March 21, 1943.

John R. Newton S 1/C

Naval Rec. Sta. 

Barracks 3

Casco Bay, Maine 

Dear Jean: 

Well how are you doin’ kid? I thought I’d drop you  a line or two on this first day of Spring. 

Well to-night I’m not quite as tired as I was the night I left you a few weeks ago. I don’t know what made me so tired that night but I mean to tell you I was dead. When I got up town that night it was about quarter past two, unfortunately. I found I had no door key, and the hour being what it was, and I wasn’t to hep on the idea of traveling all that distance home so I stopped on a side street at what looked to me to be a small hotel and that’s exactly what it was from the out side and the lobby was small. I asked the clerk at the desk for a single room. He told me he didn’t have one but would give me a double room for $2.50, I wasn’t in any mood to walk all over town so I took it. A colored red cap took me to my room and asked me if I wanted anything, I asked him to run across the street and get me a sandwich, but I was sound asleep before he got back with it. The next thing I remember it was daytime and the telephone next to my bed was ringing and the clerk down stairs was telling me it was ten o’clock in the morning, that’s when I told him to call me. I got up and washed and I looked the place over. Gosh it was nice, generally I get one room with a bed and wash stand and a mirror but this place was really large, it had a small hallway which entered a small near parlor with a couch and a chair and radio, the next room was a more or less small dining room, the next was a small kitchen with a range and a table, the next was the bedroom which was the largest room of all, and the next was the bathroom with a shower and bath. It looked to me as tho it was an old apartment redecorated, and it was really nice but the clerk must have lost money on it unless he sold it as a apartment but evidently he didn’t or he was just giving a service man a break. But the night I came in I was so tired I don’t even remember walking through all those rooms. But when I got up the toasted cheese sandwich was sitting on the bureau. I was going to call you on the phone and talk to you that morning but figured you were probably very busy, so I left went to a drug store, had something to eat and went up home. But there was the experiences of a very tired fellow. I wondered if I looked as tired as I felt when I said goodnight to your mother and sisters. I guess I should have taken that cup of black coffee you offered me, and believe me I didn’t have a drop to drink. 

Got to leave now, but write to me as soon as you can. 

As Ever 

Jack 

P.S. Say ‘hello’ to Low and Joe for me, don’t forget.