Based on the letters of Earl Philip Reinhalter (1922-1953). Edited by his son, Earl Philip Reinhalter (1950-).


<- PREVIOUS LETTER August 24, 1944
Saidor, New Guinea
NEXT LETTER ->


Yep, still here

Aug 24, 1944

Hello Ma:

      A friend of mine fell heir to a certain Yank magazine, and as I was not able to bribe it from him, I therefore, naturally cannot mail it to you, as I usually do. I, therefore, am borrowing it, and knowing that you like poetry occasionally, I now take the time to copy said poems. Maybe, you will like them - maybe you won't. You can, if you wish, deposit it in the nearest waste paper basket. Do with it as you desire. It matters not to me.

      Well, here is the first poem: titled -

While My Swingshift Mammy Swings Her Wrench-Duplex

The hand that rocked the cradle,
      That spilled the gravy ladle
And baked upside-down cake
      Upside down,
Now is cradling lathes and jacks,
      Spilling acid on her slacks, and
Baking Bakelite a neat nut-brown.

Mama's turning out those bullets
      Driving rivets in gun turrets;
Her precision work is something
      To behold.
While her skills with cams and
      Gears wring cheers from engineers,
The supper on the table's getting
      Cold.

Since my mama's gone mechanic, the
      Homestead's in a panic
And the "blessed tie that binds" now
      Hangs in shreds.
I'll be one of those delinquents,
      Jolt the neighbors' moral instincts,
If someone soon don't ravel up the
      Threads.

While I cook for me and Jimmie, while
      My pop starves in New Guinea
And my swingshift mammy swings her
      Wrench-duplex,
My smile is getting fretful and my
      Mind is so forgetful
I'll be stepping out without my step-
      Ins next.

Would the war was won, by thunder,
      And my pop, "the Yank down under,"
Would come back unto the land where
      He was born;
And my mom would cease her traffic
      In tubes and coils and static
And return unto our home, sweet
      Home forlorn.

Since this war, it's plain to see, how
      A home should ought to be:
(If you're wise, you'll read the rest -
      Then stop and think.)
Pa should earn the dough and take
      It home to ma, who then should bake it.
(Then us kind could jam our jitters

                  FINISH

New Guinea                   - Sgt. F.H. Boslett


Another poem follows:

Title -
A Loneliness Comes O'er Me

There's a loneliness comes o'er me
      And it makes mah body tired,
And ah'm trying hard to shun it
      But it's way down deep inside.

If mah brain was like some engine,
      Which ah could take apart
Ah'd try to find this trouble
      That keeps lingering in mah heart.

Now, doc can always give you pills,
      For most kind of ails,
But when he starts messin' with my blues,
      Das where his pills done fail.

For there's only one sho' remedy
      When you's all worked up and blue,
And dat's to have the one who loves you,
      Sittin' very close to you.

The sensation of her nearness,
      Seem to 'lectrify the brain
And then before you know it,
      You are yo'self again.

                  FINISH

New Guinea                   - T-5 Christopher Bordenane, Jr.


Still another poem follows:

Title -
Please Omit the Flowers

Flowers - they look good on milady fair,
Adorning her bosom or worn in her hair;
How changed is her person, desirable and chic!
The flower's the thing that's turning the trick.
But show me no wonders that litter the green,
Throw me no flowers without the colleen,
Read me no poems of flower forlorn -
But show'r them on her and I'll listen to morn.
Flowers and maidens - as bread with the jam;
But when it's just flowers, I don't give a damn!

                  FINISH

And that was composed by a Pvt. Len Guardino - of New Guinea.

      Well, Ma, there are a few more such poems, but they are of the remorseful type, and so I neither care to read nor copy them; and neither to I care to have you read them. Now are the days for humor - if there ever was a time. Don't you agree?

      And now; so long for now -

Earl


 
NOW AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK!

The Kindle book includes the letters; all 23 issues of the unit’s wartime newsletter “The Squadron Pulse,” which was originally edited by Leonard Stringfield; all 12 issues of the “Pennant Parade” newsletter that Stringfield published while sailing home after the war; complete text of the U.S. government booklet “Pocket Guide to Australia,” which soldiers heading Down Under were given to read; more than 200 photos; pre-war and postwar family history; and over 700 explanatory endnotes.
























<- PREVIOUS LETTER   HOMEPAGE   NEXT LETTER ->








ElectricEarl.com

This page established: November 11, 2018             Last updated: February 23, 2023

© 2018-2023 Earl P. Reinhalter. All Rights Reserved.