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# Letter — 23 Aug 1945, to Arthur (from Karl & Lucille)

**Sender**: Karl (95 Church St., W. Warwick, R.I.) — with a coda from his wife, Lucille
**Recipient**: Cpl. Arthur M. Yena 31289110, 347th Bomb Sq. (H), 99th Bomb. Gp. (H), A.P.O. #520, c/o Postmaster, N.Y., N.Y.
**Date written**: Thursday, 23 August 1945, 6:45 P.M. (year inferred 1945 from V-J Day + postmark)
**Postmark**: West Warwick, R.I., Aug. 25, 1945, 6 PM
**Stationery**: Plain — no letterhead noted
**Type**: Handwritten
**Scan location**: `scans/processed/1945-08-23_to-arthur_from-karl-lucille/` *(scan-mapping pending)*
**Transcription source**: Gemini/ChatGPT vision pass 2026-06-06, 2-pass QC 2026-06-07
**Confidence**: clean (~94%)
**Note**: **INBOUND** — written TO Arthur in Italy, not by him. A V-J Day letter from Karl at 95 Church St. with a closing coda from Lucille. Envelope bears Arthur's own routing notations: "Rcd. 2 Sept," "Ans. 13 Sept." **Open flag**: the writer is settled as "Karl" (clear K-glyph), but whether this "Karl & Lucille" couple's Karl is Arthur's *brother* Karl or a distinct couple remains a Mom-interview item.

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## Transcript

> *[Karl — Letter 2A]*
>
> 95 Church St.
> W. Warwick, R.I.
> Thursday Aug. 23, 6:45 P.M.
>
> Dear Art,
>
> This letter seems to be written [ink blot] in a happier atmosphere now that V-J Day is a reality. For even though you may not come home before Christmas still it seems to be getting closer. Boy what a Christmas this would be if you can make it by then. Even though my lips haven't touched alcohol since New Year 1940, I shall cast all resolutions aside to the winds and partake of the evil spirits in commemoration of your homecoming. How is that for eloquence of letters. All kidding aside, when you come home it certainly will be a happy day and what a day.
>
> I was glad to hear that at last, long last, you have a roof over your head. Even though I haven't experienced a dust storm personally, by stretching my imagination and some more or less [sneezed?] it, and from that and all other information at hand it must be no picnic, what with picking dust out of your eyes, ears and throat etc.
>
> In your letter you say quote, "In closing it should be mentioned that a lengthy duration of rejoicing followed the notification." I burst by that wise move that you were merely glad and not so overjoyed that you celebrated by throwing a mild party. As you know that I wouldn't be a party to any such goings on! For I should be no party to no such mild celebration. I should rather be disgraced by not writing than to take a chance of you suffering a heart attack and shock. There will be an intermission between this and the next paragraph while I keep the kids amused before they retire for the night at which time I shall resume.
>
> 8:15 P.M.
>
> Whew, what a job. I just put the kids to bed. I chased Lucille to the show today. I went Sunday. It's almost next to impossible to get anyone to stay with the kids with the result outside of going to the drive-in theatre a couple of times, we haven't been to the Palace or Thornton's in a 3 or 4 months I guess.
>
> So Tuesday night I went and I won't say I particularly cared for the picture but still it makes a change. So I've been getting after Lucille to go. She went tonight with the girl next door. While we are old fogies and like to stay home night and go to bed early, still it gets monotonous so a show makes a bit of a change.
>
> If you should take my medicine and go to school again you can have a ready patient. It seems I can sleep 24 hours and still I'm tired when I get up. As just the job is the most enjoyable thing I look forward to during the whole day. Gee, to think once I was a young man and in my prime. So if you are an M.D. you can look me over. In all probability you'll prescribe the graveyard, but I'll take a chance, nevertheless that you can salvage something out of this wreck of mine.
>
> Lucille told me not to read this letter as she wants to write a few words. Here is where you start getting bored after reading such trash as I have written all! I beg your pardon, I mean such literary treasure. See you soon, and do me, so let's keep our fingers crossed and see how everything come about.
>
> Love,
> Karl
>
> P.S. Don't let Cillie put anything over on you, she will probably try to slip you a wooden nickel so beware.
>
> ---
>
> *[Lucille — Letter 2B]*
>
> Dear Arthur:
>
> Just ignore the above post script because if I had a nickel, wooden or otherwise, I wouldn't give it away.
>
> It's been raining now for two days which makes things very dreary especially with the kids staying inside and making so much racket you don't hear anything else. Karl stretched out in his chair with the encyclopedia open before him trying to look studious and failing miserably because I happen to know he only looks at the pictures.
>
> Well victory is finally ours and maybe now we can settle down to some halfway normal living. We're all keeping our fingers crossed and hoping you get home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. My brother expects to get a furlough in November when he will have finished basic training.
>
> We're still waiting patiently for the deed to our house, so we can ask the tenants to vacate. The way things look now it will be December before we move in. I guess Karl has told you all the news there is so I'll say so long.
>
> Lucille
>
> The End
>
> (and you probably murmur "Thank God!")

