Cairo - "Laurie"

Cairo - September 1, 1943.
We were supposed to leave Cairo, for Tunis, at noon today. We had a prop-governor control problem, so couldn’t take off - darn it! So, we went downtown shopping this morning, to get in our last fill of ice cream. I was surprised and impressed by how modern the stores are - department, drug, dime, and barber shops.
I took a siesta this afternoon. Tonight, we went downtown and ended up at Groppi’s ice cream parlor. A couple of girls in uniform came in and sat at the booth across from us. Not bad looking either! So, we became interested. We went over and sat with them. The girl that I became “affiliated” with, is very nice -a Catholic; dark hair; dark eyes - a very fair Syrian. She is a private in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, with the Drivers’ Training Wing. She is very pleasant. She speaks English, French, Syrian, Arabic, Hebrew, Italian and Greek! (I felt pretty humble).
We then went over to Saults for supper, and I invited her to go along with us. I had a nice steak, with shoestring potatoes Her name is Cecile (“Laurie“) Saad. She is a good dancer. I got a kick out of her singing “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”; “You are My Sunshine”; and “Tangerine” - while we were dancing! She sounded very good. She said that she could always tell when the Yanks were around, because the orchestra played “Tangerine”! When the orchestra would take an intermission, New Zealanders, British soldiers and G.I’s would go up on the band stand and “sit in”, using the various instruments to beat out their own tunes! I was surprised at all the jitter-bugging!,
Afterwards, we took the girls back to their camp. We had an enjoyable taxi ride - past the pyramids - even though it cost us over a pound!