May 28, 1944

Dear Mother & all,
      Received your V mail letter
this passed week and was glad
to know you are feeling better.
Had a letter from Luella today
and she said she was looking
for you and dad over sometime
during the week. So now I know
you are feeling much better.
      Today was a free day for me.
I was off so I went to town.
It was a beautiful day to.
I was thinking about you a lot
today. I guess because it is
the Sunday before memorial
day. I suppose you attended
the services at Riga today. Please
write and tell me all about it.
      The town was rather dead

here today being Sunday.
I attended church services in
town today. It was a congregational
church. They conduct there services
quite different that we do.
      What is the matter with
Eldon and his wife? He should
have to be drafted and then
he would have more respect
for a nice wife and home. One
never knows what he gives up
until he comes across and there
isn't a thing that reminds him
of home. I guess this nice spring
weather is giving me a slight
touch of the blues tonight. I say
night because it is after supper
and it doesn't get dark until 11 o'clock
now. It doesn't seem as if there
is any darkness at all anymore.

      I suppose you will be haveing
a big wedding around there soon
now.
      Received a letter from Freeman
yesterday. He said Glenn had asked
him to stand up with him. He
also told me about Harley makeing
expert rifleman. That is darn
good and plenty hard to make
also. I am glad he can get something
out of it.
     Had a letter from Harley also
said he has been driving truck
and expects to get his license
soon. He just wrote a V mail letter.
      I try to answer most of my
letters but it is awlful hard
to write. There isn't much to
write about and we work about
16 hours a day now. So it

doesn't leave very much time to
ourselves and sleep yet to.
      I guess this is all for this
letter mother. I hope you will be
able to write me a nice long
letter soon. I miss them a lot.
Haven't received the shirts yet.
Please write soon.
                            Love Ralph.
I sent some pictures to Luella
for you. They are of our church
services. You can see most of us
just quit work and went to the
services.


The next letter will be posted on June 7th.

Background Information (and comments):

• Ralph mentioned most of his brothers in this letter. Freeman was the youngest (born June 10, 1925) so he was 18 when this was written. Harley (born Dec. 24, 1922) would have been 21, and Glenn (born Dec. 19, 1916) would have been 27.
• Glenn and Audrey's upcoming wedding was scheduled for June 16th.