May 12, 1937
Dear Laura & Charles:
At last I have time to write. During this war I haven’t even had time to sleep. We are at Honolulu now anchored right off the famous Waikiki Beach. You have probably heard of it. The “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” is just off the beach. It is a big pink building. Kind of pretty. We were at Tahaina Maui for a week. I went ashore there a couple of times. One day 250 men from our ship went on an excursion trip there. We rode in seven sugar trucks. You know the islands must have a million acres of sugar cane and pineapples. Anyway we were gone all day so we saw quite a bit of the island of Maui. Did we get sunburned!
Maui is one of the islands in the Hawaiian group. It is about 70 miles from Honolulu which is on the island of Oahu. (pronounced o a hoo). That is the biggest island ([sic] The Island of Hawaii is the biggest island.])
There is lots of coconuts and bananas here in the islands. The population is mostly Japanese with quite a few Chinamen and Filipinos. I think the real Hawaiians are in the minority. We have seen quite a few Hula dances since we were here. You know with the grass skirts. I had my picture taken with a couple of them. I sure hope they turn out good. I have taken about four rolls of film already. I want to take a lot more but I haven’t got them developed yet. It costs too much here. About 55c. I know of a place in Los Angeles where we can get them developed and printed for 15c., reprints 2c. I will give you the address. We can get film pretty cheap aboard ship. 21c a roll. They cost 36c at the YMCA.
I am going to try to get every one something from here. I have a couple of things for you already. I saw a nice little album about four by five inches over at Honolulu. It is kind of pretty. After the Cruise I will put one of all the pictures I take that are any good and put in it and send it to you.
These are sure pretty islands. These guys at the beach here sure can ride the surfboards too. There is lots to see here alright. But the Golden Gate will sure look pretty when we go through it in a little more than two weeks.
The people of Tahaina sure fell in love with our ship. It was the newest ship there. Also the best. There is more than 100 ships in Pearl Harbor now. (146) There was supposed to be 15,000 sailors ashore in Honolulu Sunday. There was sure a lot of them.
At Tahaina the Captain invited a bunch of the Hawaiians Hula girls etc. aboard to give us dances etc. They were sure good. I’m no good at writing so I will have to tell you about the islands when I see you. The twentieth of this month will make a year in the Navy for me. Only three more. I’m getting anxious for the time when the U.S.S. Ranger ties up at the dock in San Diego. Everybody is. It is nice to go someplace like this but hardly anyone likes to go to sea. Especially for battle practice or maneuvors. [sic]
I’ve got a moustache now although it isn’t very dark. Nearly everyone has. We said we wouldn’t cut them off till we got back to the “Coast” as everyone out here calls the U.S.
I am running short of anything to say now so I will wait and finish this after the mail comes. Maybe I will hear from you by then.