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## Major content / narrative significance

- ⭐⭐ **A V-J DAY LETTER — the war is OVER and the corpus knows it.** Karl opens: *"This letter seems to be written in a happier atmosphere now that V-J Day is a reality."* Japan surrendered Aug 14–15 1945; this is written Aug 23, the postmark Aug 25. This is one of the very few letters in the entire corpus written into the post-victory world. The whole register has shifted from endurance to homecoming logistics — *"even though you may not come home before Christmas still it seems to be getting closer."* The arc's emotional climax (Arthur comes home Sept/Oct 1945) is now visible on the horizon to the people writing to him.
- ⭐⭐ **THE TEETOTALER'S TOAST — the single best line in the letter.** *"Even though my lips haven't touched alcohol since New Year 1940, I shall cast all resolutions aside to the winds and partake of the evil spirits in commemoration of your homecoming."* Karl has been dry for 5½ years and is willing to break that streak for one occasion: Arthur walking back through the door. It's the warmest possible statement of how much the homecoming means, dressed in self-mocking, mock-formal prose (*"How is that for eloquence of letters"*). Wrap this for the headline.
- ⭐⭐ **INBOUND letter — a whole new category.** This is written TO Arthur in Italy (347th BS / 99th BG, APO #520), not BY him. The corpus is overwhelmingly Arthur's outbound mail; inbound letters like this one are precious because they show what the family *sounded like*, the jokes they shared, and what they knew about Arthur's life overseas. The envelope notations in Arthur's own hand — **"Rcd. 2 Sept, Ans. 13 Sept"** — prove he received it ~10 days later in Italy and replied; the inbound and the (lost) reply bracket a real exchange.
- ⭐ **QUOTES ARTHUR'S OWN LETTER BACK AT HIM — a rare window onto a missing Arthur letter.** Karl quotes a line Arthur wrote: *"In closing it should be mentioned that a lengthy duration of rejoicing followed the notification."* That is Arthur's deadpan, mock-official way of saying the unit celebrated the Japanese surrender. We don't have that outbound Arthur letter, but Karl preserves a sentence of it — and Karl plays along with the joke (*"I burst by that wise move that you were merely glad and not so overjoyed that you celebrated by throwing a mild party"*). The two men trade the same bone-dry, ironic-formal humor; this is a family voice, not just one man's.
- ⭐ **CONFIRMS ARTHUR'S DUST-STORM / "ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD" NEWS.** *"I was glad to hear that at last, long last, you have a roof over your head… it must be no picnic, what with picking dust out of your eyes, ears and throat."* This corroborates (from the home side) Arthur's post-VE conditions with the 99th BG — finally indoor quarters after rougher billeting, and a dusty location. A useful external check on Arthur's own accounts of mid-1945 living conditions.
- ⭐ **THE MEDICAL-SCHOOL RUNNING JOKE — Arthur's post-war plans peeking through.** *"If you should take my medicine and go to school again you can have a ready patient… So if you are an M.D. you can look me over. In all probability you'll prescribe the graveyard, but I'll take a chance."* The family clearly knows Arthur is thinking about school after discharge — possibly medical school, on the GI Bill. Karl casts himself as Arthur's first (hopeless) patient. **Mom-interview candidate: did Arthur consider medicine / what did he study post-war?**
- ⭐ **DOMESTIC TEXTURE: the kids, the babysitter problem, the picture shows.** Karl writes in real time across the evening — *"6:45 P.M."* then *"8:15 P.M… I just put the kids to bed."* He and Lucille can't find anyone to watch the kids, so apart from the drive-in they *"haven't been to the Palace or Thornton's in a 3 or 4 months"* (the Palace and Thornton's = local West Warwick / Pawtuxet Valley picture houses). They're *"old fogies"* who *"go to bed early."* This is the ordinary home life Arthur is fighting his way back toward — a deliberate counterpoint to APO #520.
- ⭐ **LUCILLE'S CODA — the encyclopedia gag + the house deed.** Lucille's tone is drier and quicker than Karl's. Two days of rain, kids *"making so much racket you don't hear anything else,"* and Karl *"stretched out in his chair with the encyclopedia open before him trying to look studious and failing miserably because I happen to know he only looks at the pictures."* The affectionate teasing tells us as much about the marriage as anything Karl wrote. Then the concrete domestic news: **they're waiting on the deed to a house, can't move in until the tenants vacate, and expect to move in December 1945.** Her brother gets a **furlough in November after finishing basic training** — another Pawtuxet Valley boy in the service.
- **THE WOODEN-NICKEL BIT runs across both halves of the letter.** Karl's P.S.: *"Don't let Cillie put anything over on you, she will probably try to slip you a wooden nickel so beware."* Lucille answers it directly: *"Just ignore the above post script because if I had a nickel, wooden or otherwise, I wouldn't give it away."* They are riffing off each other on the same page — the inbound letter captures a married couple's back-and-forth in real time. Note **"Cillie"** = Lucille's nickname (NOT "Ollie"). Lucille signs off with self-deprecating flourish: *"The End (and you probably murmur 'Thank God!')."*

