December 19, 1934 Dear Marge, Mr. Hibbard the American Charge d'affaires is giving a Christmas Party saturday and has issued his invitation in verse so Mr. Loomis, Mr. Homan and myself have been writing poems, of course half of the people in town received poetry but I do not know their response. I have been wondering whether he will not read them as part of the entertainment. Well! anyway here is the invitation and my reply. Whether you're gay or whether you're not Whether its cool or whether its hot I hope you'll come for some Christmas cheer Ranging form champagne to good cold beer There will be food but not for a gourmet But I'll try to make up with lots of hooray The date is December the twenty-second Half past seven the hour you're beckoned I hope from other engagements you're free So you'll come for a fall off my Christmas tree Whether I am gay or whether I am not Whether I am cold or whether I am hot I will share with you your Christmas cheer but give Harold Homan my good cold beer Don't worry or fret I wont be late You'll hear your bells jingle thirty minutes to eight but one short greeting would now be in time before I complete this little rime A toast to my host in his Champagne and cold beer A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year A poet no less, but it is the first jingle I have ever succeeded in finishing. I punched out several of my screens today because they were so full of holes and I suppose the fever will get me now but the carpenter will put screens in within a few days. It is much nicer without screens because the sea breezes are that much stronger but unscreened windows do not keep out the mosquitoes. I like the tropics plenty. I have everything that I can ask for and the bank roll back home is running up slowly but surely. Did I ever tell you that a man in the tropics not only works in different surroundings than the ordinary person but if he is married he is on a perpetual honey-moon so to speak because he rarely sees his wife more than one year out of two, of course some wives stay through but others never come out at all.