Culturazi

Postmark 3rd May, 1970

3rd May 1970

My Dearest Sandra,

Well dear here it is another month, and a few days closer to getting home to be with you for a few lovely days which I am looking very much forward to. We are furtherest out of Nui Dat than we have ever been before, in the middle of a great rubber plantation. It has been raining every day lately so you can imanage how we look covered in red mud. We are wet most of the time, if not with water with sweat, for once the rain stops it gets very hot. We have been out for five or six days now and haven’t seen a thing, good. May be able to get this letter posted to-day as a Captain is going out to the Dat and may take our mail out for us. Got three letters from you the other day, it’s great to hear from you dear, you have no idear what it’s like to hear from you whilst I am over here. A chopper came in and bought our mail in but we couldn’t get any out on it as it wasn’t going back to the Dat. Sandra I hope you have a pleasant mother’s day next Sunday and that the boys behave them selfs for you. I only wish I could be home there with you. I love you.

Has the woman, Mrs. Bay’s in Brisbane sent the slides down to you yet her husband is here with me and he wanted some copies of them. It is now 9AM and it’s a bute morning very warm and sunny a chance for us to dry out. Did Uncle Tom end up buying Bert’s place or not. Has the parcel I sent with the spirits in it arrived home yet. Sandra I am just busting to see you again. I love you and want to love you more and more, I going to be great for us to be to-gether again.

Sandra I love you, must finish up to get this letter posted out.

I love you and always will forever.

Yours always. Love forever. xxx.

Jock.

Postmark 4th May, 1970

James Street
Berridale
N.S.W. 2623

(Sun) 3-5-70

My Dearest Jock,

Well, here it is Sun the 3rd, just 3 weeks until you will be home. It is a very cold & windy day here, & I have got the heater alight for the first time this year.

Yesterday morning your mother came down with some mail that came while I was in Canberra, there was the card to pick up your parcel that you sent & my child endowment, which came in handy to pay the $7.38 Customs Duty on the parcel, & also a cheque from the Medical Benefits for $6 for the Bill of Shedden’s that I claimed on. The bill was $30.30 & I only got back $6. The Army Medical Benefits don’t pay much, we were getting more back when we were with the M.B.F. And I also received the rates. A few weeks ago I was discussing the rates with Barbara & said that I was expecting to get them anytime & she said that they had received theirs ages ago while I was in Canberra & I thought that maybe Charles had paid ours for us. I don’t know why, we have only received ours now, when others received theirs months ago. Maybe it was because they knew I was away& they waited until I came back.

This morning was the first time in my life that I have been half an hour early for Mass. I went down down expecting 10 o’clock  Mass & it wasn’t untill 10.30, as  they have Mass 1/2 an hour later during the winter, but as I wasn’t here last Sunday I didn’t know just when the change of time was to start. But anyway, while I was waiting I went to Confession.

I was very pleased to receive your letter yesterday, Honey, & I hope the time goes quickly for you, until you are back in camp. I suppose you won’t receive this till you get back.

It was good to hear your voice on the big tape that you sent in the parcel Darling. But I’m afraid I couldn’t hear you very well, I don’t know what went wrong, but when you were recording it didn’t wipe off what I had taped for you, I could hear you alright over the top of the talking, but it was impossible to hear you over the music, I could just hear your voice but I couldn’t understand it.

I keep forgetting to ask you if you could get a few of those Magazine cases for Dad’s slide projector please Dear. I know that it is difficult for you to get to the store to get anything, but if you get the chance their projector is a cabin (toodee) or (2 o) they cost $1.60 over here & they may be cheaper over there I know they were only about 60c in Moresby.

I love you very much my Dearest & the boys & I are very excited about you coming home for a while soon. It will be wonderful for us all to be to-gether again, if only it could be forever.

Well I’d better get to and do some knitting on your jumper, so I will say Bye for now my love,

Yours Forever,

Sandra. xxxxxxxxxx

I love you.

Postmark 6th May, 1970

James Street
Berridale
N.S.W. 2623

(Tues) 5-5-70

My Dearest Jock,

How are you Darling? I guess you are looking forward to your R&R leave very much, just as I am. I seem to have Butterflies in my stomach all the time lately as I am so excited about seeing you again soon. It will be so wonderful to be in your arms again, & just to be able to look at you & talk to you, it’s just too wonderful for words.

I rang the airlines the other day to see if there is a plain coming from Sydney to Cooma on the morning that you will arrive in Sydney, but there isn’t one until 3.15 in the afternoon, but I have written to Bert & Joan & they may go & meet you off your plain & you could spend the day with them until 3.15P.M. By the way we were wondering whether your plain will be landing at Mascot or not. Do you know? I think I told you that I am going to put the boys birthday off until you come home (we’ll have their birthday about the 26th I think) and they are very happy to think that Daddy is coming home for their birthday.

I have been thinking about the Customs Duty that I paid on the parcel you sent home & I didn’t think that there should have been any Customs Duty  to pay on it. For the way I understood it when I was talking to Mrs. Townrow, she said that you are allowed to send a certain amount of things home in twelve months which I understood to be Custom free. Do you know anything about this?

When I came back from Canberra the other day I took my engagement ring off & as the case for it was in the bottom of my port, I put it on top of the powder puff in the base of Avon Talcum Powder that you gave me, & then forgot about it. Until this morning when the boys came out to tell me that Brian was touching my powder & I went in and smacked him & sent him outside & then I suddenly realised I had my ring in that case, & when I looked it was gone & I searched high & low for it I brought Brian back inside & asked him about my ring but he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, & I was so upset about it, & I sat down & cried like mad, for I though he may have had it when I sent him outside & if he hade dropped it outside, I would probably never find it, & then I stripped his clothes off in case it had slipped down his clothes or in his shoes but it still wasn’t there, & I kept praying like mad that I would find it as I felt so horrble as if I had lost a part of you & me. Then later thank God I found it behind the wardrobe, I was so pleased to find it, I just knelt down & thanked God, & our lady & all the saints I could think of, I was never so pleased to find anything. Apparently, when Brian picked up the powder puff it fell off & rolled or bounced behind the wardrobe. I think if I ever do lose it (which I pray I never will), I could never get another one, even if we won the lottery, because another one would never be the same as this on, for it is a part of yours & my love for one and other.

I have a confession to make to0. On Sunday when I came home from Mass as I was putting the car in the garage I scratched the left hand, front side of the car against the garage door post. I don’t really know why I was putting the car in the garage for anyway as I usually leave it out during the day so the boys can pay in the garage, & I put it in at night. And I usually try to put the car in so that there is enough room to get out on the right hand but on this time I went a bit too far to the left. Well, that’s women drivers for you isn’t it?

What time on the 23rd does your plane leave Vietnam do you know?

Margaret has asked me to ask you to try & get her some Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes over there if you can. I explained to her that it is a bit hard for you to get to the store to get things but I said I would ask you anyway.

Well my Darling I will close now, looking forward to seeing you in two weeks & five days time.

All my love forever,

Sandra. xxxxxxxxxx

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