R-208467 L.A.C. MOORE, J.L.
#436 SQDN. R.C.A.F.
S.E.A.A.F.
June 23/45

Dear Mom & Dad,

I just received your letter of June 9th, and was very glad to hear from you. Many many thanks for the swell snaps too. You folks really look the proud parents-in-law and prospective grandparents. I guess you two will be almost as happy as Gwen and Jim will be, eh? Thanks a lot for sending that box. I'll sure be glad to get it. Gee, I can't take my eyes off these pictures. Your faces really look good, and its nice to see the house with flags on it, and the cottage and the blossoms. Gwen, Lillian and Margaret look fine. How are all the other relatives, by the way? Say hello for me when you see them. Do you ever see Uncle Lin, Mom? I've written him, but I guess he doesn't write letters, eh? Has he ever mentioned hearing from me? By the way, did I ever mention our pets or mascots? We've got several mongrel pups, four monkeys, a queer-looking but affectionate cat, and, a hen of all things. The mess tent is in a huge marquee and sometimes when a monkey gets loose and starts teasing some of the pups, it's a real circus. Now that the monsoons are really at their peak it is somewhat cooler, that is, at nights. I actually got a cold one night a while ago and it developed into something very much like the last stages of hay fever. I had a sore throat & nose, and I wheezed a little. Believe me Mom I am truly grateful to you for sending that Vick's inhaler. I am getting over the cold now. It's gone down, resulting in an upset stomach and a touch of dysentery. I didn't get much sleep last night. I was out of bed, & into my rubber boots & monsoon cape, and on the run several times to the "parliament buildings". It was the same most of today at work but I am feeling better tonight. I haven't had any stomach cramps (the warning to start running) since suppertime. The only remedy we have is to stop eating & take lots of epsom salts to get rid of the germs. You know, there is a lot about this life that is just like it was while I was on embarkation leave, remember? Of course, it is much worse out here, and you can't keep to your bed like I did then. The rains are so heavy that all the tents have to have great trenches around them, so that it's much like a moat being full of water all the time. The camp is a mass of trenches and bridges. I got a letter from Jim a while ago too, written on May 31st from Warrington, telling me all about his meeting with Margaret. He complimented me on my good taste. I got a lovely long letter from Margaret about the meeting too, before Jim's letter came. She says she knows more about me now. Boy, would I like to have heard their conversation! By the way, Jim should be home now, I guess, or pretty close to home, at least. I appreciate your advice to mark time & write good sensible letters, Mom. We have been doing that for some time now, finding out more and more about each other. Our likes & dislikes, differences in our way of life, etc. We even have some good arguments & quarrels. Dueling with words at 10,000 miles, I call it. I think that life with her would be wonderful. As for the stuff I wrote a few months after I left, -- well, nothing can be done about that, not that I regret writing it either, for it is only what I would have been saying if I had stayed in England. I'll bet you & Dad were a little more sentimental than sensible at one time, too. Am I right? You also tell me to leave my courting till I get a chance to do it personally instead of by correspondence. I'm afraid I'll have to do just that. I believe more than ever that she'll wait for me since Jim's letter, because from what he said the lightning must have struck her just as hard of not harder than it did me. Do I sound silly, Mom? It's been over eight months now since I left England, so there must be something to it.

I'm sorry to hear that your weather is not exactly enjoyable. We don't go swimming so much any more, or get sun-bathing time in because of the rains. The sea gets rather rough. George & I built a swell sail-boat and called her "The Buck-shee Belle," quite a while ago but she was battered to pieces and buried under sand one night even though we had pulled her up past high tide mark. The terrible boiling clouds make flying very perilous too. It's like a rough sea in mid-air if you can picture it.

I'm glad to hear Gwen is well & happy with you. I suppose you will all feel much better when Jim does get home. I didn't know Dad played cribbage. There's a lot of it played here, but I haven't learned the game yet. I guess I never did go for cards very much. It's the out-doors for me. Most of us have taken on a more yellowish hue from the malaria pills we take daily, and we don't look quite so tanned. Say hello to Jack Hewitt for me when you see him again. I'm glad to hear Bill Nicol is home and rid of this country at last. It's no place for a white man as I've said many times before, I guess. I can understand him being at a loss for how to occupy his time. In the service you know everyone in your unit and you're nearly always busy working or trying to find some pleasure somehow somewhere. Also there are lots of other things such as washing, mending, repairing our makeshift beds, tightening up the tent, etc. We build ourselves chairs from old packing cases, too. Yes, everyone voted out here too. I think we all wanted the C.C.F. in, but I guess the civilian population doesn't see things from our standpoint. Speaking of voting, we were issued with Declaration documents the other day on which we had to signify in which theatre of war we wished to continue our service, the South Pacific, Western Hemisphere, or the European (perhaps England & perhaps the continent) theatre. I indicated my preference for Europe because of Margaret. I didn't want the Pacific because I've had my fill of the tropics. I didn't want the Western Hemisphere because it might mean the bush again, and after this, I don't think I could take it, even though it would mean seeing you all again on the way there. I hope you'll understand. I've got to serve three years ex-Canada in any event so I'd rather be near Margaret. It'll only be two more years and two months anyway which isn't so terribly long. The ten months overseas time I've got now has passed rather quickly, I think. However there's always the possibility they may discard this declaration business and come out with some other plans for us. We have learned to expect anything over here. My oil is nearly used up so I'll say goodnight hoping this finds everybody well at home.

Your loving son,

Joe.