The dinner we had here last Sunday was almost as good as our Christmas turkey dinner the day before. Only this time, the featured attraction was ham, and plenty of it. How I love to go after that stuff.
This was extra good ham. It had a “cured” taste that hit the spot. I didn’t think it was especially salty while I was eating it, but I made about 15 trips to the drinking fountain that afternoon and still felt as if I were in the middle of the Sahara. Also on the menu were mashed potatoes and gravy (the old standby), canned corn, and some delicious apple pie. The upper crust of the pie was just a layer of toasted crums, and the whole thing melted in one’s mouth.
For our Sunday night supper we had stew and french-fried moth balls (hominy grits). Up to their old tricks again! You know what hominy grits look like, don’t you? Well, the grits and a recording of Bing Crosby was the closest we got to having a “White Christmas”.
According to what I read in the papers, the boys here in the ETO get the best grub of any soldiers anywhere. We do get some good food. Take just our breakfasts for an example. Here’s how they stack up:
We have a choice of fruit juice, cold canned milk, or coffee for a beverage. I always take the fruit juice, which may be grapefruit, pineapple, orange, or tomato juice (maybe you didn’t know tomatoes were fruit. Well, you learn something new every day!).
We are getting more and more in the way of “dry” cereals as time goes on. And that suits us fine. You don’t know what hardship is until you eat Army oatmeal mush. That’s only my opinion, of course. Back in Kearns, before I knew better, I rather liked the stuff. They served fresh milk with it then. During the last few months, we have had puffed wheat and rice, shredded Ralston, wheat flakes, and shredded wheat. Not bad, eh?
There is always some kind of fruit to eat with your cereal. Peaches, pears, apricots, prunes, and plums are the most common. And put pineapple in there some place.
Our favorite main dish for breakfast is hot cakes. But that isn’t what we always get. Powdered eggs cause the most trouble. Sometimes they’re okay and at other times they aren’t so okay. It depends on who makes them and what he puts in them as an added inducement. And then there’s a “nifty” little dish, known technically as “creamed beef on toast”, but we have a more appropriate if less pleasant name for it. Need I add it is not fit to go in this post?
In one of Mom and Dad’s letters they asked me to write a little something about my plans for after the war. I’m glad they brought that up. I’ve been intending to touch on that subject but have never gotten around to it. Some things I’ve decided fairly definitely, others I’m still thinking about.
I’m not sure that Mom and Dad will appreciate some of the ideas I have. For instance, some day I hope to have an office of my own. Of course, my LaSalle diploma will be hanging on the wall. I have in mind a rather large office with all the modern conveniences, including a massive, six drawer, glass-topped, knee-hole walnut desk and a small, blonde and blue-eyed, five foot five private secretary. Nice, eh? Ha Ha! On second thought, I guess I could get along without the desk.
I hope you’ll excuse all my mistakes in typing tonight. I’ve been typing all day, and my hands don’t seem to know what they are doing.
By the way, since I have been typing letters to send home, the single-spaced typing takes much less space than writing in longhand, so Mom and Dad have been getting longer letters than they might think. But, since I don’t say anything, what difference does it make how long it is?
[letterstohome copyright 2008]
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