MilColl_WWII_118_ODonnell_John_B_Papers_B2F2_Corr_Apr_May_1944_001

Saturday
1 April, 1944

My dearest:

This Aprils Fool Day is typical of so many I've seen - all
but the practical or otherwise joke. We have had our first wet
day - that is, sloppy - in some time, and to make it so typical
it is as cold as a wet blanket. I've heard that expression all
my life, but had to live in England to get full shivver
and meaning of the truism. You don't come near freezing, for the
body temperature rises where you shake and chatter, but you wonder
if there ever was a warm place anywhere in the world.

I enjoyed your letter so much which I recieved today. I
am more in favor & the V for promptness and regularity - with
yours of around the 20th was an air mail one from mother,
mailed the 6th. And that usually is the way.

On my last few days leave which I mentioned in my
letter I had a chance to get down to the city of Bournemouth -
a truly lovely resort city in southern England. It was the
first place I have seen that resembles our own cities, and
ones which I readily confess would be most popular to us
as Americans and would give any I have ever seen a race
for its money. The [crossed out letter] view out over the Channel from the
cliffs, with the nice looking resort hotels etc., of peace time
living an attractive street- of memories I know & the glorious
days before the war - which seemed to run for several miles