The food was not too good and I especially
remember when they served spare ribs. We sat seven to a table and if
the bowl started at the other end of the table by the time it got to
the last person there would only be bones 1eft. The PX did a big
business selling candy bars in the evenings. I remember one time my
stepmother sent me a package of goodies. She put in some pickled
seckle pears and just wrapped them in wax paper. The entire package
was a squashed mess smelling of vinegar.
We were not allowed off the base during this period. When we had
Saturday afternoon and Sunday off we wrote 1etters home did laundry
and rested. I finally had time to make friends, especially with the
men in my barracks. There was one man from Canandaigua and several
from Buffalo, Syracuse and western New York. You can make good friends
in a short time when you are that far from home. Ray Smith was in the
Army too and I kept in touch with him even though we moved around a
lot. We used to write gooey love letters to each other saying how much
we missed each other. I took pictures and the ones that were so black
they were nearly blank I sent to him "with love" It is a good thing no
one saw those letters or they surely would have thought we were gay.
(It is interesting that I never did run into any of that type in the
service) There were all types of men in this outfit and they were from
all over the east coast. Some couldn't read or write and one was
straight out of the Kentucky backwoods.
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