Michael Billings Collection - Wallet 13 - Part 2 of 11

VX38483 Sgt. M. Billings, 
District Accounts Office, 
New Guinea. 4. 3. 44. 

Darling Kay,      
It is with a more amenable disposition that I commence  
this screed for yesterday and today have yielded up a modest harvest  
of letters; two from you, those of the 24th and 26th Feb, as well as one each  
from Tom and my old chinaplate Syd.Thanks so much ,sweetheart,I was ever  
so pleased to resume contact with you and glad too, that you have been  
faring well too. The little chap is having a patchy trot but it was fine  
to see that he had gotten another peg to make its appearance and was  
not unduly knocked out thereby. He’s certainly a tiger just at present,  
all right and I bet you wouldn’t mind Paw being around to shoulder some  
of the burden thrown upon you by his energy and his reluctance to keep  
still and go to sleep. You are quite right ,I’m glad he’s not a pretty  
boy,after many scrutinies of his little face,I can tell you he’s more  
than ever I expected to be the proud father of, and a great credit to you  
Kay darling. He has a bonny expression and to have such a great lad  
one must be prepared to put up with the antics that go with such a happy  
and intelligent temperament. The stubborn young lout, he'knows when he’s 
been on a good thing in refusing to have any truck with bottled milk  
but he just is growing too old now and will have to knuckle down to  
embarking on a man’s tucker. It is a bit difficult to go against it when  
he’s not his best but it’s been a drain on your vitality long enough  
and I was pleased to read you made a start on weaning him. xxx  
You can tell him from me that the Dadda he’s chortling about will tan  
his backside if he does not stop playing up. It must give you a great  
kick to see him up on his pins ,I can guess how he’s giving that new  
found novelty a proper hiding. 
I was interested in reading of your search for  
Home Sweet Home and after your report,I find I am more confident than  
before that something O.K.will turn up.Dunno why for you were not so  
optimistic but I just reckon you’ll click.Gee, I wish it was’nt so hard,  
it sounds rotten for you to go to such trouble xxx with a baby  
to care for and all. Please don’t wear yourself out, pet, although I know  
it’s not much use chiding a headstrong young rip like you. Your fightin’  
blood is up, I see so I suppose you will wring a flat out of someone or  
burst. If it is any use, I wish you full and early success for if anyone

2. 
deserved a turn of Fortune’s wheel,it’s you and if you click I can tell you  
I shall leave no stone unturned to stick around for a spell for to live in  
a possie ,be it ever so humble ,presided over by you is my fondest dream.  
Whoo-ee, what a luscious vision. I can picture you now, ddessed in that floral  
dress of simple charm and you,looking as radiant as I remember you,waiting  
for me to blow in,waiting for me,that’s the beauty of it,I will be the  
lucky bunny all right. 
The tidings you brought from Noel was very  
interesting and I think she and the fat gent can well be admitted to the  
parental ranks. It’s funny ,me never having beheld my own son ,it’s far from  
that really, but I know that there’s absolutely no substitute for your  
own flesh and blood and though it brought you many hours of agony and  
and worry to the xxxxx last person in the world I ever want to hurt, I’m  
convinced that we would lack for a lot, had we not that bonny boy. However,  
to get back to the subject, I don’t quite know if it is etiquette to pass  
felicitations before the happy event, men, you know men, should not notice such  
things but,mifit is in order, tell them I’m mighty pleased to hear of the  
coming of a great blessing. 
Quite interesting too, the news that the old  
kit bag had found a home at last and had’nt been rifled either. Sorry you  
had to traipse all the way over to Hawthorn for it, I addressed it to  
Camberwell. I thought a few of the things were only fit for the rubbish tin  
but you have salvaged quite a respectable array of junk. I hope my letter  
asking you not to bother airmailing the bag reaches you in time for there’s  
not that much hurry unfortunately and I should be booted hard asking you to  
waste that much money on postage. I see you are woefully ignorant on matters  
concerning dress military. That baker’s  coat you refer to is the summer  
tunic of H.M.Regular Forces ,what sacrilege ,and the Crusaders hat is a  
Balaclava helmet and used in counties far away from where the Knights of  
Old did their stuff.Glad my favorite pullover is still on deck, I feel like  
an Old Salt in that but you know my outlandish tastes. 
Good news, my ration book is found. I poked it in between  
some papers and in my final search, there it was, so supply permitting, the  
raven hued intimate garments are definitely on and on they will go too  
but no promises for just how long. The size is duly noted and you may  
depend upon it, the goods will be delivered or else . 
I perceive the snap of Poor Micky meets with your approval

