Publisher's Synopsis
The Poppa and The Punkin: A World War II Romance Told in Letters 1939-1946, is the story of a young couple who send 600-700 letters to each other during the war when they are separated. One of their moms also writes her son and the wife also writes to her baby brother. They share the collective feelings of the family throughout the war whether they are on the Pacific front, the European front or on the Homefront. The couple's son who has discovered this trove of letters has developed an accounting of WWII by weaving these letters, their differing reactions to the major events of WWII and how they cope with their loneliness, sadness, and fears and aspirations for the future after the war. The couple argues, feel hurt, differ over life's future decisions and disagree over such major events as the atomic bomb, the United Nations and even the very nature of war. The husband worries about his health, the opinion of his men and the utter waste of the army's resources and function when the war end. His wife is lonely but is more agitated by the loss of life on both sides, the unemployment that will follow the war and the families of men who will not come back. But what is most true about the letters is in the couple's separation, utter joy and delight upon receiving a letter from the other, that carries them through the weeks of loneliness.