Liberty Ships: Letter from Nana, September 16, 1994

This is the first part of a letter from Catherine St. Bonnet Shaffer Currier (1914-2009), my maternal grandmother 

Sept. 16, '94

Dear Erik,

It's been a long time since I've heard from you. What a nice surprise!

Where did you ever hear we were in flood stage? This is wet country and last week we had two showers, the first since spring. It is so dry we had forest fires all over Or[egon] and Wa[shington]. Today it is 95 and dry. 

I wrote a beautiful obit for Uncle Curt [Curtis St. Bonnet, September 5, 1911-July 29, 1994] but his former boss cancelled it. I called and had one put in the paper ten days later, not much.

We had a service in home and his body was taken to Willamette Cemetery in Portland (mil.[itary])  and his flag, with his name, in the parade of flags.

I asked his former boss for anything he had in his room but I haven't heard anything from her. Papers, etc.

Before and during the war, he was a crewman on Liberty Ships, big bonus for ammo and fuel!!

While in Egypt he got a bad fever so was put in a U.S.A. hospital and missed his ship so he walked his way west and the draft board caught up with him in Nebraska and he was sent to Korea. After the war, somewhere along the line, he was sent to Alaska and then Hawaii -- he always said it was a wonder they didn't die with the total temperature change. Ha ha! He was only in Italy and other places while on the Liberty Ships.