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2617 North Sec. Rd.
Arlington, Va.
[[crossed out]] July [[/crossed out]]
(I was looking at date of your first.
August 13, 1943

Dear Doris, Darling,
The first thing I have to say is that I certainly wish I had written to you sooner. After reading 2 pages of your book letter, I had to take an aspirin and I have had a splitting headache all afternoon. You tried my patience for 4 pages! Now, I am going to try yours. I guess you can tell I am writing on a cut-up paper bag for the simple reason that I couldn't find any other paper wide and long enough to write you this silly letter.

Boy, have we had scorching hot weather here. The grass, flowers, victory gardens and inhabitants of Arlington County are burning up. We had a nice little rain this morning though. Yesterday I borrowed the hose from Mrs. Rose (rhymes, doesn't it. I am a poet and didn't know it.) to get back to the subject - I borrowed the hose and watered our tomato plants. The hose reaches from the back porch to the edge of the garden. The nosel [[nozzle]] leaks and I had a time adjusting it. First I would stand in the middle of the yard and squirt water on the tomatoes along the fence. Then I would turn the knob a little and swoosh! the water would squirt all over my face, glasses, and everywhere but on the tomatoes. Then I dragged and tugged until I got the hose straightened out. I tried with all the muscles in my arms (ha!ha!) to try to water the tomatoes in back of the garage that stretched all the way to the end of the garden. First I stood up on a bench by the fence but that didn't work. Then I tried tilting the hose up in the air and unscrewing the nosle [[nozzle]] just a slight little, tiny, bit. That didn't work. So I kept unscrewing and unscrewing until Ker Splash! The rubber stopper came loose and I looked like a drowned rat. I immediately went in and changed clothes and went back out to try my luck. (I finally got part of the tomatoes well-watered. I also got other things watered including Delmas, Carroll, my second change of clothes. I no sooner finished that job than Delmas asked me to take the electric sweeper which was connected all the way from the living room to the back yard – (through a window) and use a cylindrical piece of metal he had attached to take up the sand in his boat. You know the boat we have. If you don't skip it. Yesterday he decided he was going to fix it up. Boy! I spent all the rest of the afternoon cleaning out his boat. I was afraid the cord would shock me since mother and Carroll together had gotten the whole cord soaked when mother was trying to water her flowers. [?] so much for yesterday.

Now precious sugar lump, I will tell you what I did [[crossed out]] Wednesday [[/crossed out]] Monday. Jean, Elaine, and I went down town to see "Dubarry was a Lady." at the Capitol. I really enjoyed the movie. Red Skelton and Lucille Ball were the stars. It was so funny. Red Skelton took some dope by mistake and he went to sleep an 

Transcription Notes:
some words [particularly names, or what I think are names] were really hard to read