I'll Be Back When Summer's in the Meadow Vol 1

Paperback $16.95 — Hardcover $34.95 — PDF file on DVD disk by mail $4.99

I'll Be Back When Summer's in the Meadow

A World War II Chronicle

Volume I, 1942-1943

Compiled and Edited by Melanie A. Ippolito

Merriam Press Military Monograph 133

• Second Edition (January 2012)
• Paperback (ISBN 978-1468157895) — #MM133-P — $16.95
• Hardcover (ISBN 978-1-105-02682-9) — #MM133-H — $34.95
• PDF file on DVD disk by mail — #MM133-PDF — $4.99
• 318 pages
• 58 photos, letters, envelopes, documents
  

The beautiful and amazing love letters written by an Irish woman and an American Army sergeant during World War II. This is the first of three planned volumes and covers 1942-43. Very detailed coverage of how the war affected these two and the people around them.

Contents

• The Editor
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1942
• Muriel Mitchell
• January 1943
• February 1943
• March 1943
• April 1943
• May 1943
• June 1943
• July 1943
• August 1943
• September 1943
• October 1943
• November 1943
• December 1943

The Author

Melanie Ippolito lives in upstate New York with her husband Len. Their two grown sons and many of their extended family live close-by, and she still has ties to her cousins in Northern Ireland. Melanie is a graduate of the University at Buffalo with a BA in Sociology. She has worked in a number of public libraries throughout the years. This World War II Chronicle is her first book and she is currently working on the second volume of this trilogy.

Excerpt from the Book:

Introduction

I was thirteen when I saw them. We had recently moved and the letters, hundreds of them tied up into neat little bundles, were spilling out of two rather battered cardboard boxes in an upstairs closet. I knew immediately what they were as I had heard the story many times. My mother was a war bride from Belfast, Northern Ireland. My dad had been stationed at Musgrave Park with Harvard’s 5th General Hospital in the spring of 1942.
    My parents met at a dance at the Albert Whites Ballroom in Belfast. My mom explained, “After staring at me most of the night he had the cheek to ask me to dance at the very end of the very last dance of the evening, and then insisted on seeing me home.” My dad told it differently; it took him most of the evening to get up his nerve to approach her.
    It was an intense whirlwind of a courtship. They talked of marriage around the time the 5th General was shipping over to England. My mom was just 20 at that time and her parents would not give their permission for her to wed. My grandparents did not want to see their eldest daughter living so far from home. The problem was compounded by the fact that my dad was Roman Catholic and my mom’s family was Methodist. My grandparents were convinced that nothing but unhappiness would follow their daughter; they knew of many ‘mixed marriages’ that had ended in heartache. They were fond of my father, but believed strongly that it could never work. That was a reality in Northern Ireland in the 1940s.
    My parents were separated by war for close to three years and for another seven months after the war ended. Their letters written to each other almost daily tell their story. As a thirteen-year-old I respected their privacy and gently put the spilling bundles back into the boxes as best I could. My next encounter with the letters happened, sadly, shortly after my mother’s death at just 65 years of age in the spring of 1988. My father, brother and sisters and I were sorting through Mom’s belongings. Toward the back of her closet I came upon the letters. When my father saw me tucking some of the bundles back into the now seriously crumbling boxes, he told me he wanted to burn them. I do not know if it was his grief that made him say that, but I pleaded that he should give himself time to think before destroying something that was obviously so precious to our mother. I told him there had to be a reason Mom kept the letters safe for so many years.
    Ten years later, in March of 1998, my dad passed away just days before his 81st birthday.
    Once again my sisters, brother and I had the sad task of going through a parent’s belongings, the letters were still there…….
    My father had never spoken much about the war. Like many others of his generation he wanted to forget the horror he had seen.
    One story my dad did tell us has stayed with me. Dad took my mother to eat at a hotel in New York City just after she arrived in America. Mom burst into tears when she saw all of the food. She was thinking of her family back in Ireland doing without. Many times, when I was a young child, I watched as my mother packed up boxes of food to send to her family in Ireland.
    My mother was 16 years old when on September 3, 1939 the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. On October 25, 1940 the first sirens sounded in Belfast and again over twenty times more before the first bombs fell. In April and May of 1941 Belfast endured over ten hours of bombing by the German Luftwaffe. On Easter Tuesday alone at least 900 people in Belfast were killed during close to six hours of bombing. Belfast’s shipyards and munitions factories made it an attractive target. My mom, caught away from home during one of the raids, spent long hours in an air raid shelter while her parents were frantic with worry.
    Much of what they experienced I learned from the letters. The letters were self-censored by my parents and later read by army and civilian censors. In one of my father’s early letters home he wrote, “All the things I would like to write about would be censored.” Some of the letters did have words cut out of them by the civilian or army censors. These are indicated by the word censored.
    I will start at the beginning. My parents saved most of the letters they wrote to one another. My grandmother kept some of the letters her son wrote to her, especially those written in 1942, but I have very few that she wrote to my father. Since they were in the boxes along with several from other relatives, I can only surmise that my mother had asked my grandmother if she could have them.
    Many of the approximately 2,000 letters have been edited for content and space, and a few for privacy considerations. Some names have been changed for reasons of privacy. Nothing of historical or sociological significance has been omitted.
—Melanie A. Ippolito

