Description
Describes writing to try out his new prized Eversharp fountain pen that he won in a platoon lottery. And then, after a rain-soaked 4th of July where they staged a parade for the local townspeople who were less than impressed, the highlight of his week was going to a nearby town to hear Glenn Miller's AEF band led by Ray McKinley. "In that time I was home," he wrote.
After Glenn Miller disappeared in December 1944, Miller's Army Air Forces and Army Expeditionary Forces bands played under the direction of other members. I could not find an AEF recording with the director dad mentioned, Ray McKinley, from July 1945. I did find one recorded earlier in the year directed by Jerry Gray and include it below. The very first song after the intro was "In the Mood."
Hearing it played in this context, all those years ago and giving him the first feeling of being "home" since the war started is kind of a nice connection to it opening the family video with this song and picture of him in uniform, now with the home he built with our mother decades later. Music and memories go way back. (included family video below)
He also requests that his parents send "Pocket Books" if possible, that there were likely new titles he hadn't read.
Pocket Books were inexpensive pocket-sized paperbacks. Sold for 25 cents at newsstands and drugstores. They were often mailed to soldiers overseas to pass the time between duties.
I included some pictures of what these looked like. As well as some background here. During WWII, books were considered an important part of the war effort. American publishers, librarians, and writers organized national programs to supply reading material to U.S. troops overseas, including millions of specially printed Armed Services Editions. Promoted by the Council on Books in Wartime, reading was seen not only as recreation for soldiers but as a symbol of the intellectual freedom the Allies were fighting to defend.
Here's a brief article describing the effort: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-books-became-critical-part-fight-win-world-war-ii-180953689/