3.  
particularly that one in which the great torso is on display. May the day  
be near when you may lay your curly thatch upon its furry expanse.  
I hope to getvsome more through in a while, those taken on my trip  
last December. I wanted to get you a few of New Guinea to put in your  
album.. 
In the letter from Syyd, there was an item you will be  
interested to learn about. Poor Dorothy has been very crook and when  
Syd. wrote, 21st Feb., she was in Epworth Hospital with some pelvic  
trouble but although she was far from well, was on the mend. Poor old  
Syd sounded very worried being so far away and I happen to know just  
how he would feel. I’m very sorry for Dot is a great scout and I do  
hope she’s up and doing soon. 
Well, sweetly pie, I’m bidden to get to hell out of the  
office as the dooty crew want to go to bed so hold your horses for a  
jiff and I’ll dash off some more good guts very soon. Thanks for your  
beaut letters, precious and I love you more and more and ache for you.  
A big kiss for Snookums and love to the Suggies. 
Micky

AIR MAIL 4.3.44 

Mrs M. Billings  
548 Barkers Road 
East Hawthorn  
Victoria
 
AUSTRALIAN 
MILITARY FORCES 
PASSED BY CENSOR
2543 
tmHill

VX38483 Sgt. M. Billings, 
Dist. Accounts Office, 
New Guinea. 

Darling Kay, 
It is without a single sheet of paper from you or anyone  
that I commence this letter. It is nine days since I had a letter so the  
position is just as foul as it was but a few weeks back and not a glimmer  
of relief to be obtained.  The official apologia of a while back acted like  
magic for about a week but the quick receipt of letters from home xxxxxx  
was very shortlived. As the entertainment here has gradually been whittled  
away until it has almost vanished and the letter service from home a  
matter of whim,perhaps it is the annual morale test to see how thick the  
agony can be piled on. By now, you will gather that I'm casting a very  
jaundiced eye on the world at large with provocation too, but will cease  
to afflict your eyes with my clamor for the awful thought has occurred  
quite often, that you are also in the throes of mail famine and if my case  
is any criterion, the situation itself is hard enough to endure without  
getting a sad song from the other end of the line. Marvellous to think  
that things that were more or less a damn nuisance but a few years back  
have risen to a prominence that they are almost as necessary to one as  
food and sleep.  That's not such an exaggeration as it seems for a  
letter or two provide just the very thing to make a chap potter through the hot  
and oppressive day. As day after day passes by without a word the  
spirits of all descend lower and lower and you would think after ten days  
the nadir would be reached but apparently,not yet. I find it an asset  
that years of army life have inured me to the state of not expecting good  
things and that allied to my logical temperament ,keeps my despondency  
in check to some degree.  However, my good woman, there's a limit so it  
looks as if a few more days of starvation will end with me as the central  
figure in a blue. Shall say a prayer tonight for the blockade to be raised  
and turn up in the morning full of hope if not expectation. 
I really don't know what to write about but at least I can  
enquire about your health and that of Master Richard and do hope you are  
both chirpy and all. Why, with communications cut as they are,between us,  
these might be momentous days for us and me not knowing a tittle about  
them. I am very glad to have my photos to look at during these trying days  
and glean quite a measure of comfort from them. You are both such darlings  
and I can sense how much when I gaze longingly into the sweet faces.  
Well, I'm half way through my eleventh month so the hour of departure

