This is a photo of an envelope that is covered with stamps. If you can look close enough you can see that the stamps are from the British Solomon Islands. In the circles, it might be difficult to read, it says British Lunga and dated 1944.
On the upper left hand side of this envelope you see the name of Frank Olivas. Uncle Frank was my father’s brother. I have fleeting moments of memories of him. He passed away when I was seven years old in 1953.
Here’s a photograph of an envelope. He wrote this letter from the Solomon Islands but you can see his return address says the fleet post office in San Francisco California. ZIP Codes were not invented back then.
The envelope was folded in such a way that the sender could write on the envelope itself.
This is the other side of that letter. Once the letter was written it was folded and once again it became an envelope ready for delivery.
These are my uncle’s words that he sent to my father. I found them interesting and I will share a part of this letter with you:
South West Pacific
February 17, 1944
Dear Brother,
. . . I bet that when I go to Oxnard I’ll get lost. I’ll probably not even know the town anymore. But I’m willing to get lost if they send me back.
Carlos I would love to have the wood carving chisels I don’t think they will get here on time for me to use. Because we have been told we are going home by March . . .
Please don’t send them they might get lost. Well Carlos I think I will close for now. Regards to all the family, hope to see you all very soon,
Your Brother Frank
My uncle Frank mentioned his carving chisels.
I have some carving tools of my own. Once in a while I like to do some wood carving. I’m not any good at it, but it doesn’t stop me from trying.
I did not realize until I read that letter, that these carving chisels belonged to my uncle. All my life I thought they were my dad’s.
I don’t see the words anymore on the handles but I know they were from a company called Millers Falls.
