Aug 041942
 

Tuesday
Glasgow
My darling,
We are getting settled down a bit now and spent last night running round the town on Glasgow’s famous trams. As in Aberdeen, the fare is only 1d for servicemen and there are some long runs here. Last night we spent a full hour on a circular route at a cost of 2d – 1d out and 1d return. We hear that there is a route on which you can travel 23 miles! We are going to try to find it later. Glasgow itself is just about as depressing as any other big city with no money to spend, and the quarter where we are resembles in many respects some of the more dismal side-streets off Brownlow Hill. That’s the nearest Liverpool equivalent I can think of. Incidentally, we are told that the hostel we are occupying is a former V.D. hospital! What do you think of that? It’s obviously been a hospital at one time, but has not been used as such for some time now. Still, there’s a laundry here where the Wrens will do normal personal washing – anything except really heavy stuff – for 6d a week. That’s reasonable enough.
The course is not too bad. I think I told you the hours yesterday, but I didn’t mention that we have two good stand-easies – 20 minutes to half an hour each – one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. We are concentrating at the moment on learning touch-typing, said by the instructor to be the most difficult part of the course. We are learning it in the usual style with a mask over the keys and my little finger on my left hand is sore as hell with banging the letter A, which appears in every word in the first lesson. Later we will have to operate machines which punch a perforated tape, exactly the same as the tape used in the ‘Daily Post’ Creed Room. We have to learn to read that tape from the perforations and also another tape on which Morse is represented by wavy lines – an undulator, it is called. Reading the tape is only a matter of practice, for it employs the Morse code in one form or another. Finally, we are apparently expected to be able to send and receive Morse at about 12 words a minute, which should be easy enough, especially as we don’t get any Syko – a combination of letters and figures – which was my chief bugbear at Torry. So far as we can make out at the moment the course is expected to last about 12 weeks, but it was extended twice for the last class who were here so there is no certainty about it.
One good thing is that I should be a pretty hot typist when the war is over, which is always a useful thing in our job. For young fellows it is a fine training for if they take the course seriously and get on as far as they can in this branch, they should be able to pick up jobs in the Post Office, cable companies, and newspaper offices when the war is over. In many ways I think it offers more scope than wireless operator to a young fellow. We are being trained at the Post Office school, which is always a recommendation when looking for a job.
I thought about you a good deal over the weekend and hope things went well. Milly and May will be there today, probably arriving just about now – 1.30. I wonder if they are and if Wendy and Michael are at the bottom of the road waiting for them to get off the bus? Or are you having dinner early? I expect May will, as usual, be in a desperate hurry to get back to Limedale.
Did you see the story of Moscow’s warning to the German people about the second front? The figures of the Allied strength look pretty imposing on paper. I wonder how effectively that strength will be used? Glasgow is a very Communistic city, with notices chalked on the pavements in all parts of the town. They are playing hell about the attitude of the Labour leaders towards the pensioners, and laugh at the Labour members voting against each other. After the war Labour is certainly going to have to pull up its socks. I think that, in any case, they are damned. The International Communist Party may stand a good chance then. Let’s hope we see the end of the Luke Hogan, Simon Mahon crowd in local politics.
Tis now after tea and I’m finishing your letter before doing some washing and trying to mend my shoes. That, together with a good wash and shave, will just about fill up the entire evening. The weekend seems to have been a bit of a hotchpotch, doesn’t it? What with the weather and one thing and another. Do you mean to say Harold took bus and train to go to the Rose for a drink when he was away for the weekend? That’s the best I’ve ever heard. He’s a rum lad alright, still he seems to have done a good thing with the see-saw. In a way I’m jealous of anyone who does anything for the children. It’s silly, I know, and selfish too, but I feel as if I’m being robbed of my rights! Still, I suppose you can’t expect youngsters to wait five or six years for a see-saw and all the other small things kids delight in. Another two years of war and possibly another three of “peaceful” occupation of some war ravaged spot. Then home to compete, at the age of 40, with all the youngsters. What a hot idea.
The explanation about the O/Coder is that, before applying for this course, we had changed our rating to coder. For some reason or other, however, we cannot change our rating on this course until we have completed and passed the course, when we will become signallers, always providing, of course, that I have sufficient grey matter to absorb the sort of thing any nit-wit girl can pick up in no time. Anyway, I’m certainly not going to pull my insides out like I did at Aberdeen. I’ve learned that lesson.
I’m sorry I can’t give you any guarantee about a nice shore station. How would you like to come and see me at Murmansk or Archangel, or perhaps you would prefer Freetown or Colombo? Seriously, love, we have no idea where we are going as there has only been one crowd of fellows on this course before us, at least here, that is.
To return to the visit of Chris and Harold, why didn’t you get Betty Perry to come in while you went with both of them? Or wouldn’t Chris wear that? It’s nice to be missed so much and for places to have such associations of ideas so far as you are concerned, but don’t be silly and stay in just because I’m not there. Very soon the darker nights will be coming and you won’t be able to go out. Get about all you can in the next few weeks, love. That will please me much more than thinking of you fastened to the house. Don’t be jealous of all those other husbands. It may be the last leave a lot of them will get for some time. I’ve got a feeling it won’t be long now and don’t forget we won’t advertise the second front by giving everyone embarkation leave. Bill seems lucky with his leave, but of course he must pay quite a lot of his own fares, which we couldn’t afford to do from places like Aberdeen or Devonport. Where is Bill stationed now, have you heard?
Glad to hear the news of the allotment. So long as the weather isn’t cold, the rain should bring things on well. You’ll have to live on peas for the next few weeks from the sound of things. Never mind, they will make up for the lack of cabbage and other veg. You should get a good crop off those potatoes. Have you heard from Molly about bottling the peas? I expect they will send the special jars with spring tops.
Darling, try to keep your urges under control for the next 12 weeks or so. Otherwise you are going to have sleepless nights, miserable days and, into the bargain, will get jumpy and irritable. I know what it’s like. It seems months since I was home and I, too, have my urges you know, although in view of our arrangement I don’t tell you of them all. You might get too conceited if I did! I don’t know whether my urges are obvious to everyone, but an old man – rather a nasty old man – was trying to thrust a box of evidence into my hand on the way back here to tea! If only I could have found a use for them!
Well, angel girl, I must be off now. I do adore you, my own. Take good care of yourself for you’re the one thing I have in life you know. All my love, precious.
Ever your own,
Arthur X