"Snowy and cold weather here. Love John"

"The two Austrian frauleins working behind the Cablegrams desk at the Salzburg Red Cross probably know more about GIs than any other civilian around here. Ilse and Edith (addresses furnished on request) handle an average of 250 cablegrams to the States daily so they have a pretty fair idea of what we GIs are telling the folks back home. At least that's my guess after talking to them the other night.

'I was seeing red roses in my sleep during the flowergrams days before Christmas', Ilse told me. In some days they sent home as many as 800 flowergrams - and when you figure that over a period of weeks at ten bucks a gram, it runs into a neat little sum of money.'

'What do most of the soldiers write about in regular cablegrams?', I asked. 'Usually unimportant things', replied Edith. 'Everyday we have cablegrams that merely tell about weather here. SNOWY AND COLD WEATHER HERE IN SALZBURG. LOVE JOHN, and messages like that. You'd be surprised how many of those we receive.'

'Of course we have several cablegrams on a day of important things such as MY NEW ADDRESS IS.. or LEAVING FOR HOME TODAY, but most of them are quite silly.'

'And almost every day we have a cablegram turned in that reads: AM SITTING IN THE RED CROSS DRINKING COFFEE AND EATING DOUGHNUTS AND THINKING OF YOU', said Ilse once more. 'I should think wives in America would rather hear about something besides doughnuts and coffee.'

'What is the most original cablegram you have ever received?', I asked the gals.

'Oh, you remember that cute one, Edith', said Ilse, 'The one about roses being red or something...'.

'You don't mean 'Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you' do you'?', I asked.

'Oh, yes, that's the one. I think that's very cute.'

'The most unusual one I've seen came in just yesterday', remarked Edith. 'It read: DON'T WORRY DARLING I WON'T MARRY A FRAULEIN. LOVE JOE:' - A very thoughtful man."

Rainbow Reveille, GI newspaper of the Rainbow Division in Austria, January 1, 1946.