Thursday Night, September 21, 1944
Hello Folks,
I’ll start this while waiting in the barber shop for a haircut and finish it later. I hope. Well we had another big clothing inspection today so that makes us another step towards shipping out. Besides that we went out and drilled a little but as a whole we spent most of the time scrubbing up the barracks and on extra details. I spent about half of the afternoon washing windows up in the kitchen.
Let’s see – what did I do yesterday. Oh yes. We went out in the morning and watched a demonstration of the tanks and infantry working as a team. Then in the afternoon we ran a problem similar to the one we watched in the morning. I guess they must be getting scared all of a sudden that we’ll have to be fighting with tanks before long.
Later
Well I can see that this can’t be a very long letter. It’s about 9:00 o’clock and I’ll have to hurry to get even this page filled. We have to get a short haircut now and that’s what I got tonight. But boy did that barber do a poor job. It was so rough on top when he got through that I had to spend about 20 minutes trimming it up with a pair of scissors before a mirror after I got back to the barracks.
I did something last night that I’ve never done since I’ve been here. I went to Columbia to spend the evening. There was a circus in town and a couple of the fellows already had tickets so I went along. It wasn’t a whole lot bigger than the circuses they hold in the high school gymnasiums but there was a little local talent worked in and it was spread out over a little more area.
It seemed to be sort of a benefit project sponsored by some of the local clubs. There were several dog and pony acts, a half dozen or so acrobats that performed and one act with 4 or 5 half dead lions in a cage. It cost me 50cents and was just the same old stuff but it was a different form of entertainment for me at least.
To tell you the truth that was about the 6th time I have even been in Columbia. I went through it when I first got here, when I was going & coming from my furlough, and we went and came back through it on our way to & from the manuver area foor our 4 day bivouac. I think tha’s about the second time I have had a tie on since I came back here from my furlough.
I got your letter mailed the 18th yesterday. I guess I’ll wait till the next time to look for questions you wanted answered. I do remember you asked about whether or not I will be stopped from receiving mail. I don’t suppose I will, so just keep writing unless you are told to stop. Hope everything is well with you.
Love, Donald