2. 
must surely be idling its way around to me .When things look black ,praise  
be,a chap can still hope. 
The weather in these parts is deliciously oppressive  
as is usually the case and I've had a rather chancy tummy the last two days  
to make a chap feel every degree of heat. Ate something that was on the wane  
I think but the commotion indoors seems to have subsided now. Otherwise, all  
present and correct, as much as can be, but for the first time in my life, I  
feel every one of my thirty two years .Lucky I have such confidence in your  
power to rejuvenate but it will be like emerging from another world to get  
out of here, to see the people you love and like, the warmth and refinement  
of a home, instead of, chaps the war has thrown together to do a job, the  
palsied atmosphere of the barracks. What a welcome change it is going to be. 
I hope, that is, when we are favored by a letter, to hear  
of ripping news in the way of your househunting exploits or does my  
unreasoned optimism make  you think pityingly of me as a fathead, a dreamer  
of wild dreams. Maybe, but as I write this, why, you may be already in the spot  
your searchings have brought to light. Hope so,for it would be extra to have  
some place, however modest, that is ours and not shared by any one else at all. 
I have three nights of duty teed up this week so it would be  
the ideal time for a swag of letters to arrive because its pretty quiet in  
the office at night and both time and opportunity are favorable to hoe into  
a multitude of pages. In any case, I will be bunging off a G.E. dealing with  
matters intimate and personal but the others would be a great help. Glad  
I don'tvstart before Friday because we have a truck to go to the flicks that  
night and the show is Gentleman Jim which as bonzer, I'm told. Whaty with the  
Oirish kicking over the traces again, it will be topical if nothing else. 
Well, love of my life, its time to pound the last  
key so toddle ,asking you to bestow on the little darling a large kiss  
from his worshipping pappy. He's such a slashing kid, is'nt he. For you,  
I love you so  for your the sweetest thing I could ever be blessed with. 
Goodnight ,precious, 
Dad 

tmHill

AIR. MAIL 
Mrs. M Billings 
548 Barkers Road 
East Hawthorn 
Victoria 
  
AUSTRALIAN  
MILITARY FORCES 
PASSED BY CENSOR*
2543 
tmHill

VX 38483   Sgt. M Billings, 
Dist. Accounts Office, 
New Guinea.  7.  3. 44 
  
Darling Kay, 
Praise be, the mail continues to function fairly regularly 
in fact, I can't remember what ones from you I had reported as arrived. 
However, all up to 2nd March are in so they have speeded up to my great 
satisfaction, for that is about all the pleasure that remains in this  
benighted hole although by dint of a spot of travelling I have seen two 
picture shows in a week.  But more of them later.  I see you too, are faring  
well for my words of wisdom, two G.E's together is an occasion so that 
gives us both a mouthful of prime gossip to plonk down on parchment. 
First, it is splendid that you are both plugging along in good style 
again and that with his improved health has come an improvementx in his 
lordxhip's cranky habits.  I'm hopeful of more from you tomorrow and  
will be more than happy to read of order and tranquility reigning in  
your tiny apartment.   It must be very wearing on you, sweet, when the game's  
on and after your alarming admissions of decrepit old age with grey 
hairs and wrinkles abundant, methinks 'tis times the pressure was relaxed 
and you had a fair crack of the whip.  As you say, it would even help a 
bit if I were around when Richard is niggly and save you a few trips 
and a few hours from your virtuous couch.  Its been that way too long as 
well and even though your quest for a flat flops,  don't you reckon that 
the creaking springs will sound like angel's music.  I which I could say 
"I'm leaving tomorrow'' but unfortunately, the blood, sweat and tears 
theme is more in line with the facts but its creeping on, finished ten  
months now so like a faithful houndx I'm sniffing the breeze from the 
south and it surely grows stronger. 
Glad the snaps were pleasing to your sharp eye, Ithought  
the beach group would get your vote for exactly the reasons you say.  I 
only wish I could get there more often but it has been so wet lately  
and the sun came out today for the first time in a week.  I had a dip 
too and it was swell both in and out of water.  Feel pretty good but 
as the clammy weather is on again, with probably wilt quick smart.  Still, 
that matters little and as long as I can stay out of hospital, I'm not 
grizzling.  Our conditions and grub are'nt so bad so I reckon I'll still 
pass muster even under your critical gaze. 
Too bad, your househunt has proved barren but is was faintly 
hopeful to see you had got a couple of leads.  However, darling, I take a  
pale view of the idea of you half killing yourself looking.  I know you 
 

