Letters from the Brown Jug

  Tuesday January 18, 1944   Dear Granny:   Hope this letter finds you and the tribe at its best. As for me I’m feeling ok as usual. We’re getting some tough training now and have to be ready for oversea assignment by February 15. The weather here is very nice and today it was about 75 degrees. A lot of the snow has melted off the mountains but there is still plenty that can be seen. Of course it’s about thirty miles away but looks to be only a mile or so as the air is so light and clear.   A couple weeks ago we went up near Death Valley and hauled an outfit to a new location. They say Death Valley is a hot place but it sure was cold the day and night that we were there.   Last week I went to an anti aircraft gunnery school. The school was on a high flat and wide open from the north and it sure was plenty cold. We had three days of class, one day of firing and one day review. I sure was glad to get back to Camp Young as the weather is always much warmer here and...

Monday February 7, 1944   Dear Marie:   Received your welcome letter and hope you will excuse the slow answer. I just came back from Los Angeles where I spent the weekend with Perry and Hal. Perry has a nice little place in the San Fernando Valley. He is close to a school and sure has a dandy location. He has built a small barn and a little corral for his horse. He is also going to build a roping pen.   Yesterday Hal came over with his horse in his trailer. Then he and Perry and I went over to a big place called Rancho Alamo. There Perry clipped Hal’s horse for him and that white horse was sure mighty sleek when he got finished. Hal is going to have an audition with Universal Pictures this week.   On the way back we stopped at Northridge and watched an amateur horse show there for a little while. Later in the evening we took a drive over the Coastal Range of the Santa Monica Mountains. We went over a summit at 7000 feet. The cars on the road at the bottom of the moun...

Somewhere in England Tuesday, May 2, 1944   Dear Grandma:   Hope this letter finds you and the tribe in the best of health. As for me I’m about the same as ever. The English over here are very tidy people about there farms and livestock. Most of the farms look more like parks than farms. This is mostly sheep country but I have also seen some fat beef cattle. A lot of Black Angus. Most of the farm horses are very big animals and nearly all I’ve seen were worked single. There mostly of the English Shire breed, bays with bald faces and stocking legs and the tails docked and not over a foot long. There are many Clydesdale horses too, marked the same but much larger. They have so much hair around their legs from the knee down and heavy haired fetlocks that we call them feather legged so and so’s.   The grass and trees are very green here now but the weather stays cold. We dress warmer here now than we would at home in mid-winter.   All auto traffic is opposite to ours and...

  Somewhere in England Monday, May 29, 1944   Dear Gram:   Received your letter today and sure was glad to get it. I am in the best of health and hope you the tribe are all the same. We have had very nice weather the last few days and I sure hope it continues. We have been working pretty steady and I haven’t been able to get a day off as yet.   There is an old castle near here but it’s nearly all ruins. It’s said to have been built six hundred years ago. All that is still standing is a few walls. The moat is still around it where they used to cross with draw bridges.   Some of the houses have straw roofs and they claim they really turn the water. A lot of the houses are very old. Some have a white stone inserted among the bricks over the front door. They have the year in which the house was built inscribed on the stone. I have seen houses built in the sixteenth & seventeenth century.   There is a fellow near here who has a nice 3 year old black & wh...

Thursday June 22, 1944   Dear Marie,   Received your welcome letter today and was sure glad to hear from you. Glad that you liked the pictures. I didn’t get to see them myself as I had them taken on my last trip home.   Yes, I see that the Browns and Cards are sure doing ok. We get the Stars and Stripes every day. That is a paper published daily for Allied troops. So you see we get the news pretty fast. We get up to the minute sport news on the sports page. We got a new G.I. recording machine today. It’s also a radio. We got a bunch of records and transcribed radio programs on records. It sure has volume and you can hear it very plain a quarter of mile away. We have an American radio station over here and get all the up to date radio programs daily on a rebroadcast. Also get the news flashes every hour.   Well Marie I hope you and the tribe are all ok. I am fine and hope I can stay that way. So long.   Love Mel

July 11, 1944   Howdy Dude:   How’s my ole pardner today? In good shape I hope. As for me I’m in the best of health and doing ok. That is, for still being in England.   They say that England is having the worst drought since 1918, but if this is a dry spell, I’d sure hate to be over here in a wet year as it sure been raining pretty steady as far as I can see. Of course I’m just a “bloomin” Yank and maybe I don’t see things the way the English do. We’ve been playing baseball when we get a nice day. The weather is plenty damp though and most of the boys including myself are complaining of a sore arm. I’ve been playing a lot of Snooker since I’m over here. The pockets are sure smaller than on a pool table and it took a little while to get the knack of sinking the balls. These three old ponies are anxious for someone to come and take them home and turn them loose and pardner I got the same thing in mind. So long for now.   Your pardner Brown Jug   P.S. Howdy to the ...