January 1943

Friday, January 1st
Dearest Muriel,
    Last evening we had a little beer party and at about 8:00 they said there was a dance down at the Red Cross so we got in the trucks and were taken down. Well, to make a long story short, I never had such a miserable time in all my life, none of us even had a dance. We got back to camp at about 11:30-one of the boys had a quart and I had a few more. Every fellow was feeling the same way as I was and saying they wished they were back in Belfast. No other girl looks good to me Muriel, I have you on my mind every minute.
    About the phone call, it was really wonderful to hear your voice again. I get so lonesome and depressed at times-so every time I do I'm going to call you up. Do you think it will be OK with the office? I hope so, just hearing your voice makes me feel a hundred times better.
    Monday we start working in the lab, it's really a wonderful lab which will make things more pleasant.   -Loving you always, Raymond

Friday, January 1st
Dearest Ray,
    At the moment Olive and Audrey are doing their best to annoy me. They are singing "You are my Sunshine" at the top of their voices and trying to take my attention off writing this letter. Everything is quiet now as I'm only after giving them a piece of my mind and it has taken some effect.
    How are you getting along? Are you growing to like your new destination any better? Or do you still miss me as much as you said?
    I just love those two letters you sent me and keep reading them over and over again.
    You mention that you had written home to your mother telling her about us. I only hope she doesn't take the news as badly as my mother is doing. Every time I mention anything about us she just tells me how she feels about it and I'm not to mention anything more about it-----------------------.
    Daddy is working late tonight and I'm only after having a talk with Mommy. She did her best to make me break off with you. We talked for a while and then I started crying at some of the things she said. She then realized just how much I care for you and has just said, "Please yourself, marry Ray, and I hope you'll never rue the day you do so."
    Ray, are you still as determined to marry me as you were? If not please write and tell me. I don't ever want to rue the day I marry you so I just want to make sure you'll always love me as I love you. If your mother strongly objects are you going to marry me against her will? I'm all confused. I love you and just hate hurting my mother. I could be very happy about all of this if only she was happy too.
    Take care of yourself. I'm sorry now that I told you about Mommy but it's too late to start writing another letter.   -Yours as always, Muriel

Sunday, January 3rd
Dearest Ray,
    It's 6:30 p.m. on Sunday and I'm just in the right mood for writing. I expect you'll wonder at me not being at the Red Cross but somehow I don't feel like going there so often since you have left. I received my membership card with my photograph on it last Wednesday, so now I can get in anytime without having to wait for an invitation card. I promised to tell you what I did all week and now I have a chance to do so. On Monday night Lily and I set out to go to a show. We decided to go to the Opera House to see the Savoy Players in a play named "Charlie's Aunt." It was quite good.
    On Tuesday night Lily and I went to Albert Whites. I didn't feel like going but went anyhow. It was crowded as usual. The dance should have been quite good but I didn't enjoy myself at all. Wednesday night I stayed home and washed my hair and went to bed very early.
    Thursday night Lily, Dorothy, Laura and I went to the New Year's dance in the Red Cross. Everything went well until 12:00, then the lights were switched off for a few seconds and everyone started kissing his or her partner. I escaped from mine and had just reached the side when about six Americans caught hold of me. I struggled as best I could but two of them held me while another one kissed me. They were all pretty drunk and if it hadn't been for another boy who had danced with me earlier coming on the scene and telling them to leave me alone, I don't know how I would have got rid of them. Directly after I got my coat and Lily and I walked home together.
    I still refuse to go out with anyone else, Ray. I go to the dances with the girls and enjoy myself as best I can without you, but all the time my mind keeps wandering back to the days when you were with me.           -Always Yours, Muriel

Monday, January 4th
Dearest Muriel,
    Yesterday it was a beautiful day so about six of us started out for a walk and ended up in censored before we came to censored. We walked all around the city and country roads and took lots of pictures. At the end of the walk we reached censored and went in the Red Cross and had a few cokes. By seven o'clock I could hardly walk anymore, we went to a show, then back to the Red Cross at ten for a few more cokes. About eleven o'clock we started back to camp, honest, I thought I would never make it-I still have blisters on one foot.
    Today we started to set up the lab. We were unpacking boxes all day. Tomorrow we have to wash all the floors and clean the windows so you can see they're really making a housemaid out of me.
    We are going to get furlough soon and will be able to come over to Ireland. When can you get another week or maybe three days off work? If I know ahead of time I can ask for a certain date, so if possible let me know. How are Mother and Father, what have they to say?   -All my love, Raymond
    PS Still waiting for a letter, what's new over there?