## Family-tree refresh from this letter

- **Karl** — writes from **95 Church St., W. Warwick, R.I.** Teetotaler since New Year 1940; literary, wry, self-mocking; a father of young kids; tired and overworked (the M.D. joke). ⚠️ **OPEN: is this Karl Arthur's BROTHER Karl** (per "Karl & Lucille" couple) **or a distinct correspondent?** The K-glyph is clear; the relationship is not. Mom-interview item. Cross-ref: a "Karl" sent Arthur a chess game and received cactus boxes in 1943 (1943-03-05_to-pop; 1943-09-04 to-Anna), and "Karl & Lucille" recur as a couple.
- **Lucille ("Cillie")** — Karl's wife. Dry, teasing, sharp-tongued in the best way. Waiting on a house deed; has a brother in basic training (furlough Nov 1945).
- **Karl & Lucille's children** — young (need a babysitter; put to bed at 8:15; *"making so much racket"*). Number/names not given.
- **Lucille's brother** — in the service, finishing **basic training**, expecting a **furlough in November 1945**. New name-slot (unnamed). Possible new Pawtuxet Valley serviceman.
- **The "girl next door"** — went to the show with Lucille. Unnamed neighbor.
- **Arthur (recipient)** — Cpl., 347th BS / 99th BG, APO #520, post-VE Italy; has indoor quarters in a dusty location; wrote home about the unit's V-J celebration; the family expects him home by Thanksgiving/Christmas.

## Open questions

- ⚠️ **Is "Karl" Arthur's brother, or a separate married correspondent?** Settled as "Karl" (K-glyph clear). Unresolved relationship — **top Mom-interview item.** If brother: this reframes several 1943 "Karl & Lucille" references (cactus boxes, chess game) as sibling correspondence.
- ⭐ **Did Arthur consider medical school / school after the war?** The M.D. running joke implies the family knew of a post-war school plan. What did Arthur actually study/do post-1945? Mom-interview.
- **What house did Karl & Lucille buy (the deed they're waiting on)?** They expected to move in **December 1945** once tenants vacated. Where in W. Warwick? Did they get it?
- **Who is Lucille's brother** (basic training, Nov 1945 furlough)? Another local serviceman to slot into the tree.
- **[sneezed?]** — uncertain word in Karl's dust-storm paragraph; the sentence ("by stretching my imagination and some more or less [sneezed?] it") is garbled in the source and may be a transcription artifact of Karl's loose grammar. Low stakes; flag for a fresh pixel look if the scan is revisited.
- **"I burst by that wise move"** — likely "I gathered/inferred by that wise move…"; preserved verbatim as written; another candidate for a pixel recheck.
- **Date-year inference**: the letter heads only *"Thursday Aug. 23"* with no year; **1945 is firmly fixed** by the V-J Day reference + the Aug 25 1945 postmark (Aug 23 1945 was indeed a Thursday). No flag.

## Themes

inbound-letter · from-karl-and-lucille · V-J-DAY · WAR-IS-OVER · HOMECOMING-ANTICIPATION · teetotaler-toast · evil-spirits-for-your-homecoming · quotes-arthurs-own-letter · unit-celebrated-victory · dust-storm-roof-over-your-head · 347th-BS-99th-BG · APO-520 · post-VE-italy · MEDICAL-SCHOOL-JOKE · arthur-post-war-plans · domestic-home-front · kids-babysitter-picture-shows · palace-and-thorntons · old-fogies · wooden-nickel-running-gag · cillie-not-ollie · lucille-coda · encyclopedia-only-the-pictures · house-deed-december-move · lucilles-brother-basic-training · 95-church-st-w-warwick · rcd-2-sept-ans-13-sept · KARL-BROTHER-OR-NOT-OPEN