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Fran to Bill.  Mar 3, 1945  New York City 

Fran Carroll (SAM Columbia) to Bill Allman (SED Oakridge) 

en route to Rutland, Vt. To Sergeant William T. Allman, Oak Ridge, Tenn.  3-2 thru 3-3

     Dear Bill,

        Whenever you do not know what to do with a spare weekend- here’s an interesting one all lined up for you.  Take the Montrealer 1 on a smooth restful overnight journey along the Green Mountain- Lake Champlain route it says in the folder.  It also adds in an air conditioned reclining coach.  And coach is exactly what they mean, not plural.  Of course we planned to get to the station among the first.  Without Madeleine helping me at every turn, I would have made the 8:30 out of N.Y. tomorrow morning.  That is to say this morning since it is now a solid 3 A.M.  Previous to that we had ideas of traveling by sleeper, but no luck in that direction.  And previous to that we did not plan to leave tomorrow morning, but then Brownie & I, the two of us going from NY, started to think of that whole day of skiing we would be missing.  And after much telephoning to Hartford and not persuading the other half of us to go tonight, we are destined to arrive in Rutland about 5 AM.  We had two complete benches, not in the reclining coach, from NY to Troy which we wrapped ourselves around and about and have managed to get no sleep whatsoever.  Considering the drunken yelling crew we were traveling with, we did remarkably well, but skiing and even the sight of snow seems far away right now.  If we ever, ever get there, there’ll be Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday in which to vacation!  All the people who have had such a fine time up to now are being SICK!  Why do people drink, I wonder, above and beyond the line of moderation.  I’ll bet we’ve been pausing in this particular damn station for over an hour.  And a wonderful peopleless train just whipped by- and that’s what we’ve been waiting for!

   Brownie requested that I guess how many more stops we have before ours.  I give up and it’s TWENTY.  If I could reach out for 435w119’s most excellent bed I’d give up entirely.  This staying up all night is not my department.  While we’re on the subject, would you care to wend our way to a play Sat. eve?  You had better care to do exactly that as I already have the tickets.  And have you been studying the papers and knowing that NYC has a 12 o clock curfew?  Even the West End.  We can come home & go to bed & get up & do something on Sunday.  Go to see people, for instance.  Each to his own, of course, I mean.

  You can wish Dan Goldmetz many happy returns of the day.  My brother who I haven’t seen for months came in and called up just before I left tonight.  He’s stationed at Lido Beach on L.I. for the moment, probably for several moments he says.  Brownie has made another request that I dream up a new position for her to try.

   You’ll probably have to hear more about this,

                                                          Fran 

                 We left NYC at 8:50 by the way---