TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SPRINGDALE NEWS NOVEMBER 8, 1918 P. 1
October 9, 1918.
Dear Home Folks:
It sure is hard to get settled here to write. Our nights are dark so we can't write after we come off duty. This is a lovely country. All the roads are outlined by hedges. The ferns are as tall as my head. Everybody wears wooden shoes and slide their feet along to keep their shoes on. Grapes, blackberries and pears are ripe. We are wearing our tall rubber boots all the time. It rains every day, but the sun shines too sometimes during the day. Don't lose the last picture I sent home I want to frame it when I come back.
When we got here we found two Pike girls here so there are seven of us here now. The houses are made of gray stone, never see a frame house. It looks like an old country alright, the trees are so big and different from ours. I was not seasick at all. We have good beds and plenty to eat and it is just exactly like we expected to find things. We are entirely surrounded by Americans only a few French workmen around here and they are either too old or two young to be in the service.
Everything is so much like home we can't realize we are in France. This land is much more fertile than there, the clover is beautiful and the flowers are prettier than even hot house plant. The dalhias are as large as a plate. I'm glad I came, but will be gladder still when we get settled. Would like to tell you all the things you want to know, but can not. I'll try to never say anything to be cut out. Write as often as you can for I'll always be glad to hear from home.
Later, we are finally settled in our own Base and feel right at home here.
I want to tell you about our train trip, it was so funny. The French trains are divided into little rooms or compartments, eight of us were in each compartment. They had no Pullmans, no dining cars nor any thing like at home. Each little room opens out doors and are not connected. Our rations were all issued before we started so we had beans for breakfast and jam for supper. It was so funny all the time. We were three days and nights on the train and had a good time all the time, only of course we were tired. Everybody waves at us frantically just like we do at the troop trains. All the boys treat us like we were extra and are so glad to see us frantically like we do at the troop trains. All the boys treat us like we were extra and are so glad to see us. One place we stopped some boys came up to speak and one said he had been here seventeen months and we were the second American girls he had seen. We get the Chicago Tribune and New York World every day, yesterday's paper today. We are right with the American boys and that is the way we want to be. Hope I can see Clyde and I surely will.
This is a beautiful country, but it is muddy. We put on our gray dresses, rubber boots, raincoats and hats and go to work. I'll stop now and write again when we get straightened out. My love to you all.
Eva Atwood A.N.C.
Base CO, A.P.O. 731, Amer. E. F.
NOTES: Nurse Atwood was born on January 2, 1890 and died on March 27, 1974. She is buried in the Bluff Cemetery at Springdale, Arkansas. She was writing from France and at one time was stationed at Camp Pike. She enlisted on November 30, 1917 and was discharged on July 21, 1919. She departed for France from Hoboken NJ on September 29, 1918 onboard the Leviathan. She was listed as a Res. Nurse for Base Hospital 60. She returned to the US from Brest, France on June 10, 1919 onboard the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria. She arrived on June 19, 1919. She was listed as nurse a Casual Nurse, Detachment 29.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
October 9, 1918.
Dear Home Folks:
It sure is hard to get settled here to write. Our nights are dark so we can't write after we come off duty. This is a lovely country. All the roads are outlined by hedges. The ferns are as tall as my head. Everybody wears wooden shoes and slide their feet along to keep their shoes on. Grapes, blackberries and pears are ripe. We are wearing our tall rubber boots all the time. It rains every day, but the sun shines too sometimes during the day. Don't lose the last picture I sent home I want to frame it when I come back.
When we got here we found two Pike girls here so there are seven of us here now. The houses are made of gray stone, never see a frame house. It looks like an old country alright, the trees are so big and different from ours. I was not seasick at all. We have good beds and plenty to eat and it is just exactly like we expected to find things. We are entirely surrounded by Americans only a few French workmen around here and they are either too old or two young to be in the service.
Everything is so much like home we can't realize we are in France. This land is much more fertile than there, the clover is beautiful and the flowers are prettier than even hot house plant. The dalhias are as large as a plate. I'm glad I came, but will be gladder still when we get settled. Would like to tell you all the things you want to know, but can not. I'll try to never say anything to be cut out. Write as often as you can for I'll always be glad to hear from home.
Later, we are finally settled in our own Base and feel right at home here.
I want to tell you about our train trip, it was so funny. The French trains are divided into little rooms or compartments, eight of us were in each compartment. They had no Pullmans, no dining cars nor any thing like at home. Each little room opens out doors and are not connected. Our rations were all issued before we started so we had beans for breakfast and jam for supper. It was so funny all the time. We were three days and nights on the train and had a good time all the time, only of course we were tired. Everybody waves at us frantically just like we do at the troop trains. All the boys treat us like we were extra and are so glad to see us frantically like we do at the troop trains. All the boys treat us like we were extra and are so glad to see us. One place we stopped some boys came up to speak and one said he had been here seventeen months and we were the second American girls he had seen. We get the Chicago Tribune and New York World every day, yesterday's paper today. We are right with the American boys and that is the way we want to be. Hope I can see Clyde and I surely will.
This is a beautiful country, but it is muddy. We put on our gray dresses, rubber boots, raincoats and hats and go to work. I'll stop now and write again when we get straightened out. My love to you all.
Eva Atwood A.N.C.
Base CO, A.P.O. 731, Amer. E. F.
NOTES: Nurse Atwood was born on January 2, 1890 and died on March 27, 1974. She is buried in the Bluff Cemetery at Springdale, Arkansas. She was writing from France and at one time was stationed at Camp Pike. She enlisted on November 30, 1917 and was discharged on July 21, 1919. She departed for France from Hoboken NJ on September 29, 1918 onboard the Leviathan. She was listed as a Res. Nurse for Base Hospital 60. She returned to the US from Brest, France on June 10, 1919 onboard the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria. She arrived on June 19, 1919. She was listed as nurse a Casual Nurse, Detachment 29.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD