(38) Salisbury,
18-7-42.
Dear Mum,
You are going to be very pleased with this bit of news – two more parcels from you and one from Joan arrived this week, so that is pretty good going. There must have been quite a big mail in from New Zealand, as there were parcels for the other chaps, too. I was thinking that there would be some very pleased mothers back home if they could see the reception their parcels get on this side of the world. Thanks to your careful packing everything for me has travelled well, and Joan’s parcel made the trip in good order, too. My room-mate and I are on the prowl for a tin-opener; we have hacked open some of the goods but it has been a rough and ready business and we want something more efficient. Chances of getting in to the shops are rather scarce, but next week there is a 36-hour leave coming up so we can go shopping then.
I am still proposing, if all goes well, to run down to Basingstoke and look up Auntie Ethel’s brother in the afternoon, as it’s a good chance, the train journey taking less than an hour.
There was a letter from Tom a day or two ago to say that he has had a shift, and is now down Cornwall way, actually only about 130 miles by air from here, but much as I should like to I’m afraid I can’t do anything about it. While he was passing through London on transfer he met my old New Plymouth room-mate, Arthur Delaney, who is going out East one of these days. I should have liked to have seen him again myself if I had known sooner that he was in the country.
Do you remember my mentioning, after our trip to New York, how Ray Mellsop, Peter Day and I met a girl who was starring in the big ice-show there? Well, she asked us all to write to her when we reached England, so I did, and got a very nice reply by air-mail a couple of days ago. She was from Chicago, so after the day I had in that city I have rather a good opinion of its people! Her name is Mary Jane Yeo, and we met her and her mother through an introduction from the big-hearted little theatre executive who helped bustle me round New York.
This week I got off on another type of aircraft, the sixth different one I have flown in as many weeks since starting to fly in England. Distinguished myself, too – not that that is exactly the word for it! – by perpetrating a “ground-loop”, as they call it in the Air Force when the ‘plane swings violently after landing. Fortunately I was going very slowly at the time and no damage was done, but I felt an idiot at the time, sitting out there in the middle of the aerodrome going around in small circles. That taught me not to go to sleep again! Felt much better (nasty-like) when one of the other chaps did the same thing twice in succession.
Observations since reaching England have convinced me that the British are a nation of lap-dog lovers. It used to make Tom and I mad at Harrogate to see fat old women clambering into the ‘buses with smelly little poodles, and I’ve just been thinking of one rather funny incident. The ‘bus was full, and a typical specimen, complete with dog, got in. Tom watched her for a couple of minutes, making a fuss of the creature, then got up and said as sarcastically as possible, “Here you are, madam, I’m sure your dog will be much more comfortable if you sit here,” and was completely flabbergasted when she just beamed at him, said, “Thank you so much!” and proceeded to make herself and dog right at home. Evidently it’s allowed in England, but thank goodness that’s not the case in New Zealand. You never know what stuffy little pom you’ll find snorting down the back of your neck.
I was out on a photography practice the other day, taking great care to get everything just so, and had expended a whole lot of energy on getting three sets of pictures before I discovered that I hadn’t taken a thing because the camera switch wasn’t going right on each time. That made me most annoyed – felt like a large size in idiots, coming back with about a quarter the results I should have had. I was out on another photography exercise to-day and made very sure of that switch this time.
I think I probably told you how, while I was at Bournemouth, I met a couple of the lads from the same course as myself at Taieri. They were posted before I was, and I have discovered that they came through here several courses ago, so we are chasing one another around the country. They are two who finished their training in New Zealand. Our flight-commander here remembered them as having been through his hands a while back, and was able to tell me where they are now so I may hear more of them when we leave here.
Well, Mum, that’s about all for this time, except to thank you very much for the parcels; you must have taken no end of trouble to get them ready and pack them, but you know I appreciate that very much. Now that things are different I won’t look for parcels from home because I know you have too much else to do with the money.
Love from
Arnold G.