Monday evening,

Feb 5, 43

Dear Folks,

This is being written in the recreation room amid a bedlam of noise. You see we are still in quarantine and this is where we spend our evenings. Monday is clean-up day and we just finished the job. We scrubbed and mopped the floors, cleaned the windows and dusted. Everybody has to join in and the job only takes about an hour. You see we are inspected Friday or Saturday rather and everything has to be spotless. That includes personal equipment as well and that means towels, socks underwear among others.

Your box arrived yesterday and thanks for the presents. I have more than enough clothes, socks etc. on hand so don’t think I am short. My barracks bags are filled now and I will let you know when I am in need. I send all of my stuff to the laundry, Ma, with the exception of a few pair of socks which I do myself. So there is no necessity for sending my dirty clothes all the way home. It only costs me $1.50 a month and that isn’t much at all. I always have 3 pairs of socks in the laundry and the rest on hand so you see they really get cleaned some time. I can do a pretty good job myself with the G.I. soap and hot water but they go to the laundry every other week.

Thursday was pay-day and I got 34.00. Two months insurance and laundry was taken out so it isn’t very high. It is a lot better than $21.00 that Tom started with so I have no kick coming. I will send a money order in a day or two because I am afraid I will lose it. I have to pay for my sleeping bag this week and there is a chance we may get out of quarantine. That means a trip to town if I am lucky so I will spend a few dollars there. This quarantine has had one advantage in that we can’t spend very much money. We can’t even go to the 15¢ movies we have on the grounds here.

We are starting to go over the obstacle course every day. Thursday we went over it twice and we took it on again today. Before we went on the course we had a four mile hike and ran so you can see I am getting pretty rugged. On our four mile travel we had to run 200 yards, walk 200 yards etc. So it was half a run and half a walk. I wasn’t tired or out of breath at all which shows that I am in a lot better condition than I was a month ago. These regular hours and exercise sure are doing me good. The obstacle course is a son of a gun though and really makes us stretch our muscles. You should see your little boy somersaulting over the high wall – just like the acrobats in the old circus. We climb up the wall by means of a rope ladder – it is about 30 feet high. At the top we have to reach over from the waist, grasp the rope ladder on the other side and throw our legs over our head. Over we go and land away down on the other side. It is lots of fun and we feel like real commandoes.

I tried to buy some film at the post exchange today but they didn’t have any. One of the boys has a camera and we were going to take some pictures. I will keep trying and will send a picture as soon as I can. I don’t know if there is any more room for another picture in the house bud I will send it along anyhow.

Sorry to hear that you have snow in Paterson. All of ours disappeared weeks ago and all we have had since then is some rain. Overcoats haven’t been worn for a long while and we go about in the field jackets. They are like the one Tom wore in the picture. By the way, I have all the pictures you sent me along the wall by my bunk and they help me keep you all in mind. Thanks for them – I like to look them over and remember the good old days. Ma is looking pretty sharp and I wonder if she has bought any new dresses. I want Helen to see that she gets a couple and some movie books for her trouble in sending me those boxes. Take the money out of the bank or use the money order. Don’t forget.

So long,

Joe