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letter
Letter to Terrie, 9 May 1971 — the PACEX list and 'until I get back to decide anything major'
Charlie's letter to Terrie dated 9 May 1971. He admits he hasn't been good at writing because there is nothing to do or write about. He is still waiting to hear from Sears. About $300 has come through PACEX, so he should be able to add the $300 of goods he wants onto the list. He asks Terrie to let him know if she hears from her parents; if they say nothing, he figures they'll have to make plans anyway, and that the major decisions can wait until he gets back. He closes telling her to be good and keep exercising.
What the letter is
9 May 1971. A week after the rain letter, and Charlie is candid that there’s nothing to report: I haven’t been very good at writing letters. There isn’t anything to do or write about. What movement there is is all about outfitting a future. He is still waiting on the Sears arrangement, and about $300 has come through PACEX — enough to add the goods he wants to “the list,” the running inventory of things a soon-to-be-married soldier could buy cheap through the military mail-order catalogue. The other thread is the by-now familiar standoff with Terrie’s parents: if they stay silent, he reasons, the two of them will just make plans anyway — with the genuinely major decisions held over until he is home.
Transcription
May 9
Dear Terrie,
I haven’t been very good at writing letters. There isn’t anything to do or write about. I’m still waiting to hear from Sears. It seems my parents won about $300 from PACEX so I should be able to add the $300 worth of stuff I want on to the list. Let me know if you hear from your parents. If they don’t say anything I guess we will have to make plans anyway. I guess we have until I get back to decide anything major. Well be good and keep exercising.
Love Charles
What the letter records
“The list.” The household-goods list Charlie is building through Sears and PACEX is the most concrete evidence in the letters of how literally he was assembling a married life from Vietnam — piece by piece, by mail, before the wedding had even been settled with Terrie’s parents.
“We have until I get back to decide anything major.” After months of negotiating the Hawaii-and-marriage question by airmail, Charlie draws a sensible line: the small logistics can be handled now, but the big choices belong to the two of them, in person, once he is home. It is the letter of a man who has stopped trying to settle everything from eight thousand miles away.
“Be good and keep exercising.” The throwaway sign-off is pure Charlie — affectionate, a little teasing, the ordinary register of a couple closing the last weeks of a long separation.
Scans
