Letter to Cathie from Ford Killen
Title
Letter to Cathie from Ford Killen
Description
Writes of parcel he is sending her for Christmas in which he could not enclose a makeup set due to high customs duty required. Mentions mail embargo in the United States and its consequences. Then relates what is in the package and how he decided on contents.
Creator
Date
1946-12-06
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
One-page typewritten letter
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EKillenFReidKM461206
Transcription
Mitchel Beacon
Mitchel Field, N. Y.
Dec. 6… ‘46
My darling Cathie:
I’ve got to explain a few things (one, rather) before it is too late … I’ll send this by air mail so that I will have it to you before the Christmas parcels arrive. I bought you a nice makeup set, then found out that I could not send it without paying more than 100 percent customs…. or you would have to pay the customs when it arrived. On the field, they have a post office, but no accomodations [sic] for overseas packages…. at least for those requiring customs. However, the postmaster told me that I could send clothes and foodstuffs without charging tax…
So I still have the makeup set, which would be hard to wrap sufficiently to insure its not being broken. I did succeed in getting you two pairs of nylons and I will hunt around for other things… which I can send airmail.. Because of the coal strike and other unfortunate incidents in America, they slapped an embargo on all mails last night at midnight, and the overseas allotment has been reduced to five pounds. Luckily I got two 20 lb. boxes of foodstuffs in the mails before the restriction, and you should be receiving them soon. There’s one of my buddies who is happily married to a girl from Middlesex (Teddington) [inserted] London [/inserted] and she went to the store with me, picking out the things she thought you would need and like. I only hope you get them for Christmas, because it will come in handy, I believe. At least you won’t have to relinquish coupons for these few things [inserted] [symbol] I hope [/inserted]…. I may as well tell you what is in the packages. She (Mrs. Shimakonis, the English bride--whom, incidentally, I am dong a story on--) said fruit was still hard to get over there and rice…. so I bought an assortment of canned peaches, crushed pineapple (I couldn’t find any sliced) preserved figs, dry figs, apricots…. I bought a 10 pound (about a gallon) of canned peaches in heavy syrup…. Don’t know why, but maybe you have a large family… or they possibly will keep. Also sent some chocolate almond bars of candy, and custard mix which I shouldn’t have, because of the sugar situation there. But sugar is one commodity still on wartime ration.
Mrs. Shimakonis will bring the nylons to me and I’ll get them in the mail… they won’t weigh much. Say, honey chile, what size shoes do you wear? No need for you to give your good coupons for shoes…. if you take a small size (less than 5 lbs…. that would be about 24 to weigh that much…. you’d better not have a foot that big….) tell me the size you wear in English last, and I’ll talk to the English girl; I think they’re larger over here… she took a 4 there and a 6 here…. I saw some nice ones in the Army soft, furry mules, but that size problem….. stumped me..
So, let me know pronto! You asked about the picture I was going to send to you…. welll, [sic] that includes discussing Miss Blue; when she got poed [sic] at me for leaving she destroyed it….. [inserted] and [/inserted] [deleted] ad [/deleted] the “White Cliffs of Dover”…. I had bought for you… another mailing problem…. it’s a tough problem to get records packed well enough to keep them from breaking. So I din’t [sic] send the album; I’ll get you a dozen albums after you get here.
[inserted] P.S. Pardon – this “copy” paper was all that was available at the moment –
[underlined] “Heathcliff” [/underlined] [/inserted]
Mitchel Field, N. Y.
Dec. 6… ‘46
My darling Cathie:
I’ve got to explain a few things (one, rather) before it is too late … I’ll send this by air mail so that I will have it to you before the Christmas parcels arrive. I bought you a nice makeup set, then found out that I could not send it without paying more than 100 percent customs…. or you would have to pay the customs when it arrived. On the field, they have a post office, but no accomodations [sic] for overseas packages…. at least for those requiring customs. However, the postmaster told me that I could send clothes and foodstuffs without charging tax…
So I still have the makeup set, which would be hard to wrap sufficiently to insure its not being broken. I did succeed in getting you two pairs of nylons and I will hunt around for other things… which I can send airmail.. Because of the coal strike and other unfortunate incidents in America, they slapped an embargo on all mails last night at midnight, and the overseas allotment has been reduced to five pounds. Luckily I got two 20 lb. boxes of foodstuffs in the mails before the restriction, and you should be receiving them soon. There’s one of my buddies who is happily married to a girl from Middlesex (Teddington) [inserted] London [/inserted] and she went to the store with me, picking out the things she thought you would need and like. I only hope you get them for Christmas, because it will come in handy, I believe. At least you won’t have to relinquish coupons for these few things [inserted] [symbol] I hope [/inserted]…. I may as well tell you what is in the packages. She (Mrs. Shimakonis, the English bride--whom, incidentally, I am dong a story on--) said fruit was still hard to get over there and rice…. so I bought an assortment of canned peaches, crushed pineapple (I couldn’t find any sliced) preserved figs, dry figs, apricots…. I bought a 10 pound (about a gallon) of canned peaches in heavy syrup…. Don’t know why, but maybe you have a large family… or they possibly will keep. Also sent some chocolate almond bars of candy, and custard mix which I shouldn’t have, because of the sugar situation there. But sugar is one commodity still on wartime ration.
Mrs. Shimakonis will bring the nylons to me and I’ll get them in the mail… they won’t weigh much. Say, honey chile, what size shoes do you wear? No need for you to give your good coupons for shoes…. if you take a small size (less than 5 lbs…. that would be about 24 to weigh that much…. you’d better not have a foot that big….) tell me the size you wear in English last, and I’ll talk to the English girl; I think they’re larger over here… she took a 4 there and a 6 here…. I saw some nice ones in the Army soft, furry mules, but that size problem….. stumped me..
So, let me know pronto! You asked about the picture I was going to send to you…. welll, [sic] that includes discussing Miss Blue; when she got poed [sic] at me for leaving she destroyed it….. [inserted] and [/inserted] [deleted] ad [/deleted] the “White Cliffs of Dover”…. I had bought for you… another mailing problem…. it’s a tough problem to get records packed well enough to keep them from breaking. So I din’t [sic] send the album; I’ll get you a dozen albums after you get here.
[inserted] P.S. Pardon – this “copy” paper was all that was available at the moment –
[underlined] “Heathcliff” [/underlined] [/inserted]
Collection
Citation
F Killen, “Letter to Cathie from Ford Killen,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39864.
Item Relations
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