Lt. (j.g.) Gilbert
Steingart
U.S.S. Ocelot, F.P.O.
San Francisco
Wednesday 20 December
1944, 1:15 PM
My darling Wife,
Got eight
letters today. One from Libby and the
rest from you. Please clarify what you mean when you said, "Uncle Lou
underestimates the hell Ida...".
Tell me more about it in your next letter.
Talking about
houses. $26,000 is a lot of money for three bedrooms and I don't care where it
is. Don't forget that taxes and interest go on regardless of
economic conditions. Our new home will
be ours after we buy or build and not some finance company's or bank's.
It would be
nice if you could make friends with some service wives. Your problems and interests would be similar
and you'd enjoy each other's company.
Don't worry
about the mail. It'll probably all come
at once and then you'll have lot of reading.
You still
seem to worry about money. Your monthly
expenses seem high but I suppose the $131 in taxes cover the house tax and that
is for a whole year. Besides I have
about $175 on the books and another $59 due on the first so I'll probably save
some of the excess over our income that you are spending. Besides Xmas only comes once a year and I do
want the kids to enjoy it.
Talking about
grey hair. You should see my five day old beard. There is plenty of it there. Did you find the gray hair in your head or?
I see you did
a little more teaching. That also should
help balance the budget. Seems like most
of your teaching is a cinch. You're
making money a lot easier than I ever did.
I explained
about your corsage in another letter but here goes again. It was ordered through the Army Exchange
Service and it they can't deliver they send a check for the amount
involved. My guess is that it got mixed
up with the Xmas orders and you'll get it then.
The movie last
night was just fair. "The
Climax" with Boris Karloff and some gal with quite a singing voice. I can't recall her name.
The Temple
Tattler looks quite good. Looks like
they are progressing in spite of themselves.
I gave up Keats. His poetry certainly is mild and does not
express my feelings in the least.
Deb wrote
about the mouse incident and it did sound funny although actually it certainly
wasn't.
Some phases
of the war don't look very good, but Germany can crack at anytime without any
warning. Here's hoping.
Darling, do
you remember the Mother's Day we both went to see Linda at the hospital? Just now it seems so long ago.
Going to
close now. With all my love.
Devotedly,
Gil
