Michael Billings Collection - Wallet 10 - Part 9 of 18

14.9.43 

Mrs. C. M. Billings 
548 Barkins Road 
East Hawthorn 
Victoria

VX 38483 Pte M. Billings 
District Accounts Office 
New Guinea 
15.9.43 
  
Darling Kay,  
Since I got my last letter to 
you away, Nos 40 & 41 plus a cake 
have reached me and how nice it 
was to get all that in one fell swoop. 
The cake like the parcel received last
week was an old times but I’m more 
pleased than if it were one of the more 
recent because if those that have had 
to be re-addressed are reaching me
the later ones should find their mark easily. 
I’ve haven’t opened it yet but it looks to 
be in good shape. So thank you kindly 
for your many favors. 
The weather down your 
way sounds delightfully Melbourne, how
I would lap it up. That lad of ours

2/ 
must be thriving on it and the other
fine treatments you lavish upon him. 
Good stunt breaking him in to the 
sun worship, it will do him a power 
of good.  Very pleased his peevishness was 
only a passing phase but an occasional 
day off must be expected in one so 
sensitive.  Sorry your crowning glory 
has lost its super quality, when the 
burden lifts a bit, you had better 
do a spot of restoration.  As you feel 
better and better, your improvement will 
probably be reflected in the thatch.  
I'm not averse to the poor civvies having 
to pull in their belts a notch but 
unfortunately a thing like gas restriction 
affects those who should not suffer.  The
vaunted Aussie genius for improvisation
appears to have been your solution.  
As you so nicely pat put it the claims 
of Richard are paramount.  I hope

3/ 
your training effects a goodly reduction in
the contents of the wash tub.  I have
a stunt now, wash my stuff just before 
dark when its much cooler.  Too right, 
you have become a spare bashinger, it 
took the lad to convince you that you 
need a good eight hours to keep up 
the good work.  I admit you set me a 
terrible example when we was 'kids' 
but it has its moments I freely admit.  
Its good our correspondence is not a 
one sided business as regards deliveries,
there's a few more on the way to you.  
There's no bother writing you, precious,
'tis a labor of love.  I do miss the 
many happy talks with you and when 
I'm deprived of the next best thing, feel 
very lonely.  The demands of the service 
and the efficiency of H.M. Mails permitting, 
you'll be hearing plenty from young Dad.

4/ 
Seeing your later parcels look a good bet now
you need not trouble about the pyjamas 
at present, we are suffering a complete  
absence of matches and it's a work of 
art & cause going a light for a smoke.  If 
you can buy beg or borrow a lighter
(faint hope I suppose) will you airmail
it to me.  If you have to buy one 
don't pay much for it, the need for
it does not warrant it.  If you do draw 
a blank in Camberwell, maybe the
city will yield some result.  Still hopeful 
of getting a Green Envelope to discuss  
those personal matters we've just sketchily
mentioned.  The more I hear of your 
proposition to pay the Lloydies a 
visit when my spell of the chain 
comes around, the better I like the 
idea.  You can get as many bright 
ideas like that as you please.

5/ 
A great pity we can't tag a date
for the jaunt. 
News from here is - 
well there isn't any really.  Just a 
case of work, eat and sleep 'ad
nauseam' - to flirt with the classics. 
I know three or four of those classy 
Latin doovahs.  Having tasted freely 
of the excitement and the hardship 
side, a turn in a backwater will 
do me good.  Weather has resumed 
being pretty hot but for this emerald 
isle, that is not news. 
I'm posting you a copy 
of the local rag, maybe you've never 
seen and terrific daily sheet so 
here's one for a souvenir. Bye. Bye 
now, Sweetheart, I return the Salutation 
from Richard & you with compound interest 
Yours ever 
Micky.
tmHill

15.9.43 
  
Mrs M Billings 
548 Barkins Road 
East Hawthorn 
Victoria 
  
tmHill

VX 38483 Pte M Billings
District Accounts Office
New Guinea 19.9.43 

Darling Kay, 
The better the day the 
better the deed is the axiom and 
being Sunday, how's about a letter for
thee , ladye fayre. How positively 
medieaval. First a letter from you since
I last wrote,  No 41 to be precise and 
a skimpy page and a half. Drat 
that Richard, who does he think he 
is anyway. Let me tell you that I'm 
the head of the house we haven't
got, not the -------, and as such I 
demand more consideration, see. 
Anyhow, from the eagerness of my 
heart I forgive you both on account 
of it all being in such a good cause.
I am only funning really pet as you 
have served up quite a few lengthy

2/ 
ones recently and I would be an awful lad
if I accused you of not giving me all 
the news.  Its often hard to write when 
news is scanty and at times when you 
and the toddler have had the benefit 
of fresh air and fun at the same time 
giving those grand old folks pleasure 
its better you two grab some slumber 
and wake up refreshed and feeling like 
dashing off say four maybe five pages. 
Get the drill, sweetness. I'm ever so 
pleased that my respected parents 
get such pleasure from your visit, you, 
they have always loved as a daughter
and in my 'warby' imagination I 
think that little Richard to them 
as is as though it were me going 
over to see them. I don't need to 
tell you how attached I am to them, 
particularly Ducky as I used to  
address her. I've always been sensible

3/ 
of a deep feeling of gratitude to her to say 
nothing of admiration and had hoped 
when the time came for me to wed and 
leave the old home, my sweetheart 
and I could go across and often and
 show 'em how little forgotten they were 
in her hearts.  It's rather tragic for 
mothers to wear their fingers to the 
bone for their children only to see 
them leave one by one and too often 
become too immersed in their own 
concerns to worry about trying to brighten 
the old folks in the evening of their lives. 
To know that my own wife and as male 
representation my infant son do a lot to 
make them feel not neglected is a 
source of deep satisfaction to me. 
We used to have some great nights in 
the halcyon days over at Elizabeth St, 
everyone talking at once, the table 
groaning with heaps of tasty grub