Phil Wood's Letters
Letter #53
These Games Go Every Night.
To Margretta & Gretchen
15 March 1944
15 March
Dear Girls,
See? When I told you I was too busy at Pendleton to write, I usually was. Here I have time, thus lots of letters.
Really P.O. (mad) about last night. Didn’t go to the movies, and they had For Whom The Bell Tolls – missed Ingrid, and all I won was $2.[1]
Liberty tomorrow, but I think that instead of going in town, I’ll take a hike up in the hills – I enjoy this country that much. There is really little to do in town – especially since so many of the town natives are part Japanese, and naturally suspicious of Marines, especially drunk ones.
This is the second money order, totaling $150 now – let me know if you’re getting them. I’d just as soon you put part of it in War Bonds – I can always cash them in if I want to, and you get a higher interest rate there. Or maybe they will be frozen, and I would want the cash. Do what you think best, Mother. And use what you need of it. There’ll be more coming along soon. These games go every night.
Love
Phil
Footnotes
[1] A 1943 release was unusually current movie fare for troops in the Pacific Theater. Passing up Ingrid Bergman’s first color film only to come up short in your poker game was irritating indeed. Coincidentally, the director of For Whom The Bell Tolls – Sam Wood – also directed Our Town. Philip Wood Senior played Simon Stimson in this film, and died shortly after wrapping production.
Coming soon.