TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ROGERS DEMOCRAT OCTOBER 17, 1918 P. 1
I would like to start in and tell you all about my trip but can't do it justice on paper. One thing that I can say, tho, is that I know a little about the city of New York as I spent about two weeks there just running around and making it a point to see anything that I have read about and when I go back I intend to take in everything that I overlooked. France is a beautiful country where there has been no invasion and I sure fell in love with its people as a whole. The beautiful girls of France are more a fancy than in reality; there are very few that one would call beautiful where I was, altho they are to be found in the larger cities--Paris, Brest Versailles, etc., and I was dumfounded when I found that there were red-headed, blondes and all different tints of girls in France the same as in the U.S. I had expected to find then all black-eyed with black hair in the country one finds that the girls wear wooden shoes and lose their teeth at about on the average of 22 to 23 years of age, but they are good to us and try to show us in their best way that they are for us. Of course one will find some many times that will snobb you and say "Allay" (beat it) but very few. I remember an old lady and her husband, both about 80 years old, who felt responsible for us just as if we were their own kids while were were billeted in their barn. We would help them put up their hay before we left and they would always show their appreciation by giving us wine, beer and sometimes cake with no sugar in it. When we left they both cried and when I told them goodbye, the old lady gave me a sack of boiled eggs which came in awful handy when we were going to the front lines. They both gave me the French salute, a kiss on both cheeks, and I sure felt bad for awhile, to think that they had thot so much of us and then we left then to never see them again.
From that place we went into reserve in the Lorraine sector and then to the front lines where I spent one of the most unsafe and unsane Fourth of Julys in my history. Oh, it was great! We were in the front line 21 days before we were relieved, then we went back to the rest billets when we got a bath and de-cootie-ized, as they call it; in other words we were dipped for the purpose of killing cooties. Two weeks of rest and we moved up again to play with Jerry.
While in reserve I got wind that I had been recommended to go back to the States as an instructor and you can imagine how felt; I knew that I was dreaming, and when I got orders to report to go I was like a nut; I was walking on air, but the further I got from my company, the more lonesome I got to be back with them, and so today I wish I could be back with them doing my part."
HAROLD BRIGHTON.
NOTES: This letter was written by former Rogers, Arkansas resident Harold Brighton who also attended the University of Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
I would like to start in and tell you all about my trip but can't do it justice on paper. One thing that I can say, tho, is that I know a little about the city of New York as I spent about two weeks there just running around and making it a point to see anything that I have read about and when I go back I intend to take in everything that I overlooked. France is a beautiful country where there has been no invasion and I sure fell in love with its people as a whole. The beautiful girls of France are more a fancy than in reality; there are very few that one would call beautiful where I was, altho they are to be found in the larger cities--Paris, Brest Versailles, etc., and I was dumfounded when I found that there were red-headed, blondes and all different tints of girls in France the same as in the U.S. I had expected to find then all black-eyed with black hair in the country one finds that the girls wear wooden shoes and lose their teeth at about on the average of 22 to 23 years of age, but they are good to us and try to show us in their best way that they are for us. Of course one will find some many times that will snobb you and say "Allay" (beat it) but very few. I remember an old lady and her husband, both about 80 years old, who felt responsible for us just as if we were their own kids while were were billeted in their barn. We would help them put up their hay before we left and they would always show their appreciation by giving us wine, beer and sometimes cake with no sugar in it. When we left they both cried and when I told them goodbye, the old lady gave me a sack of boiled eggs which came in awful handy when we were going to the front lines. They both gave me the French salute, a kiss on both cheeks, and I sure felt bad for awhile, to think that they had thot so much of us and then we left then to never see them again.
From that place we went into reserve in the Lorraine sector and then to the front lines where I spent one of the most unsafe and unsane Fourth of Julys in my history. Oh, it was great! We were in the front line 21 days before we were relieved, then we went back to the rest billets when we got a bath and de-cootie-ized, as they call it; in other words we were dipped for the purpose of killing cooties. Two weeks of rest and we moved up again to play with Jerry.
While in reserve I got wind that I had been recommended to go back to the States as an instructor and you can imagine how felt; I knew that I was dreaming, and when I got orders to report to go I was like a nut; I was walking on air, but the further I got from my company, the more lonesome I got to be back with them, and so today I wish I could be back with them doing my part."
HAROLD BRIGHTON.
NOTES: This letter was written by former Rogers, Arkansas resident Harold Brighton who also attended the University of Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD