Pfc. Charles Bruns, son of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Bruns, 303 West Maple street, has written from “somewhere in Italy” describing a visit with his brother-in-law, Technical Sergeant Frank Barber, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Barber. Pfc. Bruns has been overseas since October, 1942 and Barber has been overseas since last October.
Frank ‘Snook’ Barber
Brother-in-law to Chick
Frank ‘Snook’ Barber & Charles ‘Chick’ Bruns
Worked around the supply room for awhile this morning and then the greatest thing in the world happened, “Snook” came. I was so excited and glad to see him that I shook all over. We were together the whole day. Gee but did he look swell. We talked over a lot of things and had a swell time together. He went back at 3:30PM. Tonight we went to a show and then I wrote some letters before going to bed.
Note: Frank ‘Snook’ Barber is Chick’s brother-in-law
Frank Barber
We issued out the shoes today and what a mass. They’re having another clothing shortage and have changed the training schedule so that means we won’t go up for awhile yet. Maybe we will go some place else. Played cards again and lost a couple of dollars. I fixed a set of earphones up to a radio and now I can lay in bed and listen to the radio. Good night.
Dear Mother & Dad,
Received your letter of November 23. I will try to keep up with your letters in then I won’t get as far behind. Ha, ha. Have you figured out what army I’m a in yet. You and Gee surely have a time. I’m glad you and dad had a nice time at the banquet. Did they ask about me. Well I’ll be home in about a year so then we can all go out together. I sent you another box the other day. Not much in it, but I had to send my negatives home, and I put Mrs. Goldsby’s cake pan in. There is also a locket for Gee, and a little metal that I got in the cathedral at Naples for dad. I never send Dad anything, but there is nothing to send him. There is also some lava and ashes from Pompeii. Keep all of these for me. I went to 9:30 mass this morning. Hey! I had a letter from Snook in and it sounds as if he’s he may be here in Italy. He may be a different section as I haven’t seen his outfit yet. But I still think he is in England. Goodbye and I love you both very much.
Your Son
“Chick”
I went to mass at 9:30 AM today. It’s a nice day and the sun is shinning, but not for long as it is cloudy in the North direction. After mass went down to get our combat boots. It started rained and has been raining all day. I wrote some letters this afternoon and played cards at night. Won 15 dollars tonight instead of always loosing. Went to bed about 1 AM.
It has been nice all day for a change. The sun has been out all day long. We straightened up the supply room and that was about all of the work. Received three packages. Emma Sass, Vet of Foreign Wars and Claud and Mildred. Played cards and went to bed.
Norris Butts
Took shortage all day. Went down to the Battalion after some more clothes. In the evening we went to the show. “Keeper of the Flame” very good. Late when I got home went to bed.
Dear Mother & Dad,
I should have wrote to you yesterday but as usual I’m slow again. Received your November 20 letter today mail is pretty slow. O yea! ha, ha. I received a carton of cigarettes from the vets of foreign wars to day. They are trying to hook me already. When I get home I want to stay there. Sure mom go ahead and send the pipe to me. It won’t hurt if it has been smoked a few times. In one of the packages I received from Es and Harry, there was some popcorn. You know the big yellow grains, like we used to buy from Brownie’s. Well we have a little stove and I used one of your Crisco cans and popped it. Boy it turned out swell. Just about every grain popped. So if you can buy some please send it to me. The corn they sent me came in pound packages gee but it was good. You see they do not raise pop corn here in Italy. Received a letter from Snook and it sounded as if he might be here in Italy, but I still doubt it. Good buy for now.
Your Son
“Chick”
NOTE: Brownies was a grocery store located on South Neil Street in Champaign, IL at the time but was unable to find any online reference.
Rumors are flying that we will be back in action Monday, but I doubt it. We were told to get our leggins marked so that’s a pretty good sign. We worked around all day and at night we played some poker. I won two dollars all evening. At one time I was about eight dollars in the hole.
Not much to do today. Bundled up some underwear today and that was about all. Started working on an Engineer requisition and then went to look for coal. Stopped off at the 30th Infantry to see if I could find Harry McQueen, but he had gone to Mt. Climbing school. We then went to look for coal. We went clear upon the 45th Division front. Beyond there own artillery and up as far as we could here machine guns fire see the artillery shells bursting. Jerry was also shelling and some hit pretty close to us. I’ll be dog gone if we didn’t have a flat tire right out in the middle of everything. Jerrie took a couple of shoots at us and missed. We soon had the tire changed and came home. Ate chow and then I popped some corn. Wrote a few letters and went to bed.
