What an airman wrote home on a day that beckoned an era

Ray writes an average letter with some solace some misgivings about barbers and dentists and meets Daniel Boone Herring. Inquires about Shirley’s peaceful day

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to season three of Letters Ray to Sherlock A World War II Love Story podcast. Um I'm not using the AI any longer for the podcast. It did good for most of it, but uh the letters are getting more complex now. We're in nearing the end of the war in the letters that I'm um podcasting right now. I just published the book, it's available on Amazon. Um link in the bio or in the info of the podcast that you're viewing this from. Um This next letter is critical because I'm going to read you two letters. These two letters are written by someone who was nothing but a peaceful loving patriotic citizen of the world. He traveled the world, he had friends, but in these letters they write the day before the Enola Gay dropped on Hiroshima and the day of the bombing, and he is stationed at a place that he may have had reason to exclaim. Now, about five years ago we got declassification of most World War II information. Nothing is a problem. These letters are visceral historical documents of United States Airmen at the time that the movie Oppenheimer fully illustrates, which I recommend, it's a good movie. Hiroshima and later Nagasaki were two of the most catastrophic events in world history. Aside from the Holocaust itself. We don't do that anymore, is what we all say. Let's hope this never happens again. Right now I am reading The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokoff. And I know there have been wars since the war to end all wars but something comes to mind about Winston Churchill at this time. All I remember is there's nothing to fear but fear itself. I'm not a historian. I've taken some classes. But these are things to look up to Google, to use books. Google Books, Google, Google, and Google AI are all out there. But you have to look in books for some of the information that you find. You can't trust everything you read on the internet. But these letters it took seven years to transcribe. But this is about who my grandfather and grandmother were in their love story through this time period and why they deserve to be known. They were good people. With some of the machination of the fight to save us from land grabbing emperors that are no more and land grabbing dictators that are no more. The Berlin Wall came down. This was eighty years ago. But here we are and now I shall read you August fifth, nineteen forty five. Hi there prettier than me. Would you like to hear about my birthday party? Okay. I allotted myself five dollars Thursday afternoon and took off for town. Was going to have a fancy dinner, a couple of drinks, go to a show, the restaurant was pretty crowded, there wasn't any empty booth, so an old guy geezer yelled at me to sit with him. That was Daniel Boone Herring. I sat down and ordered a glass of burgundy to get myself in the mood. Old Daniel gave out some conversation. The only thing on the menu besides fish was sliced cold chicken and potato salad. I ordered that and some more burgundy. Then Dee Boone presented himself formally. He told me who he who and what he was. Sounded interesting, so I asked him some leading questions. He told me a lot of interesting things. Things as pickled frog's legs and turkey innards broth. He was a faith healer, but he didn't have one specific faith. He used the patient's own particular faith and enlarged on it. We discussed Christian science and agreed on not liking it. Then we tore apart psychology, psychiatry, and arrived at many astounding conclusions. The old boy is 73 years old and still going strong, so maybe he knows what he is talking about. When the waitress brought the check in, he insisted on paying it. He was on his way to a bunko game, so we parted. So who'd have thought I'd be dining with Daniel Boon Herring? I figured you'd be needing some cigarettes to settle your nerves for the next two weeks, so I went on a raid after dinner. Astounding suggest. Phoeon the Raw eyes. After the race, I get a bag of popcorn and went to see the great Johnny Owl. Please don't see it. One look at the hero, and we ordinary guys don't seem like much. He's built like this. Little drawing of a strong man was included in the letter. Ha. No, Linda Darnell is interestingly put together. After the show I went to Walgreens and had a banana split. Then I bought a two-bit murder mystery and went back to the field. And that is my birthday party. Hardy's wife was due in last night at 11 o'clock. She flew from Boston. All day he was sweating it out. It reminded me of waiting for you in Florida, so I got unhappy. Gee, I wish you could get in a plane and fly here. Damn it, if only I had a lot of money. I suppose to go to the dentist this morning, but this morning I didn't. I got scared. Dentists aren't nice people. Do you like small shower stowers shower stalls? I don't like 'em big, so you can bend over without bumping your extremities into the wall. No fine sprays either. The water should come out in buckets. The one your pop has in the basement is ideal. Spent last evening at the library. Hey, I found a book called Shirley by Charlotte Bronte. I got it and I'm going to read it today. Gotta find out what kind of gal this Shirley is. I'll let you know. Gotta go play with some radios now. Thank your mother for the nice card. Is okay if I write you again tomorrow? Okay Will swell, thanks. You'll be so doggone busy you won't have time or strength to write much, so I'll just have to write twice as much to make up for it. So long boss, I love you. Ray August 6th, 1945. Darlingest, this is just a story to tear hell out of a few people. First there's the age old plague, the post barber. He dealt me a low blow today. I somewhat resemble an irked Apache on the warpath. My hair looks this way now, pointing to a drawing. The things I would like to do to that barber are fearsome. I cringe every time I think of them. You being a lady, I can't tell you, but if I had my way, there'd be no little barbers. The next victim is the post photographer. The proofs were ready today. I know you're exactly what you're going to say when you see the finished picture. You'll clap your hands to your head and scream, oh dear god, for once why the hell couldn't he have for once had his head on straight? I try to make up for it by having them in color, but it won't help much. I just stay photogenic. They'll be ready in two weeks. Would you like me to send yours to the bank so you can throw darts at it at your leisure? Oh gee, why can't I be pretty like you? You're busting out in literature stick, you spelled it wrong. All over lately. A story in the misadventures of Sherlock Holmes has a heroine called C called Shirley Holmes and her associate Joan Watson. Hardy's wife hasn't shown up yet, so I'm a nervous wreck. Have uh read a couple of chapters of Shirley by Steve Bronte, but old Us hasn't appeared yet. You know, being alone in the salt mines for two weeks, you really ought to have a flask. Two lighten your burden considerably. What kind of a day did you have yesterday? Ruff? Betcha the L was crowded. You know after we're married four or five years, you really ought to quit your job and take things easy for a month or two. Got a letter from Bill today. He gave me all the latest reports just back from the swimming pool. Damn it, I can't float. Why is that? How was everything at home? Everybody coming along okay? Did you ever get that something from Abel? My sweetheart, all my love, Ray. And that's what he writes on the day That's the the postmark is on the day of Hiroshima News travels at different speeds at different times. We're now living in a world of social media where instantly news from a variety of sources travels at speeds my grandfather could not imagine. My guess is he didn't know or he didn't want to know not yet. There is a letter that he talks about the atom bomb. It's coming up or it's earlier. I don't remember. I've transcribed all the letters. I'd have to sk to check it out, but he exclaims in that letter, and how about that Anna Bob? Oh my god. I don't know when that shows up. I have to read again and again to remember the order of the letters. I can't keep the entire book in my head. That's why it took me so long to transcribe it. But I do remember the stories, and I remember my grandfather, and I remember he was a good person, and I think the war would not have ended without that occurrence God bless and I pay for pray for all who suffered from that time in history But I believe in the hereafter and I believe we'll see somebody again if God so chooses. I also believe in chaos theory, strength theory, and quantum theory, but I barely have a grasp on that, just like I barely have a grasp on net neutrality. So with my hand on my heart and a love of the Japanese culture as I just posted myself eating a crunchy roll with chopsticks tonight. I leave you in this beginning of the third season of this podcast. Please check out the book. Donate if you want to keep this podcast going. I plan on reading two letters until from the book moving forward from here, since I have read them already in wonderfully done reels on YouTube. Be safe. Enjoy life.