Sun, Oct 3, 1943: blanket leave

"I'm coming home, maybe, in the very near future.  Blanket leave will be issued to all trainees on the station starting on Saturday October 23 at 1 A.M.  The reason for the lateness of the starting hour is that our football team plays here the night before and Lieut. Morrissey evidently wants to insure a big crowd for the game. Also, our company has been assigned the task of marching and presenting some physical exercises for the crowds half-time entertainment....Tell Dad to have all the work he wants done lined up and Barbara to have my phonograph in good shape.  Stanley can have a piano solo prepared or maybe a vocal solo would be more reasonable, and Mom can prepare the bed, so I can spend the most of my leave asleep."

-- Letter from my father, Cape Girardeau, Mo., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., family, Sunday, October 3, 1943.  This was my father’s first leave after joining the Navy in July 1943.