May 15, 1941,

Ruth, Emmy, and I made plans to go to a fortune teller tonight.  Emmy took me home to supper with her.  We skipped over to see Vi and then went to know our future.  She told me about mother’s throat.  It was alright for me to take a trip.  She could see me in the South on water and palm trees.  Vibrations were very good between Jake and myself.  I had a letter from Peach today.

Babu wrote about this twice this month, once about a palm reader and once about a fortune teller. I don’t remember Babu ever writing about this kind of stuff before (Maybe I’m wrong? Let me know!) and what’s even a bit eerie is what is near the end of the very letter she gets from Jake this day:

Monday, May 12

Dear Emily:

     I’m in study hall right now but I got an urge to write you a letter so here goes.  I have to write on G.I. (general issue) paper and just a pencil as I don’t have my pen or stationary with me.  I just got down from a 43 minute flight with my instructor and would like to give you my reactions.  We did tail spins and power-on stalls.  They work like this: 1.  Climb to about 3,000 ft and head directly into the wind.  2.  Fly exactly level and pull the stick back until the plane is climbing at a 45 degree angle.  3.  Just like a car climbing a steep hill but in high the plane will stall after a few seconds of climbing.  4.  As soon as it stalls whip the stick back to your stomach and when you hit the horizon with the nose push forward with the stick.  That’s where the rollercoaster feeling comes in only it’s magnified a few times.  5. Finally, pull back on the stick and regain level flight.  The whole maneuver is done with the plane pointed in the same direction.  If you should fail to keep it pointed in the right direction and one wing drops a bit it will go into a tailspin which is that rollercoaster feeling plus a high speed merry go round.  I haven’t gotten rich yet.  (It costs a dollar every time you get sick to clean up the plane) but one of the boys who flys with the same instructor got sick.  Gosh, he looked terrible when he landed, white as a ghost.  If you should see Nellie tell her I got her letters all right and thank her for the money.  I probably wont write home for a few days, than again if I steal some time from study hall I may write.  I feel pretty good today cause (I’m bragging now) the marks from our ground school test have just been posted and I got 87 in meteorology and a 92 in navigation.  However, some of the boys got higher marks than these but I feel good anyhow.  No I don’t either by golly I’m hungry.  We had breakfast at 5:45 and dinner at 10:30 and its 3:30 now and no supper in sight for a couple hours yet.  We have this screwy eating schedule because we fly in the afternoon this week and food should be well digested if we want to hang onto it.  It’s better to fly in the morning.  The air is a lot smoother and one can concentrate on other things besides trying to keep the plane from being blown off course.  When you see that dodo Koziol tell him to stop being so stuck up and drop me a line.  I wrote him the other day and told him to trade his oldsmobile for a plane.  (You know he likes roller coasters. 

Oh, I almost forgot.  After church Sunday I and the rest of the dodos were invited to a party given by the lieutenant’s daughter.  It was pretty dull and I ain’t kidding.  The only good thing that happened was that a girl told me that a blonde gentleman would send me some money this week and pretty soon I would go on a long trip with 3 former schoolmates (maybe this means the long tick back home-I hope not.)  Also that I would meet somebody very important on June 8 but she didn’t say what year.  Well I have to close now.  Don’t you forget to think about me once in a while.  I’m always thinking about you.  Orders “Fallout.”  I gotta close.  Bye.  Jake XXXXXXXXXX

There is so very very very much in his letter that astounds me. I couldn’t believe I even got to read about this. I never thought he’d give Babu step by step instructions on how to do tail spins and power-on stalls. I am going to need another whole post to digest even half of this.

Even though the fortune telling stuff is not even the most exciting thing about his letter, I found it interesting, and sweet but not surprising, how in sync they were. I wonder how often people came up to others at a party and offered fortunes for free. I plan do some research into palm reading and fortune telling at this time. I just feel like there are some cool tidbits to be found here. Don’t worry, when I do share some newfound knowledge, you know where I will be sharing it. Also, please share with me anything you know and cool sources you have read!