Archives Record
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2022.50.110.4 |
Object Name |
Letter |
Title |
Letter, Nancy Ward to George Ward, 1942 |
Date |
4 May 1942 |
Year Range from |
1942 |
Year Range to |
1942 |
Description |
Letter (.1 - .3) and envelope (.4) from Nancy Felicia (Howitt) Ward to Captain George Everett Ward, dated 4 May 1942. A three-page handwritten letter in blue ink on blue air mail paper. The letter reads: 221 Woolwich St., Guelph, Ont. May 4th 1942. Monday 8.45 PM. George My Darling. This afternoon when I breezed into 221 around four I got one of those super surprises - a letter! - your air mail Sweetie of April 12th. I didn't think I would rate the luck to find another one as soon and this goes without saying Darling it has worked wonders in pepping me up. You will have my letter by now telling you pickle walnuts just couldn't be bought in or around Guelph - sorry Darling. Is there anything else in this line you could go for? The S.E.P. should be turning up anyday now and I hope it rolls in regularly. Thanks ever so for letting me know about a watch Sweetie. I'll get you a Birks "Service" one the next time I am in Toronto or Hamilton & I am hoping that will be this weekend if not next. I hope you will be able to make the other one last out till then. Yes I know Mrs. Jennings Sweetie - just through the C.W.S.F. and that is where the "negative hounding trouble" started - One night away back I was showing Mary Grace Kearns a picture of Art and you and then a few taken en route to Sunnybridge. This is where I first bumped up against Mrs. J.Z. - She was sitting directly in front of us and heard us mention the 12th Field until she could stand it no more - I guess! - and turned around and asked if she could see some of them - In one of them she spotted her husband - so hence all the hounding you have had to take Darling. If she puts the bee on me for it I'll try to find it for her but not until! This is the usual C.W.S.F. night for me but they have switched it to-morrow night this week and are giving us our final in First Aid! I should be looking over my notes now but figure and hope I'll be able to do it late to-morrow afternoon. This is Mum's canteen night so she won't be home until elevenish. Dad is downstairs & will soon have read the late telegram so I'm expecting to be called any minute now for our nightly game of "rummy" which he more than usually trims me at. It is beginning to be a too darn expensive game for me to be enthusiastic about these nights - because apparently by his figures I owe him 1.35 - a game is fifty & we play a cent a point!! When I have the luck to win he pays me on the spot but lets me put my damage on the cuff. I think if I ever really came across with it he would be amazed. Please don't write and tell me I am being a skunk for not keeping myself clear in this debt Darling. This game goes on every night between the two of us Darling and we get more fun out of ribing [sic] each other then we do out of the actual game. Guess who arrived in town over the weekend? Betty Charlesburg!! And you should see her inseperable [sic] friend - "Blitz" - a dachshund five months old!! She was over at Aims last night & the three of us spent the evening catching up on each other's news. Betty is going to be here until June - going back to Alexandria Virginia until the fifth of July then back to Guelph until November - It was more than great to see her again - Aim asked us over to-night but I couldn't make it because it is my night for holding the fort. Have you seen Freddie lately Darling? Apparently where he is now he sees very little of his real friends. [Page] three 10.45 PM - I had barely told you what I expected might happen Sweetie - Dad hailed me for a game or three of Rummy! He only came through three cents ahead so I'm not feeling done out! At all! Just now I am relaxing behind a Labatts on the narrow margin! George Darling in your last couple of letters you have mentioned having a rum and coke. Is it the REAL coke? Because I didn't think such a thing could be had. In '38 I remember asking for a coke - and they brought me a hot chocolate! Friday night Mrs. Gamble had a party for the executive members of the Presto Music Club. The main object of the party was to see how much money they could raise to pull themselves out of the "ninety-eight" dollars they were in the hole. Everyone was to appear in an old costume and those who had more or less hidden music talent were to bring it to the fore. So the sum and substance of this is - it turned out to be a very amusing evening. Jessie Hill looked simply terrific in the most God-awful get up but was as funny as the devil. Walter Buckingham Darling was really on the ball; he played God Save the King with his nose on the piano and barn dance music on his mouth organ (I had never seen him do either before) He was darn good and everyone was in hoots. Later on in the evening Mrs. Gummer who was dressed as an old