TRANSCRIBED FROM THE COURIER INDEX JULY 26, 1918 P. 10
Baltimore, Md., July 7, 1918.
Dear Mama:
Well we are here and I am not sorry, for I was getting a little tired of the road. We have been driving since last Friday week, and smelling gasoline was getting kinda old.
We sure had a lovely trip and saw something new every minute. We traveled the famous Lincoln highway, which runs from coast to coast and is as smooth as any paved street in Marianna. We made the 630 mile drive without a speck of mud getting on our cars. So you can imagine what kind of roads they have in the north and east.
We passed through some of the prettiest country I ever saw. Big, fine, well kept farms, all wheat, oats and hay. We would drive for miles and miles just like in a town, fine farm houses so close together with street cars or interurban lines passing right at their door. There is not as many little towns her as at home, but when you do find a town it is a big one. Don’t think we passed through more than three towns smaller than Marianna. This is because the big towns are connected by car line.
The most enjoyable of all was in crossing the Alleghaney and Blue Ridge mountains. These were my first real mountains to see and they don’t look anything like Crowley’s Ridge. Some of the road went nearly straight up and again nearly straight down. At two or three places we got so high that some of the boy’s noses bled. My ears stopped up a little but that’s about the only way it affected me.
We had pretty bad luck with the cars in the mountains. Tore up three of the small Dodge trucks and one big seven passenger Cadillac touring car. One like M. H. Ford has. One boy was hurt in the big car wreck and we had to leave him at a hospital somewhere in Pennsylvania.
We passed through parts of four states on our trip—Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Ohio I think is the best state we have been in, although the people all along can’t do enough for us when we stop. They seem to enjoy listening to us southerners talk more than anything, and anything we want is ours.
Baltimore is the cleanest town we have been in. The women get out on the streets on their knees and scrub. Pittsburg is a big place, but is so dirty, on account of so much coal smoke.
We got in here yesterday p. m. and will go back to Detroit Monday night for another bunch of trucks. Your letter was sent from Detroit here. Address all of my mail there and I will get it O. K. I don’t have time to write a letter very often but will drop a card often to let you know where I am. Don’t worry about me. I know I am up where they are doing big things, but believe I am equal to the occasion, and the trip has sure been worth a lot to me.
BUCK.
P. S.—Dick, you should have seen your uncle Buck shoving an eight cylinder car through the main gash of "Pitts." These people think I am some driver. Our train was nearly a mile long and everything in a town stops when we are passing through.
NOTES: Sgt. Lonnie D. Cross was born on February 20, 1892 in Lee County, Arkansas and died on December 12, 1963. He is buried in the Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was writing to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. Cross of Marianne, Arkansas. In later life he was an employee for the Arkansas Gazette. He departed from Brest, France on June 26, 1919 and arrived in Hoboken, NF on July 7, 1919. He traveled onboard the Louisville. He was listed as a Sgt. Le Mans Casual Co 1263.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS
Baltimore, Md., July 7, 1918.
Dear Mama:
Well we are here and I am not sorry, for I was getting a little tired of the road. We have been driving since last Friday week, and smelling gasoline was getting kinda old.
We sure had a lovely trip and saw something new every minute. We traveled the famous Lincoln highway, which runs from coast to coast and is as smooth as any paved street in Marianna. We made the 630 mile drive without a speck of mud getting on our cars. So you can imagine what kind of roads they have in the north and east.
We passed through some of the prettiest country I ever saw. Big, fine, well kept farms, all wheat, oats and hay. We would drive for miles and miles just like in a town, fine farm houses so close together with street cars or interurban lines passing right at their door. There is not as many little towns her as at home, but when you do find a town it is a big one. Don’t think we passed through more than three towns smaller than Marianna. This is because the big towns are connected by car line.
The most enjoyable of all was in crossing the Alleghaney and Blue Ridge mountains. These were my first real mountains to see and they don’t look anything like Crowley’s Ridge. Some of the road went nearly straight up and again nearly straight down. At two or three places we got so high that some of the boy’s noses bled. My ears stopped up a little but that’s about the only way it affected me.
We had pretty bad luck with the cars in the mountains. Tore up three of the small Dodge trucks and one big seven passenger Cadillac touring car. One like M. H. Ford has. One boy was hurt in the big car wreck and we had to leave him at a hospital somewhere in Pennsylvania.
We passed through parts of four states on our trip—Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Ohio I think is the best state we have been in, although the people all along can’t do enough for us when we stop. They seem to enjoy listening to us southerners talk more than anything, and anything we want is ours.
Baltimore is the cleanest town we have been in. The women get out on the streets on their knees and scrub. Pittsburg is a big place, but is so dirty, on account of so much coal smoke.
We got in here yesterday p. m. and will go back to Detroit Monday night for another bunch of trucks. Your letter was sent from Detroit here. Address all of my mail there and I will get it O. K. I don’t have time to write a letter very often but will drop a card often to let you know where I am. Don’t worry about me. I know I am up where they are doing big things, but believe I am equal to the occasion, and the trip has sure been worth a lot to me.
BUCK.
P. S.—Dick, you should have seen your uncle Buck shoving an eight cylinder car through the main gash of "Pitts." These people think I am some driver. Our train was nearly a mile long and everything in a town stops when we are passing through.
NOTES: Sgt. Lonnie D. Cross was born on February 20, 1892 in Lee County, Arkansas and died on December 12, 1963. He is buried in the Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was writing to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. Cross of Marianne, Arkansas. In later life he was an employee for the Arkansas Gazette. He departed from Brest, France on June 26, 1919 and arrived in Hoboken, NF on July 7, 1919. He traveled onboard the Louisville. He was listed as a Sgt. Le Mans Casual Co 1263.
TRANSCRIBED BY LINDA MATTHEWS