Letter, Irene Conole to her parents
A letter from Irene to her parents telling them about the good grades she got on her last exams. She reports that she is sick of eating all the sweets everyone gets in their care packages from home and that she has received letters from her Aunt Anna, Henry, and Sam. She asks for a Navy ring for Christmas. Irene shares that she is glad she has been placed into on-the-job training instead of school, but that she will need two years of college if she wants to become an officer. She hopes that upon graduation from basic training she will be stationed in San Diego or Washington D.C.
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Bainbridge, Md.
Oct. 25th 1952
Dear Mom and Dad,
I got the package and we all enjoyed it.
Everyone here gets fudge and I’m sick of it.
So I’ve quit eating sweets now. I was glad to
get the Cheez-its.
This morning we had a Captain’s
Inspection but I didn’t have to go since I don’t
have my shoes. The poor kids had to stand
at attention for 45 minutes without budging
an inch. We had our exams again today.
I pass them last week. They mark them
different here. A 4.0 is 100% and so on. I got
3.6 in History, 4.0 is General Orientation, 3.8 in
Ships and aircraft and 3.2 in Jobs in Training.
There are 20 questions in each and each question
is 2 points. Not bad huh? They were a little
tuffer today. I’ll find out my marks Monday.
Oh by the way, guess who I got a letter from
today? None other but the dear boy Sam. Was
I surprised for he’s not much of a letter writer.
He wrote three pages too. I do beleive I’ll
answer him. I also got a letter from Aunt
Anna and one from Henry. That fellow
that’s on the Armed Forces Committee in
the Telephone Co. wrote me a nice letter and
said I’d be getting a Christmas package.
I got a check yesterday for $1.11 from my
Rochester Hospital Blue Cross plan. I don’t
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2. believe I’ll keep it up. As for that check you
got, that was swell but I think you will be
getting more. If not, I must have figured it
wrong. Oh well I suppose I’m lucky to get that
much.
How is the weather there? We had slight
snow flurries a couple of days ago but it has
been beautiful here since.
We got our blue uniforms Friday and
mine fits beautifully. Wait till you see me!
As for my Christmas present, you can
send me the money and I could buy new
white skirts. I think they are $1.50 each: Every –
thing is cheap here.
You don’t have to send me the funnies
for we can buy them here but you could
send me The Sign Magazine then.
Also for Xmas you might buy me a
Navy ring. When you get the chance, go to Kays
again and inquire about them. One of the
girls here said that Kays handled them. If
so, I’d like a man’s size ring and I want
the anchor on it. Size 71/2. I believe you’ll
have to wait a couple of months for it. O.K.?
Dad, I’m glad you’re doing good in
bowling. We have bowling here and the
alleys are beautiful. The only trouble is we have
to set up our own pins. We have three teams
in our Company and we’ll be competing with
the other Companies. I rather play shuffleboard
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3. or pool.
Next Saturday we go on liberty and are
we anxious! There are about six of us going
together.
We had a newsreel today on personal
hygiene. Boy what a picture! If a girl doesn’t
know the facts of life, she does after seeing
that picture.
Yesterday we went over to Main side
for our interviews. I’m going to be either a
storekeeper or Personnel man. Personally I
hope it’s storekeeper but I won’t know for
sure until our orders come through which
is a week before I leave here. A Personnel
man types, files, works in a chaplains office
or recruiting office or interviews girls. Since
I don’t like typing I decided on being a
storekeeper. That consists of recieving, packaging,
storing and issuing clothes etc. I don’t like schools
so I’m going to be on the job training. That is
what I was hoping for. I’ll either go to San
Diego Calif. or Washington D.C. I was talking
to P.N. Pickett today, my Co. Commander, and
she said that to become an officer I’d have
to have two years of college. She recommended
a correspondent course so I’m thinking of
that too. I’d better hurry up and do that for the age limit is 27. You can’t become an
officer if you’re over 27. There are only 28
jobs opened to Waves and they are mostly claimed.
Most of the girls here were secretaries.
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4. Before I forget I want to tell you more
about the ring. I want the Wave emblem on
it. I just found out what it is. It’s a three
bladed propeller with a fouled anchor on top
of it. A fouled anchor is an anchor with a
rope on it. I hope you get what I mean.
I can’t think of anything else so I’ll
sign off for now.
Love and Kisses
Irene
P.S. How is James? Tell him I say hello and have
him drop me a line in your letter and also
Dad too.
I don’t think I’ll be voting this year.