fisherman went around with her net and how much money do you think she pull in? one-hundred dollars!! Naturally everyone was thrilled to pieces because it means the Presto Club can carry on next year. Yours truly wasn't rigged up in a costume just a spectator with Helen G. Saturday night Isabel Alyward [sic], Pat Hamilton, Billy Gummer and I took to our bikes - It was peach of an evening (only in the weather line) as we tooted here and there & all over the place. It will be ten months for us on the twenty of this month and I can hardly bear it but for poor Issy Alyward [sic] it is two and half years? When I start feeling sorry for myself I try to think of her but it still doesn't help very much; because our time has seemed like all of that and more to me. Have you ever met up with her husband Jock (A) Darling? Something tells me he is not being half as true to her as she is to him. She is a perfect peach and of all the wives who deserve to have their husband's come back to interest from that bunch who were the first to go over she is definitely the one - but!! It just hasn't been dealt out that way and Marg Bright - Marj Walker etc who have really been having no end of a good time have been the gals to have their husbands come back. As Issy said to me one afternoon "Nan lets be bad it seems to be the only thing to bring them back!" Connecting this with what I've just said there seems to be more truth than fiction Darling because it has applied only to those who have had a good time as far as I can gather but it still remains I REFUSE to lead a different life from what I am leading. Even if I felt like kicking the rear end of a barn in I couldn't Darling because you're my everything in this world to me and without you everything in this world is empty. The way you put it in your letter of this afternoon Sweetie you put it as best I think it possibly could - everything I do or say or think has your mark on it Darling in one way or another and it will ALWAYS be like this as long as I live. When you put it like this Sweetie it left no other way for me to express how everything strikes me without you and I'm forced to quote almost your exact words because they are the exacting truth at this end. I love you and miss you Darling more than words can tell. Darling if we had been cut shorter on the time we were allowed to have together before [Page] five you had to leave there never would have been any regrets on my part. Did you know Mary Scandrett's brother Peter is with Freddie? I haven't seen him for years - hate to tell you what I really thought of him then - when I say a prune and an apple you can almost guess [how] high he rated in my estimation. I am judging from every angle but the soldier angle so if by chance you ever meet up don't judge him by what I have just described Sweetie. I was speaking to Dorie Cowan the other day - her husband Dave was with Granny Storms - She told me Mrs. Storms had four cables in one day - one from Granny, Pete, Mary and Bill!! When Mary arrived (first week in March) the four of them had a monster reunion at the Savoy. This called for little imagination to picture what the happy reunion might have been like. My heart aches for Mrs. Storms though - on this side being left the soul survivor of that family. The family still haven't heard from Dick - and they are really going coo-coo. Mum sent him a cable last week & has had no reply - has he been transferred to the R.C.A.S.C? Darling? Dudley Dawson has been up in Woodstock for the past month on a course. He is going back to Sussex next week and expects to be moving off very soon. The Walkers are the lucky bums! Ken is stationed at Cobourg & Marj and Kathy went down yesterday. They have taken a lovely house on the lakeshore. Ken expects to be there for five or six months or so! I am writing this on my knees Sweetie in bed - The hour is late and I'm very weary so I must close down for now with all my love, kisses and hugs to you George Darling & with always too the very, very best of luck in the world to you my Darling and God Bless You. Ever your own Nan P.S. Did you see the letter "C" troop of the 16th sent to the Guelph Mercury? Mum told me about it at noon - I looked thru' the old Mercurys but I couldn't find it - I am going on a very thorough search for it to-morrow. P.S. More than ready and willing Darling to try a night in your sleeping bag - (.4) A blue air mail envelope typed in black ink with a date stamp Guelph 17 My 5 42 Ont. Addressed to "Captain George E. Ward, 12th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, Canadian Army Overseas." |
People |
Aylward, Isobel Bright, Margaret Buckingham, Walter Ellis Gamble, Helen Gummer, Billy (Miss) Hill, Jessie Kearns, Mary Grace Ward, George Everett Ward, Nancy Felicia (Howitt) |
Search Terms |
Presto Music Club Woolwich Street World War II |
Subjects |
COMMUNICATION - LETTER LETTERS AND MAILINGS VETERANS WORLD WAR II (WWII) - 1939 -1945 |
Collection |
Archives |