When the fortunes of
war made me a guest of first Italy and then Germany, my hosts
gave their guests a limited number of letter forms each month
so I was able to write my mother back in Texas almost every week
for the twenty-eight months I sat out World War II. And she saved
all the letters.
Last month I read them
for the first time since I wrote them. And was surprised that
on the whole they boring. List of letters received, when they
arrived and when they were sent; lists of foods I’d like to receive
in personal parcels and books I’d like in book parcels; lists
of clothing I could use more of (socks and underwear, mostly),
and reassurances that everything was just fine behind the wire.
There were, however, a few bits I enjoyed reading and which may
even be of general interest.
Here are some of them:
Feb. 10, 1943
Dear Mom:
Remember how I used
to go to nightclubs and stay out all night? I don't do that any
more. I just stick around the house and go to bed early.
Remember how I used
to spend all my money on clothes? I don't do that any more, either.
I have one outfit which I wear all the time.
Remember how I used
to turn up my nose at food didn’t like and refuse to eat it? I
still turn up my nose at food I don’t like but I eat it. And remember
how you used to complain about the number of my shirts in the
wash? You couldn’t complain about that now. I
have only one shirt.
June 30, 1943
Dear Mom:
My favorite evening
entertainment is a song we hear over the radio at the same time
each night. The song is Lili Marlene, which was the marching
song of the Afrika Korps. It’s in German and very poignant. I’ve
copied the words and will bring them home when the war is over.
Jan. 8, 1944
Dear Mom:
My Christmas this year
was far better than the last. Our hosts lent us an amplifier and
we had record concerts holiday week. Christmas Eve and day I spent
about six hours listening to the music. Altho a number of records
were played over many times I enjoyed every minute of the time.
Here I was the meal
I cooked for *Christmas:
Canadian pork
roll baked with English bacon,
New Zealand peas,
Potatoes au gratin
**Chocolate pie
Everything but the potatoes were canned. The meal was flavored
with garlic given me by a Serbian prisoner in October. The pie
crust was American ration biscuits and margarine. For filling
I used American army ration chocolate bars, powdered milk and
some English custard powder.
In the afternoon we
had four American sergeants to a kaffee klatch. We had parcel
(Red Cross food parcel) coffee and all the dried fruit, hard candy
(from personal parcels) and cookies (British Xmas parcels) we
had been able save in two months.
*(Note: For several
months I was the cook, with one helper we called the Orderly Dog;
just plain The Dog for short)
**(Note: Ordinarily
we did not dine nearly so well but we had special Red Cross food
sent to us for Christmas.)
April 6, 1944
Dear Mom:
Al and I still do
the cooking. We specialize in corn beef and potatoes. Our greatest
ambition is to cook them so they taste like something else,
anything else.
May 13, 1945
Camp Lucky Strike,
France
Dear Mom:
On my first plane
ride in 29 months I disgraced myself by getting airsick. We
were liberated April 29 at 12:09 by a spearhead of the 14th
Armored Division after a 3 hour battle. During the thick of
the skirmish, with machine guns chattering all around, Kennedy
(Larry Kennedy, my pilot) and I crouched on the washroom floor
brewing coffee.
After 9 days we went
by truck from Moosburg (site of our last POW camp) to Straubing,
Germany. From the latter we were flown to Liege in transports.
It was during this flight that my breakfast rose as high as
my spirits.
From Liege we were
taken by truck to Namur and from there we entrained for this
camp, which is about 75 kilometers from Le Havre. Eventually
we will embark for home … tell my friends I will be home in
June.
(Note: It was actually
July before I got there, having obtained combat leave passes
for Paris. Just a couple of years ago I wrote a novel based
on that excursion. It sold 51 copies.)
David Westheimer,
SeniorWomenWeb's resident male, lives with his wife of 57 years,
Dody, in the same Los Angeles apartment they moved into from Houston,
Texas 41 years ago. Their son, Fred, is a Senior Vice-President
at the William Morris Agency and his younger brother, Eric, is
a veterinarian. Succeeding generations include five grandchildren
and two great-grandchildren. As a journalist, David worked for
Oveta Culp Hobby.
At 85, David Westheimer
continues to write, and not just for Senior Women. The Great
Wounded Bird, his recollections of World War II, is winner
of the Texas Review 1999 poetry prize, was published by Texas
Review Press and may be ordered from Amazon Books, where it has
surged to 821,374th on their sales list. It is also listed with
Barnes & Noble and Borders Books. David's latest novel, Delay
En Route, is hovering at 1,485,676th on Amazon's list.
Poet and novelist,
David is a retired Air Force Officer. He can be reached for a
repertoire of feigned curmudgeonly remarks at: DWestheime@aol.com.
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