Arnold's Story: February 9, 1945

Dolly chastises her brother for not writing except when he needs a favor. Ouch! 

Bob Mello is Wilfred Mello, brother of Edwin "Ed" Mello.

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first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: February 8, 1945

I remember from my years in Fresno, California, that people there spoke about "having weather" as if it was not constantly around us. One Fresnan said "we have weather, too" in comparison with the Midwest and East Coast, but meaning that it sometimes rained or rarely snowed or frequently fogged up, but most of the year it was sunny and cloudless. (I guess that is when they did not "have weather".) I see Hazel uses "weather" in the same way.

The U.S. Post Office was extremely efficient in the 1940s, perhaps more than nowadays, some 75 years later. Although I see from this letter that they now have home delivery only once per day instead of the previous twice. I suppose that is why she no longer puts "AM" or "PM" on her letter dates.

God Is My Co-Pilot was a 1943 memoir by Gen. Robert Lee Scott Jr. about his exploits in World War II with the Flying Tigers and the U.S. Army Air Forces in China and Burma. The book was adapted as a film of the same name, released in 1945. The Nazarene was a 1939 novel by Sholem Asch.

Ted W. Lawson wrote Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo as a memoir of his participation in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942, which ended in a crash, from which he was rescued by friendly Chinese and then repatriated to the U.S. The book was subsequently adapted into the 1944 film of the same name starring Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum. 

next post  February 9, 1945

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first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: February 2, 1945

Perhaps Hazel is talking about the Battle of Manila, in which the U.S. Army landed unopposed at Nasugbu in southern Luzon in the Philippines on January 31 and began moving north toward Manila, but Leonard was actually in northern Luzon at this time having landed instead at Lingayen Bay in mid to late January.

Crawford's was a small grocery chain in the Los Angeles area and had a market in Glendale.

next post  February 8, 1945

previous post  January 23, 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: January 23, 1945

ROAL is the Reserve Officers Association League. 

next post  February 2, 1945 

previous post  January 15, 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: January 15, 1945

Ralph Winger writes with news of their Caltech classmates.

next post  January 23, 1945

previous post  January 13, 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: January 13, 1945

Merriam Webster's defines the Navy's use of  cat fever as a respiratory infection accompanied by fever.

next post  January 15, 1945

previous post  January 10, 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: January 10, 1945

Apparently Arnold sent them Paul Bunyan's humorous pictorial map of the United States Depicting Some of his Deeds and Exploits by R. D. Handy. Laura's Land of Make Believe may be the 1930 map by Jaro Hess. Sholem Asch's The Apostle, 1943, was a novel based on the life of Saint Paul.

next post  January 13, 1945

previous post  January 4, 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: January 4, 1945

Winged Victory was a 1944 film directed by George Cukor as a joint production of 20th Century-Fox and the U.S. Army Air Forces; it was based on the 1943 play with the same name by Moss Hart. One of the characters in the play/film wants to become a pilot but washes out because he fails his eye test. That reminds me that Arnold, too, wanted to be a pilot but could not on account of his blue-green color blindness. And come to think of it, Arnold did later admit to cheating on the vision test, too, by memorizing the Snellen chart in use at the time, but then could not overcome the color blindness test. 

I smiled when Hazel repeats 12-hour clock time in Military time.

next post  January 10, 1945

previous post  January 1, 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: January 1, 1945

Dolly writes to her brother Arnold about the money he sent to buy family Christmas presents. I am not presently sure which cousin Manuel is.

Here are two family photos from 1945 with Mary Hazel "Dolly" Nevis:

Mary Hazel "Dolly" Nevis, circa 1945

William E. Nevis, Laura V. Nevis, Hazel Nevis, Arnold Nevis, Dolly Nevis, circa 1945

Arnold is home on leave in this family photo, so it is not from New Year's Day 1945. Only older brother Leonard is missing. The photo was taken in front of their house at 501 East Mountain St., Glendale, California.

next post  January 4, 1945

previous post  early 1945

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold's Story: early 1944

This letter was probably from late 1943 or early 1944, but it had no date, so I cannot say for sure. Arnold was at Camp Kohler already in November 1943. Charles Cutler is in the Navy but training at Caltech with other Caltech classmates. 

J. Edgar Hoover on Juvenile Delinquency, 1946, was a treatise on the importance of involvement in the community and the role played by family and faith a child's developmental years.

next post  January 1, 1945

previous post  December 31, 1944

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

 

Arnold's Story: December 31, 1944

Mid'n is midshipman in the Navy. Camp Endicott, where Harry Schmidt writes from, was a United States Navy Seabee facility in Rhode Island.

next post  early 1944

previous post  December 28, 1944

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

 

Arnold's Story: December 28, 1944

This letter describes in great detail the Christmas gifts the family gave one another. Our Army at War, 1944, with an introduction by General George C. Marshall, told the official story of the U.S. war campaigns in the Pacific, the Aleutian Islands, North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, as well as aerial bombing in the rest of Europe, through Department of War photographs.

next post  December 31, 1944

previous post  December 21, 1944

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943