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Letter to Terrie, 28 November 1970 — the misty rain, the families maybe meeting at Christmas, and 'what is your answer to the Hawaii deal?'
Charlie's short letter to Terrie dated 28 November 1970, reassembled from its scans (dad189 page 1, dad190 page 2), written in the field on a resupply day. Four days of shower-type misty rain; every now and then they are able to dry out what got wet, so it isn't too bad. It seems Terrie and her family will get to Marietta sometime over Christmas vacation, and he asks, half teasing, whether she is going to try to introduce the parents — 'Have fun! You should, you know!' Not much else is happening; he's passing the time, writing while the weather keeps him in, and will try another letter if it breaks before the chopper comes. On page 2 he presses the question running since the 25 November Thanksgiving letter: what is her answer to the Hawaii deal? It would be her Christmas present, with him 'as the prize.' He closes that he's getting rather silly and had better end the letter. (A short intimate passage on page 2 is held private at the family's discretion.) Signed 'Love, Charles.'
What the letter is
28 November 1970, a short letter dashed off on a resupply day, the weather keeping him in and writing. Two threads carry it. First, a piece of real family news: Terrie and her family may get to Marietta over Christmas vacation, raising the prospect of the two families meeting — “Are you going to try to introduce the parents or not?” Second, the question Charlie has been pressing since the 25 November Thanksgiving letter: “What is your answer to the Hawaii deal?” — the R&R plan he wants her to commit to, framed here as her Christmas present.
Transcription
Nov 28
Dear Terrie,
Well how is everything now? We get resupplied tomorrow and I’ll mail this then. It has been a shower type misty rain for the last 4 days. Every now & then we are able to dry out anything that we got wet so it isn’t too bad.
It seems that you and your family will [make it] to Marietta some time during X-mas vacation. Are you going to try to introduce the parents or not? Have fun! You should, you know!
Not much else happening around here. I’m just passing time away. Due to weather conditions I’m just writing you and hope [you get] these last few letters. If the weather breaks before the chopper comes I’ll try another letter —
[page 2:] What is your answer to the Hawaii deal? That will be your X-mas present, with me as the prize. You can’t win them all, you naughty girl. You will just have to take your chances.
[A few intimate lines are held private at the family’s discretion.]
Well I guess I better end this letter as I’m getting rather silly.
Love Charles
What the letter records
The families, maybe meeting. “It seems that you and your family will [make it] to Marietta some time during X-mas vacation. Are you going to try to introduce the parents or not?” This is the courtship’s two families edging toward each other while Charlie is eight thousand miles away — Terrie’s people coming to his hometown, the parents perhaps meeting for the first time, with the soldier whose relationship it is able only to ask about it by mail. It is a small, concrete marker on the road to the August 1971 marriage.
The Hawaii deal, pressed. “What is your answer to the Hawaii deal? That will be your X-mas present, with me as the prize.” The proposal first made seriously on the closing pages of the 25 November letter is now a standing question he wants answered. The teasing Christmas-present framing is Charlie selling the plan — the same plan that becomes the booked April 1971 R&R and the spring’s parental-conflict thread.
The field housekeeping. Four days of shower-type misty rain, drying out between showers, “so it isn’t too bad” — and the resupply-and-chopper rhythm that governed when a letter could be mailed (“I’ll mail this [when we get resupplied]… if the weather breaks before the chopper comes I’ll try another letter”). The same weather and logistics that run through the whole late-November run of letters.
Scans
