Information from my sister Margaret/Peggy/Peggers/Pagrs:
Re
Dad’s nicknames. We asked the aunties about all the nicknames at the
first EutslerFest in ABQ back in the 1990s. When Dad was a little fella,
their milk was delivered in a horse-drawn wagon pulled by a horse named
Bill. After the milkman had made his delivery, he’d get back on the
wagon, shake the reins, and say, “Gid up, Bill!” Auntie Bobo said her
little brother would race around and holler, “Gi up, Bill! Gi up, Bill!”
Our grandfather, the source of many of the nicknames (his sister
Minerva was “Pinny Pinerva” and eventually Penny), called him “Bill,”
and I remember that many of his old friends in Kansas still called him
Bill in the 1950s.
Where
did “Jack” come from? From the nursery rhyme “Jack, Be Nimble.” He
learned the rhyme, Bobo said, and ran around the house leaping over
everything that remotely resembled a candlestick all the while reciting
the rhyme. (She said he made them all nuts, because he was indefatigable
with running and rhyming.) We have Grandfather Eutsler to thank for
that one, too.
*
These letters have a bunch of money figures so I've embedded the value in today's dollars [in brackets].
May 13, 1942
4026 Brooklyn
Seattle Wash
Dear Margaret I got your letter of May 8 yesterday but had to go get it. I had several letters or rather cards & letters out at the camp and went and got them to day after work.
Well I am working a Puget Sound Naval Yards as a welder. I found out that I don't know a thing about welding. Yesterday the instructor started me in on flat beds & I have to learn all over a gain. We certainly got good training under N.Y.A., we hardly use any thing they taught us down there & a lot of what they did teach us was wrong. Well any way I am making 8.48 [$138] a night & 6¢ [$1] a hour for graveyard. I forgot to tell you I am working on the Graveyard shift from 12:30 to 8:15 so I have changed my way of living. I also do a lot of fast walking & running here belive it or not. Well going back to the money end of it after I have worked for 10 day as a 1st class welder & don't pass my test I'll be lowered to a trainee and only make $6.00 [$98] a day & the 6¢ [$1]. You can tell Ray & Zorn & everybody that they don't work us hard & let us smoke on the job & rest any time you take a notion for as long as you please. Boy don't think I don't take advantage of it too. Every one takes there own sweet time & are all swell guys. They all just treat a guy as nice as if they had known him a long time.
Boy there is a lot of work in the yards & they are plenty big. They have 6 cruisers, in one dry dock, that they are building & the Saratoga, that they are repairing & the U.S.S. Nevada also under repairs. There I go reviling military secretes.
Boy it is hard to get in over there, we spent 2 days going through all the government red tape. But now I am in I can't get out with out about twice as much red tape. We have to wear a badge all the time, it has our picture, you should see me, thumb print, height age, when taken, race, signature & evey thing about us.
Well Louie & Carl Dick (from Alb.) & I room & board together in the same house. Louie & I are on the same shift so that makes it rather nice. Carl is on the Day shift, Dick on the swing. So you can see we are in and out all hours of the night & day.
Well we have to put in about 13 hours to get 8 hours of work in so you see I have a lot of time to run around. We have to ride the ferry back & forth & that take a hour each way. We would move over to Bremerton if we could find a place but we can't. You can tell Malcolm I would look up her uncle but I never have time while I am over there or I'll miss the ferry.
Well I have been getting all of 4 to 6 hours sleep a day so you can see I changed my way of living again. I usually go to sleep on the job for a hour or two but didn't last night because I was working out side & it was rather cold. It looks like it will be colder to night than last so I'll have to put on the rest of my cloths. I had on about ½ of what I brought with me last night.
Well I guess that is about all I can think of at the present time so I'll close.
Bill
His joking about running or walking fast meaning he is "changing his way of living" -- Ha! I always thought through the years that he walked sooooper sloooow because he was old. Nope, he was just Jack.
Sat May 23, 1942
4026 Brooklyn
Dear Margaret
Here I am writing again. I see you write letter about like I use to. If you write once a month your doing rather good.
I haven't been doing much except go to work, come home go to bed & get up to start all over again. I am in training now and realy learning how to weld, not like I did in N.Y.A. The instructors here are certainly good welders & they can teach us how rather good. I work in a dry dock which is about 20 feet below sea level, all we have is a roof over us & it does get rather chilly here at night. I have been working a little harder latley more than I did when I started, because one instructor informed me I better or else.
I saw the Vegas boys, the last bunch) as I was getting of the ferry this morning. They were just going over to try & find room & board. Well I guess Dick, Louie, & I will move over there the first of the month. We have a apt rented, it sure is a nice place. It has a front room kitchen, bed room, sleeping porch, & private bath. The kitchen has a electric stove & a electric ice box. Does that sound like its worth $50 [$813] a month. It certainly is nice though & is only a bout 15 minets walk from the yards, not the way I use to walk either.
Our landlady here realy put the spurs to us, for 2 week room and board she charged us $17 [$276] then the next week she charged us $13 [$211], some fun.
Well I made some money last week, my check was for $68.45 [$1112], but I don't have ½ that now. I won't make that again untill I pass my welding tests though, I probable be dropped to a bout $40 [$650] a week & will I have to save to make any thing.
I got a letter from Wayne yesterday & he told me what he has been doing and how much he had been spending so I took & sent him $5 [$81], I'll bet he loves me for it.
Well I'll have to stop & go to work now. And I do mean work.
May 24
Well I worked last night and had quite a time trying to keep a wake. I didn't do much except talk to a couple of fellows. I got my derating last night, from now on I'll be making $6.96 [$113] a night I don't know if I can live on that or not.
I was talking to a fellow that has just got back from Pearl Harbor. I may go there If I can pass my welding test and can get a transfer. It pays $1.26 [$20.48] a hour and I guess living expenses aren't to high.
Well I guess I'll close & get some thing to eat and get to work.
Bill
May 25
Well It looks like we lost out on the apt. I don't know what we will do now except look for another place. Write soon.
I remind you: Jack just turned 19 years old. Maggie was a couple months from turning 22.
Here is the post with Jack's letters to his mother from this period: May 1942: Jack Arrives in Seattle and Bo's Birthday