July 11, 1944   Dear Dad:   Received your letter of the 29 th  today. I’m glad you like the Fathers Day card. It’s good to hear that you are doing so well since you went to work for Earl. I was sure all of your old customers would stay with you. I know they will like to do business with Earl to as he sure is a guy you can’t help from liking.   I am fine and we have been playing ball on the good days but there aren’t too many of them, as they sure have plenty rain over here. The other day we got two dozen new baseballs and six new bats. Also three new bases. We made a new home plate and are really equipped to play ball if we can just keep the weather right. I heard from Noxons kid & he says the old ponies out at the ranch are plenty fat & snorty including mine. I guess them bronc’s will be plenty hard to set when I get back, after running loose so long. I hope I can sit em as close as this feller Ive drawn here on this old snake crazy pony.   So long ole ...

August 19, 1944   Dear Grandmother:   Received your very nice birthday card and sure thank you for it. I am fine and hope the tribe is all well. Dad wrote me about the Dude cutting his hand and Marie taking a fall and hurting her eye. I hope this letter finds them both fully recovered. I sure have fallen behind in my letter writing and am going to do my best to catch up tonight. I would like you to personally thank all of your kids for remembering me on my birthday.   It is quite interesting the way these French put up hay. After the hay is cut and cured they make little bundles out of it and tie a few strands of long stems of hay around it. Then they load it on a one horse cart and stack it about ten feet high. Of course the old horse pulls up along side of the barn and they pitch it in bundle by bundle just like wheat. Well that’s about all for now. So long and keep writing.   Love, Mel Taken at the Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, France, on the "Red Ball" highway in August, 1...

Sept. 5, 1944 France   Dear Grandmother:   Well just drop you a few lines to let you know that I am in the best of health at present, and hope you and the tribe are the same. I have seen quite a lot of France by now and most of the rural sections are very nice country. Nearly every field has a hedgerow around it and right now these hedgerows are full of ripe blackberries. They really have a lot of apple orchards over here too. If I had a dollar for every apple I can see from where I’m writing this letter, I’d sure have a pile of money.   Well I see that the guys are lining up for chow so I guess I’ll drift up that way. It’s about five thirty P.M. now. Give Marie, Myrtle, and the Dude my regards and Dot’s gang also, when you see them. So long and take care of yourself. The new A.P.O. number is 562.   Love, Mel

France September 16, 1944   Dear Dad:   Received several letters from you in the past few days and will answer now as this is the first chance I’ve had since receiving them. I am in the best of health at present and hope that you and all are the same.   I received a letter from Porter the other day and he is in England. He was wounded in the leg by a morter shell. He will probably be a while recovering but he said they told him he would be as good as ever when they turn him loose. I haven’t heard from Kenny Dickerman for a long time and don’t know his whereabouts.   Well that’s about all I know for now. Looks like the Browns are slipping. Too bad. I wish you would send me a couple cartons of Kool cigarettes. You can’t get them over here. Use this letter as a request. So long and howdy to all of your kind.   Brown Jug

France Sept. 21, 1944   Howdy Dude:   How’s my old Buddy, ok I hope. As for me I’m in the best of health at present. I was just thinking that it was just ten years ago the nineteenth that you and I went out and bought old Bob. A lot has happened since then. It seems like them ten years have sure rolled by fast and I don’t feel much older now than I was then. I guess it will be a couple more years before I can get back to the old standard again. I used to think it was a long time when you told me you were in the army fourteen months in the last war. By gosh in January I’ll be in three years. I guess if the democrats stay in I’ll have five years in before I get out.   Well Dude I hope this letter finds you and the tribe all in the best of health. Tell them all howdy for me. So long.   Your pardner, Brown Jug   P.S. New A.P.O. 562

October 20, 1944 France   Dear Grandmother:   Received your welcome letter today and was very pleased to hear from you. Glad to hear Marie’s eye is coming along and also the Dudes paw that he got caught in the trap.   I am in the best of health at present and hope you and the tribe are the same. I listened to the World Series games and was hoping the Browns would win, but guess the Cards outclassed them. The announcer said the weather in good old St. Louis was nice and warm and ideal for baseball. It never dries up enough over here to play baseball and with the exception of a few days I’ve wore a mackinaw all summer. Well so long and take good care of yourself. Howdy to all.   Love Brown Jug

A happy birthday card to his aunt Marie.  

