Another Day, Another Week, Another Term

Monday September 13, 1943

12:45 p.m.

 

Hi everybody,

Another day, another week, another term. I got to bed last night right after I finished your letter at about 10:20. I was really sleepy and it seemed a little more like home to sleep in pajamas. I woke up early this morning because of loud thunder. Boy was it storming around here for awhile. It died down gradually and I went back to sleep until 5:15 when somebody turned on the lights in our room. I got up and dressed but nobody had reveille so I could just as well have slept. I made up my bed and at 6:15 or so I went over to breakfast. I had hot Farina, toast, butter, grapefruit juice and milk. There was no organization of any kind around here this morning so I lay down and slept from 6:30 to 7:30. I could have come in on that train this morning and nobody would have been the wiser but I played it safe. One of my roommates had a bus break down and didn’t get here until 7:30 this morning. He beat the Lt. and so far he hasn’t heard anything. At 7:30 I got up and helped straighten up the room for an inspection. The room was pretty dusty and we didn’t do much of a job. At 8 we got organized into our new sections and registered for classes. I’m in Section Q-2 now – what a name. We’ve got some mighty smart boys in our section this term and I’m going to have to work to keep up with the class averages. It took about an hour to register. My schedule is about this. Military – 3 hours of class & 2 of drill; P.T. – 6 one hr. classes a week, on Wed. we have one in the a.m. & one in the p.m.; English, History, and Geography – 2 hrs. each per week which is an improvement; Analytics – 5 hrs.; Chemistry – 2 hrs. of lecture, 1 hr. of drill and 3 hrs. of lab; and Physics – 2 hrs. of lecture, 2 hours of lab and 3 hours of drill. In all it’s about the same amount of hours as last term but we will have fewer study hours during the day. Our classes begin at 8 and run to 5 so no more 7 o’clock classes for awhile maybe. Having History & English only twice instead of 3 times a wk. is good but they probably will give larger assignments. At about 9:15 we came back here for the rest of the morning. I could have written some but I thought we might be called out for something or other so I spent the rest of the forenoon until 11:30 chow just sitting around. Just as we left to eat the Col. was downstairs to make the inspection. It’s an Inspector General Dept. inspection. We haven’t heard any results but I can’t believe it was very good because none of us are much interested in stuff around here. We are all bemoaning the shortness of our furloughs. For dinner I had spaghetti, beets, salad, bread, butter, peach cobbler and milk. The looks of the food is disappointing without even eating. Oh its good food and I shouldn’t be complaining but after eating all the kind of food I like for a week it’s hard to come back to this. Everybody says the same. They were just getting settled back into the old way of things when they had to leave. After dinner I came back here and now I’m writing. Just as I suspected we had a big box full of mail which they passed out this morning and I got your Wed. Sept. 1 letter finally. I’ll look through it again to see if there’s anything to answer. I guess I covered the situation pretty well last week. Yes I answered everything in it while I was home so I’m caught up with our mail again. I have 8 letters I should try to answer while I’m having time before classes start but I don’t care particularly whether I write or not to other people. It’s now 1:20 and I think I’ll sign off for awhile. Be seeing you.

Back at 7 p.m. Well I’ve moved again. I waited around and was about ready to go out and play some tennis when they told us to get our rooms ready for that inspection which we supposed was all done. So we brushed up our rooms and then we had to fall out and get new room assignments. The inspection never did come off. Boy I was lucky for once. I’m back up on the 3^rd floor in Davis Hall. This time I got a 2 man room. Oh boy. Each of us has a closet and small chest of drawers to himself. You should see the beds. Real coil springs and innerspring beauty rest mattresses. You sink about a foot in it. These aren’t G.I. beds but some the girls used to have I guess. The room is quite small but I’m more than satisfied. It ought to be fairly easy to keep clean. I moved my stuff up here. Then we went over and got our books. We got 10 – 3 English, 2 chem. 2 Physics, 1 Geog., 1 History & 1 Analytics. I brought them back, then I put my name in them, cleaned and arranged my closet before mail call. I didn’t get any mail. From there we went to supper – potatoes, carrots, beets, salad, muffins, butter, milk, and rolls. After eating I came back and finished putting away the stuff in my barracks bags and arranging my drawers. At 6 we went over to the Union and I had a shake and came back at 6:30. Then I made my bed and finished up the last touches of moving. I guess I have everything in order now. These beds really make up nice and smooth but the sheets are a little narrow. Now I guess I’ve covered the situation for today. I don’t know whether classes start tomorrow or Wed. The regular students start Wed. There is going to be another G.I. movie at 9 so I think I’ll go see that. It’s now 7:15. I think I’ll clean up a little and get the moving dirt off. I guess I’ve covered it pretty well for today so I’ll close this. Last tem they couldn’t flunk us out until the 12 weeks were up. Now we hear they can wash us out anytime our grades go down so it looks as if we’ll really have to dig. So for once more I’ll stop.

“Good night all.”

 

Love,

Son