19 May 1945

Dear Dad,

I don’t remember having heard
about your beef project. With an
experienced man like Garland to help,
you should do pretty good. Sorry to
hear that “Old Bess” didn’t do so good. Under
the circumstances I imagine a sale
would be the best thing. Glad to hear
that we have a Registered bull. How many
head of stock do you have altogether now?

I’m sending a picture that was
in our “Star[s] and Stripes” of a German
locomotive. It looks a great deal like
ours. It far surpasses anything
that I have seen in England. I’ll
try to get pictures of an English engine
one of these days.

Our education and recreation program
starts next week. We will have the
opportunity to meet two classes (on
government time) per week. I think
the classes meet twice a week. Slide
rule and blueprint reading are the only
two on the first program that I would
be interested in. I’m going to take a
Spanish course if I get the chance.

I was glad and relieved to get the
details of Mom’s illness. I guess that
I had let my imagination run away
from me. Maybe she will recover full
health this summer while Mildred
is there to help out.

Love to all,
Lawrence

[Update: see the post “The Education Program” for all the details of the “education and recreation program” he mentions in this letter.]