Oh Happy Day
Our experiment today – to find weight of 1 liter of O2 (oxygen)
[sketch of experiment]
Mon. Sept. 27, 1943
10:05 p.m.
Dear folks,
It’s after 10 in late study hall so this will be short as usual. I did Analyt. until 9 last night and then went back and went to bed. I was up at 5:30, out at 5:45 and then back to bed until breakfast at 6:30. I had an egg, toast, butter, oatmeal, milk and an apple. After eating I swept and then slept until about 20 to 8 when I smoothed out my bed to leave for class. At 8 we had Analyt. He gave us those 2 papers back that we did when he was gone and he didn’t even mark them. Of one group of 6 I did 4 and it took him the whole hour to do 2. I’ve had an A in math for 7 years but I think this will stop it. I know the stuff as well or better than anybody in class but I go too slow. We got our last quiz back & I got 40. He doesn’t use %. He just gives 10 points per problem and at the end of the term adds the points all together. That’s put everything on speed. As long as he counts the same for all prob. I’m going to skip through and do the easy ones instead of going in order. I think he is one of the poorest teachers I’ve seen. He’s sincere & tries I guess but I think I could do as well and I’ve never seen it before. I’ve got a handicap in that several fellows have had this but I haven’t. I had that advantage in Trig. & Alg. last term. At 9 we went to Chem. Lab for 2 ½ hours with only 4 experiments to do. (We used to spend 2 hrs. on an experiment at M.S.C.) Sometimes I think I shouldn’t have let on I’ve had college Chem. as they expect too much. Oh I’ve done all this before but it still makes us have to hurry and you can’t hurry Chem. & get good results. The 1st experiment came out beautiful. My experimental error was less than 1%. The second was very easy. The 3rd and 4th were tied together. The 4th comes from results of the 3rd. I don’t know how but I really went off somewhere there. I can’t find any mistake in figures but I’m about 20% off. I guess I’m not very accurate. At 11:30 we quit and ate. I had potato salad, creamed parsnips, spinach, salad, bread, butter, milk and butterscotch pudding. After dinner we had an hour in the barracks instead of military because we lose our free hour Tues. & Thurs. on account of the parade for our Col’s departure (Oh happy Day). I wrote up two of the experiments. At 2 we had P.T. We did the 8 count Burpee and then played volley ball. I did 11 ¼ Burpees in 20 sec. That leaves the 300 yd. dash yet. I probably won’t run it any faster but for once my legs aren’t all tightened up from the other tests. At 3 we had Physics lect. and at 4 we had study. I got my Physics problems done for tomorrow. At 5 we came back for mail call – I got your Wed.-Thurs. and Fri. letters and my laundry. Everything was swell but I wish as long as you felt so that you’d have thought and let the pants and shirts go for awhile as I won’t need them anyway. I’ll wear shirts on weekends only. I may send the pants of my own back for you to hold with the shirts. At 5:40 we ate – potatoes, corn, bread, butter, milk, and custard pie. After supper I finally got your letters read (I unpacked and put away my laundry before supper). At 7 we came to study. I’ve read Chem., English & Analyt. and here I am. From now on my laundry will be smaller and require less pressing. If anytime you don’t feel up to pressing a shirt leave it out as I have 4 to wear weekends only. I have 11 sets of underwear now too. Well it’s 10:30 and my eyes feel like I should head for bed so I’ll sign off. Here I am getting behind on your letters again.
Love, Son
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