In early 2008, my sister Peggy went to visit our folks. She noticed Dad reading some papers and then throwing them into the trash. She asked what he was up to. "Just reading some old letters I found," he told her and handed her one. She was stunned to realize they were letters he'd written to his mother while he was serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. She quickly rescued the letters he'd thrown out and asked him not to pitch any more of them. When I arrived a few days later, she showed me the letters. Once they were put in order, they told a fascinating story. I began typing them into the computer and asking Dad questions about the backstory. He may have been 90-years-old at the time, but he was still sharp and his answers came fast and sure. This book is a compilation of those letters and his memories. I edited out extraneous bits of the letter, things like, "Sorry to hear about John," or "That's good news about Sally," because there is no mention of what the news is or even who these people are. Those sentences hit the cutting room floor. Then, on occasion, I added a few words to clarify someone's identity. For example, when Carp refers to "Gil," I included "my fraternity brother, Gil..." Obviously, his mother would've known who Gil was, but those few "extras" should help the reader keep people sorted out without changing the story that's being told. Other than those minor changes, you are reading the letters as Marg/Toots would have read them. Before the war, Carp's mother had been nicknamed "Toots" by one of her friends. That had shocked and/or amused Carp when he first heard it, since it was an abbreviation for Tootsie. And, while Tootsie could be an innocuous synonym for "dear" or "sweetheart," it could also mean a "woman of questionable morals" - not something that fit his mother, which is why he was amused.
