No. 4 S.F.T.S.,
Saskatoon,
18-1-42
Dear Hazel Maude,
Thank you kindly for writing to an isolated airman; three letters from you turned up with a bunch of mail about a week ago, and I’m writing now because in the meantime we have got over a bad dose of final exams. I’m glad the stockings turned up; by now perhaps you’ll have received another pair (colour doubtful; I bought them in a bad light). You guessed right about Arthur Delaney, by the way, because he is the one who was my room-mate at New Plymouth. He’s a good chap, too, so if you ever see a tall, dark young officer strolling round Matamata, dash up and introduce yourself. He has a sister or something living there somewhere.
Over here we are pretty sore because our course has been extended by four weeks, just as we were within three weeks of getting our wings. It’s a bad business, because now we stay here until the end of February. The main idea is to give us extra flying time, so with a bit of luck there won’t be a great deal of swot left. We’ve had plenty already.
There was a bit of bad luck floating around yesterday for a friend from Taieri named Kenny Bottom (he’s a partner in my camera, which we bought at Honolulu) and for a Canadian whom I also know quite well. They were out together on a cross-country and somehow managed to crack up rather badly. Both are in hospital with broken legs, cuts and so on, but I think they’ll be O.K. They smashed up away in the outbacks and it was about four hours before they were found.
There has been a little extra excitement floating around for me in flying recently, with my first effort at formation. It is especially exciting for the instructors, I should imagine. When you next see a formation in the movies, don’t get around to thinking it’s too scary. Three of us were wandering around the sky for an hour like so many lame ducks, learning how. There was also a “height” test, consisting of going up to about 15,000 feet and noting instrument readings and so on. You get a good view from there, for miles around.
So sorry George wasted a couple of “perfectly good poached eggs” reading a letter of mine; it must have been a lot more interesting than I thought. We did have a good time on the way over, and I wish we were having some of the food now that they gave us on the way across. Camp is a good place for a chap to be if he hasn’t a sense of taste, and I am duly grateful for a tough tummy.
We have had quite a lot of fun around these parts learning the language and customs, and one way and another we have been the subject of quite a little mirth on the part of the local shop-assistants. However, we get our own back one way and another ourselves. For instance, remember the dignified Miss Joseph of the State Theatre? Well, it was a standing joke amongst the people there, and Tom and I, that we were to send a pair of high-heeled shoes from Canada. We did it, too – and how! We spent 1/2 an hour spinning a wonderful yarn to a poor salesgirl in the Hudson’s Bay Co. store – we left her firmly convinced that it was an old New Zealand customer, originated by the Maoris, to send shoes to people wrapped in separate boxes and posted separately, too. Yes sir! That’s just what we did – and at one time there were about six of the shoe-floor staff standing around in an interested semi-circle watching the wrapping process.
They don’t know what tea is over here – they have supper at night and they eat lunch either at midday or late at night. Thank goodness breakfast is still in the same place. A little practice in the local ‘busses, and we are getting used to travelling on the wrong side of the road so we’ll be in trouble next time we hit a country with left-hand rules. The very cold winter we were promised has been a bit of a flop, especially the last few days when the weather has been wonderfully fine and so warm that most of the snow has cleared away. It has been down to 40 below zero a couple of times, and proved to be not nearly as terrifying as the Canadians has promised. Actually many Canadians make much more fuss about the cold and wrap up more than the New Zealanders; they live in a very stuffy atmosphere inside every building here, and it regularly sends me to sleep in lectures.
Well, I think this is about all the news, so (if you can call it news) I’ll close with all the best to yourself, George and family from
Arnold G.