November 3, 1942

Camp Pickett, Virginia

Dear Folksies,

       Paul and I are still out in our tents and are rather enjoying ourselves. The only bad feature being that we have no showers and the transportation into Pickett is a little complicated. If it weren’t that I don’t get to see Lois more than every other day at best, I wouldn’t mind being out here at all.

       On Sunday, the other Lts. came around and asked Paul and I if we didn’t want to go rowing on the lake. Of course we did, so off we went. It’s a small lake, somewhat smaller than the lake above Chambers at Tahoe. The boats they have are really small scows, square on both ends, and leaky as the deuce. We paddled around in them for quite a while, managing to get ourselves almost as wet as the bottom of the boats. We also did a little exploring around the area, got an old water mill running — the water coming from the lake, and in general puttered around.

       After dinner Sunday, Ed Williams, one of the other Lts., and I went in to Pickett. We intended to take showers and he wanted me to try to get a date for with one of our nurses. After I talked to Lois and got a date for him, Bam and Fran showed up and we got the idea that we would take some of the gals back to the lake with us, pick up the other Lt. who was around, and with Paul, we would have quite a boating party. The gals thought it would be a swell idea so they changed to slacks and off we went in our command car. When we got back here and told Paul and Srouffe (the other Lieutenants) that we had some of the gals for them, they wouldn’t believe us at first — but they ventured from their tents and found we weren’t kidding.

       We all went over to the old, deserted roadhouse, brought Srouffe’s radio, went rowing, ran the water-mill for the gals, and danced for a while. It was kind of cool in the roadhouse, but we all had quite a good time. Took the gals back in at about 11 P.M. and then picked up our two enlisted men that Ed and I had taken in with us earlier in the evening.

            Yesterday. After running the usual sick-call and making our sanitary inspection, Paul, three of our men, and myself went over to the lake and went rowing – each in a separate boat for about an hour. Then we hiked for a while around the surrounding forests, finding more buildings that we hadn’t explored before. In the afternoon, we played football and baseball for a while, and, in general, got quite a little exercise. Last night Paul went in for just a shower, and this afternoon or this evening I am going in for a couple of hours.

       Today we repeated our stunt of yesterday, rowing and hiking after our inspection was finished. It is a bit cooler today, with quite a little breeze keeping the flaps of our tents flapping. Last night was warmer than the night before, but it again poured for a few hours early this A.M.

                    Loads of love,

.

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