Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
02 March 1964
I thank you very much for remembering me on my birthday, especially since you've never received a card from me on yours. I know it's in Oct or Nov. I often feel pretty shity because I never learned your birthdate, nor tried to find out. It must have disappointed you, but I really didn't mean to neglect you. Perhaps there is some psychological meaning attached - like I try to reject the idea that you too must grow older.
I got another card. Gretchen sent me one. She must have remembered my birthday from last year, because I didn't tell her. I sure would like to translate what she wrote on it, but it would be an invasion of her privacy. It was so sweet that I couldn't write to myself such a card. You know, if I don't marry her I've probably made the biggest blunder of my life - and I'm not really started in life (only 22).
Sure was happy to learn you had heard from Joe Purcell. Wish I'da sent more Karlsberg [bier]. Please say hello for me & best wishes. I guess I'll see him when I get home - hope so. Let me know what happens (ed) when he drops by.
16 March 1964
So sorry for not writing sooner! I got the silver dollars last week; both Gretchen and I are very pleased and satisfied. Vielen Dank (many thanks). By the way, I told Gretchen what you quoted Stephen A. as saying. [Whatever wisdom his father who died in 1948 had uttered is lost to the ages.] It's highly probable that we might become engaged before I leave. Gosh, I sure wish I were through with college or had "a nest egg."
About this time, more or less, Fehr uncharacteristically found himself on the strip in one of the GI bars called Johnny's silently sipping Parkies. He didn't usually hang out on the strip; the biers were overpriced, but there was one particularly sultry, sensuous hostess he did not mind gazing upon. Then a tall, middle-aged man wearing a long, dark, leather trench coat entered and strode up to the bar. He said something softly to the barmaid and she disappeared. The owner, "Johnny" appeared. Johnny was an older man, too, probably in his fifties, and Jewish. The man in the SS Stormtroopers coat spoke quietly while Fehr was once again ogling the blonde. But, the focus of Fehr's attention, switched rapidly back to the duo.The smaller Johnny was in the Nazi's face screaming. You Nazi's made my mother lick your boots! You forced my mother and father to clean the street with their tongues! On and on! The SS Stormtrooper riveted at attention did not move; tears streamed down his face. It was all over in a few minutes, but it seemed much longer. Johnny swore at and about him even after he left.
But somehow Fehr had the impression that this was not the first such performance. Was this stormtrooper a masochist compelled to seek redemption through this strange cathartic, confessional process? Did he seek out this tongue-lashing in an attempt to assuage and cleanse his conscience of guilt?
06 April 1964
This will probably surprise you. I bought a couple pipes and am seeing how I like smoking a pipe. I haven't made up my mind yet, whether I'll continue the habit or not.
My Easter dinner consisted of a sirloin steak smothered with fried onions and three fried eggs with home fries, string beans, salad etc. That ham you had for Easter makes me hungry. They have ham, but I haven't had a big thick ham steak since I left home.
Have you ever eaten snails? I tried some tonite - pretty good. I'm eating a lot of different foods that I never dreamed of tasting at home. I sure did miss a lot of good things by not trying them.
[Steve always enjoyed dining on German home cooking, especially at Gretchen's haus. However, there was just one culinary experience he did not regret missing. He and Gretchen were in the living room and a familiar odor invaded the quarters; he tried to avoid taking note. Back home, as the eldest sibling, he had done his fair share of diaper changing. Had Gretchen's youngest sibling had an accident, he wondered? Unfortunately, no. It was dinner being prepared. Momma had a penchant for frying the piss out of kidneys! Gretchen laughed; she didn't care for kidney either.]
I'm the key man in our office for the Red Cross fund drive. I've learned a lot about the Red Cross by trying to convince other people to support it. Well, auf wiedersehen.