From Pvt Stanley Safford
US Army
Co A 62 Med Tng Bn
Camp Barkeley
Texas
December 1, 1942
Dearest Mother:
I have been trying to get a chance to write you a little ever since Thursday, but have not been able to get around to it although did get one mailed to Marshall and Frances and was sure glad to get them off.
I also was in hopes of finishing something to send you for a wedding anniversary present but could not find anything within the limits of this place then today thought of a telegram but the only place is at the other end of the camp about three or four miles so I want you to go out to a nice place for dinner and a show and I will pay for it. Yes I am quite rich. We were paid yesterday and I got the large sum of thirty-seven dollars and they were all brand new ones so I will therefore send some money home if I can get to the post office some evening before it closes which is seven. I am usually through eating about six fifteen then we have mail call at six thirty then I usually wouldn’t be able to get down if it takes as long to call the mail as it did this evening. I missed dinner this evening to get a haircut to avoid having to stand in line an hour or so after dinner and I told him in good plain English what kind of a haircut I wanted and I believe I got it because the other boys in the tent remarked upon what a good one it was compared to some that some of the others have gotten.
We had an exceptionally large meal this noon and it was quite good but a little greasy so I could afford to miss this evening as a lot of them do to avoid getting stomach ache as I had last night, we don’t do much so a heavy and greasy meal is quite often too much.
The reason for only 37 dollars is insurance for two months – November and December, $6.50 each month - I put down the proper things on the insurance policy only was not sure of the birth place and after thinking of your middle name I got the idea that it might be Helen but I am alright on it now. And if you will send me Dads birthplace, date etc I may need it.
The process of paying us here is quite a procedure we one at a time come before a first lieutenant who calls the last name and we answer with our first and middle initials, then next to him sits the company commander who has a few stacks of new bills in front of him: ones, fives, tens and twenties, then piles of silver all new. We salute him, he counts the money on the table before him, we bend over, scoop the money into our hat, thank him and walk on to the next lieutenant and assistant who is there for the purpose of collecting for the laundry the awful price of four dollars a month but I have not sent any in as yet but will this month because I do not have time to do my own and will put the extra time into writing or something of that kind of course they have to take it 200 miles to the laundry.
I just had to tell the bunch of Mexicans at the other end of the table to shut up or get out, the bunch of dirty monkeys get in here and start chattering and jarring the table and making a lot of noise. They sure could get rid of a lot of them here to suit a lot of us.
Well perhaps the most sensational news of the week was what took place Friday. I was called before the company commander who is a first lieutenant for a promotion. And was I frightened and nervous! Because I couldn’t imagine what he could want me for until the first (..) told me it was regarding officers training, so when I walked into the tent I expected to find him and probably one or two others but instead there were six or eight first and second lieutenants flanked sitting in chairs each side of him. I had to walk to the desk, salute, then stand at attention and answer his questions then when the interview was done I had to thank him then salute again then make an about face and walk out being till under the steady view of all in the room. Have not heard anything of it yet and may not until the end of the tests and then maybe not then. In fact I am beginning to wonder if it would interest me of course it would mean 6 more months here for me.
We have been out of coal here for two days so I got my hands dirty this evening trying to get a fire started and it didn’t want to start too well.
We have had ice a couple mornings. We got up this morning and it wasn’t bad but we had no sooner gotten to the classes (?) in the tent when clouds gathered and a strong cold wind came up and we would like to have frozen before we were brought into the mess hall.
And by the way while I am on the subject I want you to send me a pair of gloves, fleece lined if possible. I have lost one of the poor kind they gave us and the cold seemed to come right through them. Most of the workmen here working on the new buildings wear those hats usually checkered with flap down over the ears and gloves, then watch them trying to work with all that. No wonder the buildings are not done.
I have not been into Abilene as yet and perhaps may not go but once if then. From what I hear it is not much of a place. I may go just to see what it is like.
