The prison experience
really separated the men from the boys, as the saying goes. I suppose
it was because of their background that some of the biggest and
strongest men were the ones that could not take this situation. They
couldn't carry packs, cook, even light a fire and needed the most
help during the toughest parts. The men you least expected to would
become a tower of strength. It made me realize that I was a better
man than many of the men I would normally have looked up to. There
was a dirt road through the center of camp and we used this for
walking for exercise. We didn't get enough food to exercise much and
there was no room for sports. One of the guard towers was close to
our barracks and it had a searchlight which rotated back and forth at
night to keep us in our buildings after dark. They threatened to
shoot anyone outside after dark as there was no wide open space
between our barrack and the barbed wire fence with the pine woods
beyond. They also didn't have the large guard dogs loose in this
camp. We didn't have any hot water here so we did not take any baths
or wash our clothes for two months. Our mattresses were burlap filled
with shredded paper and so filthy that every day that the sun shone
we would take them outdoors to air with our blankets. We soon
discovered we were infested with bedbugs lice and fleas. Don't ask me
why but they never bothered me at all. I would lay on my bunk and
they were so thick that I could see them jump from the guy on my
right to me then on to Bruce on the next bunk.
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