Love Letters

	Husbands, wives and sweethearts.
	This page: parents and children.

A letter from Barney to his mother January 9, 1944 written while on board USS Croatan.

Dearest Mother;
This is a card I found that I had gotten for you. As I don't have time to write a long letter, I will use this. I hope you all will write me a few letters soon. I sort of feel like I'm losing touch with folks at home when none are written. Helen and the baby are fine. Karen is really a kick and seems to be coming along pretty fast. She certainly had grown since I saw her last. I hope you and Daddy are OK and not working too hard. We have had a lot of fun lately playing rummy with Uncle Mac. He has surely been wonderful to us.
We will be out again shortly and I think this will be a rather long trip. I am glad to hear that Boots will be at C.H. That looks like a swell hospital. I know he enjoys the work from what he writes. I surely hope this mess is over before he gets out. Be sure and tell Keitchie to stay out of various reserves etc if he can. They are not all they are cracked up to be. He will be better off in a civilian capacity. Swell jobs are open to civilians now. I read of them in the Engineering Magazine and it makes me sick sometimes to think of what I could be doing. Tell him to consider the Mechanical branch. I think it is the best because you can change to any of the others that you might want to easier than from the other branches of the subject. Well I surely did miss you all these holidays. When Pack, and Luseale's box arrived with the book "A Christmas Carol" in it, it made me think of the many times it was read to us in the living room around Christmas. It is a good story and its associations as far as my memories go are something I will always remember. I missed you all very much this year. I certainly hope it is the last one I spend away from home. Thanks for the plaid shirt. I have worn it several times and it's very nice. I guess I'd better close now. Good bye for now. Give my love to everyone, Barney.

A card from Barney to his mother

A card from Barney to his mother Transcript opens in a new window

Shirley's father, Robert Leslie Buttress, right hand side, front row. Military police 1939 - 45

Shirley Cheves

During the time my father was in France he wrote many letters to my mother and me. We were not supposed to know where he was and all letters were censored. Somehow my letters slipped past the censor with, "From daddy in France" at the top and also a few French phrases such as "Ma chere petite fille" etc. He used to tell me to clean my teeth, help my mother all I could and give Clive, my brother, a big kiss from him.

In later years I prised a little information from him. He was in the Military Police and was at his post at some cross roads, directing traffic, when someone said he had better get moving and head for the beach (at Dunkirk).

My mother received a scrappy note saying he had "arrived safely in England" which someone had put in an envelope and posted, everyone tried to help each other as much as they could in those days.

A letter to Shirley from her father

FROM DADDY
IN FRANCE

MA CHER PETIT FILLE SHIRLEY
WELL DEAR I MUST TELL YOU THAT I HAVE EVIDENTLY BEEN SPELLING PETIT WRONG BUT I THINK I HAVE GOT IT RIGHT THIS TIME AND I HOPE YOU CAN READ IT FOR I TOLD YOU IN MY OTHER LETTER WHAT IT MEANT IN CASE YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN I WILL TELL YOU ONCE MORE IT IS "MY DEAR LITTLE DAUGHTER SHIRLEY" SO NOW YOU WON'T FORGET WILL YOU DEAR I HOPE YOU ARE GOING TO ECOLE REGULARLY NOW DEAR AND THAT YOUR COLD IS BETTER BY THE WAY DEAR CAN YOU TELL THE TIME YET YOU NEVER TELL ME IF YOU CAN WELL DARLING THIS IS ALL DADDY HAS GOT TO TELL YOU THIS TIME AND KISS PETIT GARCON FOR ME DEAR SO BON SOIR
FROM YOUR LOVING
DADDY

PETIT SHIRLEY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PETIT GARCON CLIVEXXXXXXXXXX

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