As to what they do for amusement around here, well most of us either study or write and the rest gamble and for no small stakes from what I hear. One of the boys here won 140 dollars yesterday. Of course it was pay day and much to my astonishment I went to the lavatory this morning at 2:30am – I have not usually gone until 6:30 and when I opened the door there they were in there, gambling and no small crowd either. There is usually four or five crowds in there gambling and the rest of the oakies standing around the fire completely fill the place so anyone else can not get in. They have two companies using a one company lavatory now and company B is all from Alabama or somewhere and if they are not peculiar looking bunch and they are continually having to give them inspections on finger nails with bath etc because they don’t keep themselves very clean, and they for amusement play a banjo and sing some of these awful songs of Texas plains and the tent right in back of us is full of a bunch that hog call etc all hours of the day and night. Quite enjoyable with their very good English along with it.
We have some very interesting persons in our company also two or three of them they have sent to the asylum already and a lot more of them could be there with them.
There is one that is one of the filthiest people I have ever seen. It actually is in crusts on him and his mouth hangs open and his nose runs continually and in class he asks questions about something entirely or about two classes late. He almost made me sick at the dinner table today. He had messed out everything within reach then he had a piece of meat left on his dish, then he proceeded to offer it to each one of us at the table telling us that it was a shame to waste good meat that had not been touched.
Then we have a seven day Adventist in the same tent with him who is a vegetarian and will above all not do a thing on Saturday. Then there is one person who is probably fifty years old and was perhaps a drunkard previous to here and they found him drunk on the field today and perhaps as I have not told you this county is dry – not even beer – and come to find out he had been working in the kitchen and he had gotten hold of a bottle of pure vanilla and drank it ha! Ha! And was he drunk!
And we have quite a few others also.
I am enclosing a sample of the notebook paper I would like you to get for me. I got it there on Central at Vests(?). The only place I have been able to find it and also will you send me a notebook of about seven by nine or approx. only not one of the large ones (loose leaf of course and perfectly a loose soft cover and get quite a lot of paper for each of them.
Speaking of the camera – do not get too cheap a one or of course too expensive. I have seen too many of the cheap complicated ones sent here that do not work after a short time.
Joseph kept harping on what he could send me in his letter so I will ask him if he wants to get me one of those small atlases showing all countries etc. but I would like you to send me a map of the US.
I sure enjoyed and appreciated getting the newspaper clippings and if you get any more on the African of French situation would you send more (of) them. They may come in handy.
We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner and I had a short spell of homesickness when they had a couple boys play la Golondrina
[1].
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX7Dikxmt3U It reminded me of home for some reason. The meal was just as the menu you sent me.
I am enclosing a couple clippings clipped from a Fort Worth paper, one dealing with the Balkan 2nd front. The first of any mention I have heard of it and who may be backing it.
I received a nice card and letter from Miss Mosher. I wrote her first sometime ago. The mail I sometimes wonder if it leaves here and comes in as promptly as it may. I also wrote Matson’s some time ago but have received a note from Mrs. Moore whose letter was mailed the same time I mailed Matson’s. I do not quite understand. Glad to hear that they got it. I will write another letter very soon and tell you more about myself and answer some of your questions in your letter before last and as you said I am full of figures and loads of news and elaborate latin names of bones etc and nice long names for some army terms.
If I get my picture taken, do you want it in a garrison cap (with the bill) or the other skull cap type? I do not have one of the first and I will have to have time to buy one. But there may be a chance I will get home after the first of 43. I will also try and get something for Muriel and send her. I had better be closing now for it is getting late.
Good bye with lots of love,
Stanley
[1] MEXICAN SONG CREATED BY Narciso Serradel Sevilla, 1862. (1843-1910), a native of Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico, was both a doctor and a composer. During the war against the French Maximiliano, Serradel fought against the French Imperial troops alongside General Zaragoza. He was taken prisoner - and deported to France. He is most famous for his popular song of farewell, "La Golondrina." The song is often thought of as "traditional."
