tax return.
5.
course.
6.
It took a smaller amount of skill to break a hundred on the golf
It took less will power to stay sober on New Year's Eve.
(I expect to make Sergeant during World War III.)
**************
Since Finkelstein, Silverstein and Stein live in tent 99 anything is
li.a ble to happen. We play. We play gin rummy almost every night and I do not
hesitate to take Stein and Silverstein on in any gambling activity that might
be beneficial to my financial status. I am glad to take their pesos as both
smoke my cigars without any offer of payment for same. Silverstein talked so
much that the CO made him news commentator for our radio station. Stein's old
man manufactures shirts in New York City and his son, a chip off of the old
Stein, tries to take the shirt off the back of everybody he does any trading
with. So with the oratorical ability of Silverstein, the progressive attitude
of Stein and my Finkelstein knowledge of big business, we procured ten gallons
of ice cream at a cost of 8 3/10 cents per gallon. It may interest you to
know that the market price of ice cream on this island is $7 per g.allon.
I will relate to you with brevity just how this trade was made. I
received from Finkelstein's an item of merchandise retail value $9.75. Stein
and Silverstein, under my supervision, traded this item for the ten gallons of
�26
ice cream. Off hand it would seem that the cost of the ice cream would be 97
~ center per gallon but that is not true.
I do not expect to pay
Finkelstein's Inc. for this item of merchandise, and as a stockholder in said
corporation I have instructed them to charge the account off as a loss. They
will not lose the $9.75 as the wholesale cost is less than this amount and
furthermore they can deduct the loss from their income tax returns. After
much scientific calculation I ti nd that my stock i n Finkelstein's Inc . has
decreased in value 83 cents therefore the cost of the ice cream to me was 8
3/10 cents per gallon .
***** ... ***'**'****
Assorted Duties :
chopping down trees
digging a well
hauling poles
hauling fire wood
hauling coal
fighting forest fires
sorti ng merchandise at warehouse
sorting salvage merchandise
smashing tin cans
h auling water
finance clerk
detail clerk
runner for headquarters
stacking lumber
pulling weeds and grass
cleaning barracks
watering trees
loading and unloading trucks
loading and unloading freight cars
loading barracks bags on boats and trucks
cleaning hatches on boats
latrine orderly
painting machinery
communications clerk
engineering clerk
�~
21
Editor' s Note: At the end of his tour of duty, Leo Finkelstein returned home to Asheville, North
Carolina to resume management of Finkelstein's Pawn Shop. Leo recalls meeting Webb Ellis,
another Asheville Lion's Club member, on the boat coming back to the United States from the
Phillippines. The boat landed in Seattle, Washington the day the war was over with Japan, and
they were discharged at Fort Bragg N.C. on September I, 1945. Ten days later Leo and Sylvia
Bein were married by a judge in the Harlem section of New York City. In deference to his
mother' s wishes, they were again married again by Rabbi Unger in Asheville. Leo and Sylvia,
parents of Leo Finkelstein, Jr., a faculty member at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio,
reside at The Summjt Retirement Community in Asheville,~ Leo 9 pianist with "The
Sanctimonious Seven" and active member of the Asheville Lion' s Club.~
!t
(Z.IE:(Ylrl.IN 5
WA-$ UNTIL f2£C£N-n u
,I
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Leo Finkelstein Papers
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains materials relating to Leo Finkelstein, resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Lions Club, and the Beth Ha-Tephila Cemetery in Asheville. It contains computer discs, notes, scrapbooks, book drafts, correspondence, photographs, programs, fliers, and other materials related Leo Finkelstein, his wife Sylvia, and the Lions Club, Elks Club, and Jewish Community in Asheville, North Carolina.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
Dublin Core
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Title
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Letters from Leo: World War II Correspondence with the Asheville Lion's Club
Language
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English
Identifier
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107_03_02_LettersFomLeo_M
Description
An account of the resource
Letters of correspondence between Leo and the Lion's Club in which he describes his military training. He talks about his daily schedule, his comrades, his longing for home, and his new perspective on life. Patricia D. Beaver is editor.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Lions Club (Asheville, N.C.)
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<a title=" In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable" href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0//" target="_blank"> In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable </a>
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PDF
Date
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1943
Source
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<a title="AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/192" target="_blank"> AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Is Part Of
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<a title=" Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/27" target="_blank"> Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Type
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Text
Extent
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55 pages
Coverage
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Asheville (N.C.)
Spatial Coverage
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https://www.geonames.org/4453066/asheville.html
Air Force
army
Camp Croft
corporal
duty
jungle
letters
Lions Club
Miami Beach
military
Phillipines
poetry
Smoky Joe
Tishomingo
World War II
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/126a9f95fbcc752ba32ac324fc12b037.pdf
0b82b3f18610087c90335956e8ee21e9
PDF Text
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leo Finkelstein Papers
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains materials relating to Leo Finkelstein, resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Lions Club, and the Beth Ha-Tephila Cemetery in Asheville. It contains computer discs, notes, scrapbooks, book drafts, correspondence, photographs, programs, fliers, and other materials related Leo Finkelstein, his wife Sylvia, and the Lions Club, Elks Club, and Jewish Community in Asheville, North Carolina.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leo Finkelstein's World War II Notes
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
107_01_02_SpiralNotebook_WWII_Notes_M
Description
An account of the resource
Leo Finkelstein's handwritten diary providing an account of when he served in World War II. He gives lively, humorous, and detailed descriptions of his feelings and the places and people he met. His diary includes a lot of poetry as well as prose.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998--Diaries
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title=" In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable" href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0//" target="_blank"> In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Diaries
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/192" target="_blank"> AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title=" Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/27" target="_blank"> Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
202 pages
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Asheville (N.C.)
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
https://www.geonames.org/4453066/asheville.html
Air Force
basic training
comrades
corporal
diary
foxhole
furlough
letters
Miami Beach
Phillipine Islands
Pisgah
poetry
Tishomingo
Tokyo Rose
Uncle Sam
World War II
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cb79872727dddb69d8702254e4ce9652.pdf
67541066aabc3212be4304c0c6a11df2
PDF Text
Text
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leo Finkelstein Papers
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains materials relating to Leo Finkelstein, resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Lions Club, and the Beth Ha-Tephila Cemetery in Asheville. It contains computer discs, notes, scrapbooks, book drafts, correspondence, photographs, programs, fliers, and other materials related Leo Finkelstein, his wife Sylvia, and the Lions Club, Elks Club, and Jewish Community in Asheville, North Carolina.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Leo Finkelstein Diary and Notes
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1930
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
107_01_01_SpiralNotebook_Notes_1930s_M
Description
An account of the resource
Leo Finkelstein displays his incredible talent as a storyteller and historian through the letters and diaries that he wrote throughout his life. This notebook contains stories about World War II, Thomas Wolfe, pawnbroking, the Great Depression, and Asheville, North Carolina in the twentieth century.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998--Diaries
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998--Correspondence
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title=" In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable" href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0//" target="_blank"> In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/192" target="_blank"> AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title=" Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/27" target="_blank"> Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
94 pages
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Asheville (N.C.)
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
https://www.geonames.org/4453066/asheville.html
Asheville Citizen-Times
Bunk of Buncombe
Depression
diary
grandfather clock
Grove Park Inn
letters
pawnshop
Porkie
suicide
synagogue
Tishomingo
WACS