For all my girlfriends A Letter to home:

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 get 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
until 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 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,
Alice