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letter
Letter to Terrie, 20 October 1970 — the apartment question, and 'you still get the most letters'
Charlie's four-page letter to Terrie dated 20 October 1970, reassembled from its scans (dad291 page 1, dad292 page 2, dad293 page 3, dad294 page 4). Waiting on a mountain resupply helicopter, he responds to news that a friend named Sandy is 'acting crazy,' reassures Terrie he hasn't seen a woman since he left the hospital (nurses, 'nice but not really a type'), and suggests she meet him on R&R in Hawaii around February instead of worrying. He's given up on bringing back souvenirs beyond stereo equipment he'll mail home. He tracks a small stock investment in GE, glad the market is recovering. His aunt and uncle are delivering care packages from home; he doesn't want her spending her own money and would rather get only letters for Christmas and his birthday. He asks about her summer plans and says he'll probably go back to Sears, then raises getting an apartment together before they're married — 'it seems to be the thing to do.' He mentions matter-of-factly that he gets letters from several other girls (Sandy, Claudia, and the wife of a friend, Larry Abbott's sister at OSU whom he's never met) and answers them all, but Terrie still gets the most letters. He closes with the still-current rumor that the company will be back in the lowlands around November 2.
What the letter is
20 October 1970, four pages written waiting for a resupply helicopter in the mountains — one of the fullest domestic-planning letters in the corpus, and one of the few that mentions, without any apparent anxiety on his part, that Terrie is not his only correspondent. Charlie reassures her about a friend’s behavior, proposes Hawaii as an alternative to worry, tracks a stock investment, manages the family care-package logistics, and raises living together before marriage as simply “the thing to do.” The letter ends, as many field letters do, on a rumor about when the company might finally leave the mountains.
Transcription
Oct 20
Dear Terrie,
Well today in the day we go to the mountain[s] & get resupplied too. It rained last night & this morning but has stopped for now. We are just sitting around waiting for the helicopter.
It sounds like Sandy is really acting crazy. I hope she doesn’t act too cheap. Just keep your own self dear. I haven’t seen a female since I left to [the] hospital, and they were nurses — nice but not really a type. Don’t worry about me. Maybe you should meet me in Hawaii. I could probably arrange to be there for [Jan or] Feb sometime. I’ve almost given up on bringing anything back except stereo equipment which I’ll mail home anyway.
[page 2:] At least the stock market is going back up. My [$300] in G.E. — at that rate it will take me 5 months or so to break even. It will probably take longer than that, but at least it’s a start in the right direction.
It is starting to rain again. I got two letters from you yesterday; kind of figured that my aunt & uncle had gone on a trip. Yes, they are delivering packages. I believe I gave you a hint. I am getting goodies from home but I can use as much as I can too. Don’t waste your money though. I don’t want you to sell anything but goodies for Xmas. Don’t expect anything for Xmas & birthday except letters. I’ll make it up
[page 3:] to you later, if [it’s] too much trouble — I really can’t get anything worthwhile [here]. Well, when does school let out in the spring? Also, are you planning to live there or work this summer? I guess I’ll probably go back to Sears unless something better comes up. I’d just try another store under a different manager. Do you want to get an apartment with me til we are married? It seems to be the thing to do.
I get letters from a lot of other girls: Sandy, Claudia (yesterday, I’m supposed to write), [the] wife of one (Larry Abbott’s sister, who is a senior at OSU whom I’ve never met). I answer all of them, but you still get the most letters. Well, the rumors are still the
[page 4:] same about us coming back to the lowlands Nov 2. I sure hope so, I’ll know more later.
Well, this letter is starting to drag so I guess I’ll end.
Love Charles
What the letter records
Reassurance without much anxiety. “I haven’t seen a female since I left to the hospital… don’t worry about me.” Charlie’s answer to whatever concern Terrie raised about Sandy is brief and confident, and he pivots immediately to solving the actual problem — distance — with a concrete plan: Hawaii, February, an R&R booking he could arrange. It’s the same instinct for logistics-over-reassurance that runs through the later actual Hawaii planning.
“Do you want to get an apartment with me til we are married?” Stated as a practical suggestion rather than a romantic one — “it seems to be the thing to do” — consistent with his running worry in the 5 August letter about not wanting to marry into debt. Living together first is presented as the financially sensible option, not a departure from a plan so much as an adjustment to one.
“I get letters from a lot of other girls… you still get the most letters.” The single most striking sentence in the letter is also the one Charlie spends the least time on. Sandy, Claudia, and a stranger’s wife are named and dismissed in two sentences, the reassurance built entirely on volume — she gets more mail than any of them — rather than on any accounting of what he writes back. Whether this candor was itself the reassurance, or simply Charlie’s habitual bluntness, the letter doesn’t say.
The small economy of a soldier’s savings. A stock investment tracked from the field, care packages routed through an aunt and uncle, an explicit request for letters instead of gifts at Christmas — the same domestic bookkeeping that runs under the whole correspondence, managed from a mountain waiting on a helicopter.
Scans
