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                          10:15 PM Fri.
                          6 April 1945

My Dear Darling,
  Ha ha ha, I beat you to the draw; got a money order for $20 off to you in the mail this A.M. and then got a letter form you this noon in which you asked if I could send you 10 or 15 dollars. Smart, ain't I!
   Well I got two presents for you, or should I say 3, as one of them is of 2 pieces. I got the one off in the mail for you today but I'll not get the other off till Mon evening. I had no luck whatever in finding anything for the children. I am applying for special liberty for Mon afternoon when I can catch the clothing stores open and I surely ought to be able to get something for them to wear & they will more than likely appreciate these more than these war-time toys anyway. The kiddies are growing up so fast that one hardly knows what kind of toys to get for them. By the way, did Jerry fix the wagon for the kiddies? If I remember right, I believe he took the part down to the shop to fix it for me, and didn't Jack

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only one's they have here are fragile wood and plastic which look like they'd fall apart if I sneezed at them.
   Four or five inches of snow? Just goes to show that northern Minn is a better place to live than southern Minnesota; I ran across a sailor in the carpenter's shop this afternoon who is from the southern part of the state and he said he got a letter from home and also

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   Well I did get out of the mess hall today and yesterday I got your letter addressed to the mess hall, and today I got another, but addressed to Dock Engrs. Now that's what I call perfect timing, in spite of the fact that I was twice misinformed as to the day I would be relieved. I have been assigned as helper to Gougon (pronounced "Googun") on the test boats. I don't know as yet who is helping "C.B." I must give Atkinson (CB) credit for being all the time on the ball. But now I am stuck with working with Gougon and HE IS A FLUNKER. But maybe this will give me a chance to go ahead more on my own while he is loafing off someplace; i e, if he'll not object or obstruct my efforts to go ahead. I will not at all mind his loafing if he will let me try to fill his vacancy as it will give me all the more opportunity to prove my ability to go ahead with these engines. And I grant you that Chief Byrom (Pron. "Bi'rum") knows who is doing the work. We call our chief just plain "Slim". So here after when I say "Slim" you'll know that I am speaking of our chief petty officer.
   I have about given up getting a, or any records made for you. They doubt if they can get the needed part for their machine.
   Opie Pryor has been transferred from the electric shop to the dock electrians which is a part of the dock engineers. The engineers & electricians of the docks are of one group with headquarters at the same shack. Our shack is not on dry land but is a quanset hut on a barge which is near the shore at the end of a finger pier. I may try to draw you a sketch some one of these evenings of how our whole base is laid out. (Please wish me success in my drawing.)
   It turned cold last nite and was quite chilly and cloudy all day for the first time since I went in the mess hall. All the boys at DE have gotten a nice tan except the three of us who have been at the mess hall, and today of course it just had to be cloudy. Tonite it is much colder than last nite. The rainy season is about to hit here now. It usually lasts till the latter part of May. The rainy season ended just as the 15 of us arrived here last year on May 29th, the day before my birthday. I wonder how I'll spend Memorial Day this year.
   It is already 11:20 and is high time I was crawling in my "sack". Opie is sound asleep. He went with me on my shopping spree tonite. We attended a western show at the USO before we came in.
   Well goodnight my Dear and may your dreams be sweet. Sa-y-y-y, I had a dream the other morning that I forgot to tell you about, in fact it was that morning when I wrote you on my midnite to 3 A.M. watch, when I went to bed after I wrote you. I'll tell you about it tomorrow night. I have duty tomorrow.

            Oceans of Love & Kisses
              From Your Loving
                 Hubby
                      Irvin



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