October 28, 1944 France   Howdy Dude:   How’s my old buddy today. Fine I hope. As for me I’m in the best of health at present. Winter is getting pretty close over hear now. Boy I’d sure like to be in Southern California now. Spending last winter out there has sure got me spoiled. I’ll take the sand of the desert any day, in place of this mud over here. We had a big drouth over here the other day it didn’t rain for a whole eight hours. They don’t raise hogs over here either on account of it’s too muddy for them. I’ve still got that jack knife you gave me and it sure has good steel in it. I’ve used it for a lot of different things and it sure has come in handy. Well so long for now. I hope that you and the tribe are well.   Your pard Brown Jug

France Nov. 3, 1944   Dear Grandmother:   Hope this letter finds you and the tribe in the best of health. As for me I’m in the best of health at present. Winter is beginning to catch up with us now. It don’t get very cold as long as it stays cloudy, but when it clears off the wind gets pretty raw in the mornings.   Don’t know much to write about. They have a lot of chestnuts over here and in the evenings we usually get a bunch and roast them, and talk about the good old day when we were civilians. So long.   Love, Brown Jug

Belgium December 3, 1944   Dear Dad:   Haven’t had any mail from you for a while but I guess it will catch up some of these days. I haven’t got any of the cigarettes you sent yet. Sure wish they would come as cigarettes are quite a problem over here. A lot of fellows are receiving Christmas presents and packages now but so far none of mine have arrived as yet. Don’t get much mail anymore since I’ve got behind in my correspondence. Porter will be home for Christmas, in fact he is probably back in the states as I write this. Well that’s about all I know at present. I am in the best of health at present and hope you are the same. Tell them all howdy and take it easy.   So long, Mel

Dec. 12, 1944 Belgium   Howdy Dude:   Received your Thanksgiving card yesterday and was sure glad to hear from you. I am in the best of health at present and hope this letter finds you and the tribe the same. Belgium is a very nice country and a lot like the states. They sure have a lot of American cars over here. They sure got good beer over here, tastes just like ours, but it’s only one percent and you don’t get no buzz out of it. I been smoking Dukes myself for about six weeks as we haven’t been able to get any smokes. They really have good work horses, mostly all sorrels and roans. These big Belgian horses can really do the work. In France they had mostly Percheron’s and nearly all of the good ones were grays. Well Dude will close for this time. Hope you and the tribe have a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. So long.   Your old buddy The Jug

Belgium Dec. 16, 1944   Dear Grandmother:   Received both your Thanksgiving and Christmas cards yesterday and was very glad to hear from you and to know that you and the tribe are ok. I am in the best of health at present. I wouldn’t make a statement as to how long I’ll stay that way though. Thanks for sending the box. I haven’t received any Xmas boxes to date, but from my letters I have quite a few on the way. They work oxen on the farms here, nearly as much as horses. Have seen quite a number of dry milk cows pulling carts and wagons. The work them in teams just like horses. Well I’ll close for this time. Hope you and the tribe have a Merry Xmas and a Happy New year. So long.   Love, Mel

Belgium December 16, 1944   Dear Dad:   Received several letters from you in the past two or three days. They were old letters but I was still glad to get them. Glad to hear the whole gang is ok. I am in the best of health at present. Got my first Christmas present the other day. Russ sent me ten pictures of the ranch in a small leather case that folds up like a wallet. The weather has been pretty good up here so far. It don’t rain near as much as it does in France. Have had just a few cold nights. They have quite a few billiard tables over here but none with pockets. Billiards is a pretty good game after you play a while. Well so long for now. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.   Your pardner, The Jug Hal, Dixie, Milton, Ruth & Perry Bryan Hal, Mel, Perry

Belgium December 24, 1944   Dear Dad:   Just a line to let you know that I am in the best of health at present and hope all the folks at home are the same. I received six packages the other day but haven’t gotten yours yet. It’s clear and cold here today and the pine trees sure look pretty with the frost on them. I had my picture taken the other day and am enclosing two.   Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. So long.   Your pardner, Brown Jug