2. 
are so keen but not for the grandest palace yet built do I want you 
knocking yourself about.  If it is a toss up, you xxxxxx looking a ball 
of muscle and your cubicle a 548 muck it in against the alternative. 
Don't think for a moment that I'm not crazy about having our own place 
but certainly not at the price of it leaving you worn out. 
How decent of the unknown benefactor to to come across  
with a small supply of a commodity so hard to procure, I do hope you  
realise what a nice chap, he must be.  Still, everything has its price and  
when you discover who he is , I suppose he will expect something from  
you in the way of payment  . The point is, will he be disappointed or will 
you express your appreciation to the greatest possible extent. 
Sorry I forgot to sign that letter, bad show what. 
Well, I would be crooked on you if you did not give my letters a proper 
once over.  The grammar may stink, the expression of thought may be stodgy 
but I'll have you know they are written to a very special person and  
by virtue of that command your full attention. I get the idea about 
the black dress, It purports to symbolise your straying from the path 
of virtue but do you start before or after my return to the fold.  Don't 
let me find any Stars and Stripes hidden under the one and only bed we 
possess or in addition to your black gown, off will come something else 
which if not dear to your heart, at least is useful in winter.  Savvy. 
I must congratulate you on discovering a truth that has 
apparently escaped the notice of economists and other big shots, that is 
in your admirably expressed opinion concerning the proper placing of 
the filthy lucre in the scheme of things . I consider I can make enough  
to keep us out of the poor house and with a sufficiency of material 
wants, I xxx believe you and our boys and girls-maybe-will make life 
well worth living for me.  I'm perfectly aware of your shortcomings, 
Puss, but they don't amount to anything crippling to our happiness and 
as for your supposed bad temper et al, I think that as soon as the  
causes are removed, the  effects on you will all that could be desired. 
Its a good wheeze to develop your introspective faculties now and then 
for as long as one is conscious of fault, it only needs the removal of 
their cause to keep them under control.  The really finer things without 
which I could never love you as I do , are forever yours.  Would you like 
me to analyse you in a G.E. letter and maybe you can to likewise with me.  
Think well before you say yes for I may shock you and surprise you.  

3. 
Then again, I may shatter the veil of your modesty and speak on 
qualities that appeal to me but, which, you take for granted.  Anyhow, 
let me know and if you like the idea, I shall endeavor to, portray you 
just as you appear to your old man.  In warninh, I consider myself well 
endowed with a keen critical faculty so weigh the matter well, rosebud. 
I see the news of Dorothy Ridge's illness has  
reached you so you will be able to tell me how Mrs Nugget is , I hope. 
Hopevits nothing serious for I'm very attached to thxxxat delightful  
couple and look forward in the years to come to spending some happy 
hours with them. 
The pictures I referred to earlier were Mr Lucky  
with Cary Grant and Laraine Day excellently viewed from the side of a  
hill.  Nothing much in the way of a story but the acting stepped it up 
to be a good picture.  The girl in particular was charming, no glamor 
tripe but just nice.  In fact, she reminded me of you , both in looks 
and manner and its quite a time since I've seen such simple sincerity 
and warmth.  The other one was Claudia conned from under a cluster 
of cocoanut trees. Robert Young and some unknown lass starred and it 
was jolly good too in an uncommon manner.  'Twas a gal's show again, 
and the mere kid who played Claudia was in turn childishly precocious 
and wise in the manner of the ages. 
Well after describing the highlights I shall lair up 
and have a cigarette preparatory to getting off the air.  As usual, 
will kick in with a few more pages in a day or two and hope for a  
fair effort after another one orvtwo of yourssail in.  Cheers, my 
gallant bundle, all the luck in your pursuit of the elusive abode. 
Give the wee spalpeen a big kiss from his Dadda who 
is itching to see him , and for sweet P.K. a love that knows no  
limit as she will learn shortly. 
Micky 

tmHill