Tuesday, January 5th
Dearest Muriel,
    I just received your first letter today and words can't express how happy I was to receive it. Muriel, you said something about not knowing if you should write and tell me about everything. Remember we had an understanding that we would so let's keep it that way.
    I see your father and mother still don't approve but we can wait until you're 21 and then do as we please. Maybe in time they will change their minds, I hope so.
    We have snow over here today. I thought the climate in Ireland was bad, England isn't any better, in fact it's not as good.   -Loving you always, Raymond

Tuesday, January 5th
Dearest Ray,
    Today I received two more letters from you. It took them over a week to reach me and since Thursday the 31st I've been watching for the postman. Already I have sent you three letters, two by air mail and one by ordinary post. Please let me know when you receive them. Someone told me that since the war letters going by air mail to where you are stationed didn't arrive any quicker than they did by boat.
    Do you remember in my second letter I told you about having a talk with Mommy? Well she is just as much against me marrying you as ever. She likes you I know, but she says that on account of religion we couldn't stay happy together for long. Daddy had a long conversation with me. I just can't go into detail about all that he said but all I can do is leave it up to you to talk to him when you come over on leave. He definitely doesn't want me to turn and he says the marriage could never be happy and if he thought it would be under the circumstances, he wouldn't object in the least. Ray, I think if you could get talking to Daddy you could maybe make him change his mind and then he could talk Mommy round. I don't mean change his mind about me turning but make it clear to him we could be happy you staying your religion and me staying mine. I told him that but he said your mother would object at me not turning and your church would never rest until I did so. I know Daddy likes you and it is only on Mommy's account he is being so stubborn. Did you tell your mother I was a different religion? Do you think she will mind much? Surely people living in America can't be like here.
    You asked if the girls at the office are still kidding me, well they are and are always asking if I got anymore letters.
    Did you find out what was wrong with Luke, is he writing to Marie or have they broken up?   -All my Love, Muriel

Thursday, January 7th
Dearest Muriel,
    Yesterday we had to clean up the lab as we were having a General in to inspect our place so all day we cleaned then had to do the same with the barracks.
    I received a few more packages from home, also books and papers. I have enough here to read for awhile to help pass the time. I sent home for a radio and hope to receive it soon.
    Tomorrow I may go to the Red Cross dance in town. I probably won't dance but I just have to get out of here at least once a week or I'll go nuts.
    I wish I would get some of your letters because there's nothing to write about unless I do hear from you.   -Loving you always, Raymond

Friday, January 8th
Dearest Muriel,
    Just received your letter written January 1st and was happy to hear from you.
    Muriel, remember months ago I said I couldn't marry you because of the things that are coming up now. We talked over things we would have to go through and things we would both have to give up. Remember I told you we had to face a lot of obstacles but that after the war we can do as we please. That's why I didn't want to say anything to your parents before I left because I knew they wouldn't like it so please, Muriel, don't start anymore trouble. I told you we would have to start from scratch and other things which will make it hard for us. I just want you to realize what you'll be giving up and when you are sure you love me we'll get married. I'm not trying to talk you out of marrying me, Muriel, because I love you too much, but I don't want you to be unhappy after we are married. So please don't have any more trouble at home because I hate being over here thinking you're miserable over there. I want you to be as happy as can be expected and someday this mess will be over and we can be together again. What were the things your mother said that made you cry? Muriel, the best thing to do is forget everything until I come over on furlough and then we can talk to them, but for now don't cause any more trouble.
    About me liking this place any better, I never can as long as I'm away from you but will have to make the best of it.   -Loving you always, Raymond

Friday, January 8th
Dearest Ray,
    Your letter dated the 30th arrived today and I was very pleased to receive it.
    I haven't been out much this week either and I've stopped dancing except on Saturday nights. Next Monday I'm starting music again after my Christmas holiday and then I'll be studying so much for my examination, I won't have time to go out at all.
    Mommy and Daddy haven't said anything to me about you since I had my talk with Daddy on Sunday night. No doubt they have discovered that all they say doesn't make me change my mind.
    I think of you every minute of the day too and keep wishing you were here. The little locket you gave me is one of my most treasured possessions.
    Everybody here sends their regards and the girls in the office are still asking, "How's Ray, and what are you going to do if he stops writing?" Don't think they are being catty-they just love to tease me.   -All my love, Muriel

Saturday, January 9th
Dearest Muriel,
    Saturday night and staying in again. I received your letter written January 3rd today. I also haven't gone out with anyone because I feel the same way you do. Last night I went to the Red Cross dance, it wasn't bad but I couldn't enjoy myself. I had one dance all evening and about 11:30 we called a taxi and came back to camp. Luke was trying to take me out of my sour mood but soon I had him feeling the same way. Muriel, I don't know what to do or say, I really miss you more than I even thought I would.
    How is everything at the office? Don't forget to let me know what you're doing and give my regards to the family.    -Loving you always, Raymond
    PS Mother wrote and said if you need any more powder or lipstick to let her know.

Saturday, January 9th
Dearest Ray,
    It's three p.m. on Saturday and once again I'm writing to you. Mommy and Daddy have gone to the Majestic and the children are out. I thought there would have been a letter from you today and was very disappointed when there wasn't.
    After writing this letter I'm going to get dressed, have tea and then go to the Red Cross.
    I wish with all my heart you were here to go with me for somehow I can't get used to going anyplace without you. I probably won't be out at all next week and will write to you every day.
    When you are writing don't put names of places in your letters as one I received was censored.   -I'll love you always, Muriel

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