Sunday Morning

2-21-43

Dear Folks:

You may have been expecting to hear this so don’t be too surprised. I am in the station hospital for a few days. Nothing was wrong with me except a little fever but they aren’t taking any chances. I first got the fever on Thursday night and went on sick call Friday morning. By ten in the morning I was over here. They are healing me swell and everything is done for me. I even get my meals in bed. Nothing to do all day but be in bed and read the papers and magazines. The fever left me by Friday night and hasn’t come back. They usually keep us here for two weeks to make certain we are fit for service-then we go back to our units. So I will most likely be here for a while yet. All of the fellows in our barracks had been here at one time or another so my time had to come. I feel well enough now to go back but they order us to stay here and here we stay. Really now I would like to run up and down the corridor a few times.

Don’t get all excited when you get this and start calling up or telegraphing to the hospital. Believe me, if I was sick I would let you know. Just because we are in quarantine they make us come here for a check-up.

Last week was just about the same as usual. Science class was extended from four hours a day to five. We were getting pretty deep into figure work and I enjoyed it a lot. (It) was just like going to school all over again. Our math teacher looks exactly like Jalen Walton. When I first saw him I thought of him right away. He has the same cold hair, height and just a little heavier. It would be hard to tell them apart at a distance. He is a good teacher and we are all learning a lot. They throw the stuff at us pretty fast now and you have to be on your task. I am going to keep in practice here so I won’t forget any of it.

You remember I told you that I had some pictures taken last Saturday. The films are probably developed by now and in my barracks. I asked the fellows there to send them to me when they came, so there will only be a few days delay. Don’t expect too much now because I am a bad camera subject. And you will see how I look in uniform anyhow. The fellow who took them was a former motion picture operator so he should know how to take a subject.

Just before I left my barrack with my toilet article on the way to the hospital I ran into the captain and a lieutenant. They were very nice to me when I told them I was going. They wanted to get me some more writing paper, magazine, in fact anything I wanted. I thought it was pretty swell of them to want to be bothered with a buck private. Believe me it made me feel pretty good. I told them I had everything I needed but thanked them anyhow. Don’t send me anything here as we have a radio, magazines, papers, and we all can eat or drink. Keep sending my mail to the same address or they will pass it on to me.

So long for now,

Joe