Letter from a farm kid


Strut10

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Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the

Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to

join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at

first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. but I am

getting so I like to sleep late.

Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot,

and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix,

wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but

it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on

trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc. but kind of weak

on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular

food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can

always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus

yours holds you til noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these

city boys can't walk much. We go on "route marches", which the

platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so,

it's not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as

far as to

our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride

back in trucks. The country is nice but awful flat The sergeant is

like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school

board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't

bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I

keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is

near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting

at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there

all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges.

They come in boxes. Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat

training. You get to

wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they

break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home.

I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from

over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time

as me, but I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and near 300

pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other

fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Gail

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