TRANSCRIBED FROM THE COURIER INDEX FEBRUARY 7, 1918 P. 4
Dear Dad:
Haven't heard from you in a long time. Hope you are not sick, also hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I guess I had a very good Xmas, considering my whereabouts and circumstances. I got three Xmas presents here. I got one from the Y.M.C.A. with one package of cigarettes, one package of gum, one package of tobacco and two bars of chocolate in it. A box from the K. of C. containing six packages of gum, two packages of tobacco, pound of mixed candy, three packages of cigarettes and some smoking tobacco, and one package from the Red Cross. The present from the Red Cross was more like a real Christmas present than any of them. It was a pair of knitted socks, one filled with nuts, and the other filled with candy, gum, cigarettes and tobacco. You see I was real lucky around here. I got enough tobacco to last me a long time. Alma said she sent me a box but I haven't heard of it yet. The mails over here are so congested now on account of holiday mail, you can't depend on the service. Guess my present will get here some day.
Ruth Crenshaw, Alma's cousin who is a Red Cross nurse in a base hospital near Paris, sent me two cartons of cigarettes November 15, and they haven't arrived yet.
The 312th field signal Bn., the company I came over with, sailed for good old U.S.A. today. It sure makes me sick every time I think about the dirty deal I got when they transferred me out of that company. I don't mean to say I don't like this place or my job, but I sure would like to be with them on their way home. I don't have any idea when I will get away from here, but everybody thinks it won't be very long. I sure hope they are right, because I have seen all of this country I care to and am more than ready to get back.
It is two a.m. now and there isn't very much doing in the telegraph office so I thought I would write now. I go to work every night at twelve and work until eight in the morning. I go to bed most every night about six or seven and sleep until twelve. When I get off from work in the morning and there's nothing doing down town, I go to bed and sleep until about noon and get up for dinner, so you see I spend a good deal of my time sleeping and eating. I really like a night job better than I do a day one.
I spent all this afternoon getting a bath and a shave. These people are so slow over here it takes you a century to get anything. Don't see how they ever got up enough energy to fight the Germans. There's just one good bath house in town and there's always so many soldiers there it takes you a month to get a bath. I bathe one a year whether I need it or not. It's a fact, when I first came over here it was five weeks before I got a bath of any kind, and then I had to go swimming in a creek. I thought for a while there wasn't such a thing as a bath tub over here. When I landed here at Tours I saw my first bath tub. I thought I remembered seeing one once in the States but I wasn't sure. My first real bath was some treat, and I know the fellows around me were glad such an accident happened, too, but they were in my fix, also.
I understand they are going to send some of us fellows home soon, and you bet I hope I am lucky enough to be one of the bunch.
No news dad. With love, your son,
JIM
NOTES: This letter was written by James McAlexander to his father J. T. McAlexander who was the owner of the Hotel Marianna in Marianna, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Dear Dad:
Haven't heard from you in a long time. Hope you are not sick, also hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I guess I had a very good Xmas, considering my whereabouts and circumstances. I got three Xmas presents here. I got one from the Y.M.C.A. with one package of cigarettes, one package of gum, one package of tobacco and two bars of chocolate in it. A box from the K. of C. containing six packages of gum, two packages of tobacco, pound of mixed candy, three packages of cigarettes and some smoking tobacco, and one package from the Red Cross. The present from the Red Cross was more like a real Christmas present than any of them. It was a pair of knitted socks, one filled with nuts, and the other filled with candy, gum, cigarettes and tobacco. You see I was real lucky around here. I got enough tobacco to last me a long time. Alma said she sent me a box but I haven't heard of it yet. The mails over here are so congested now on account of holiday mail, you can't depend on the service. Guess my present will get here some day.
Ruth Crenshaw, Alma's cousin who is a Red Cross nurse in a base hospital near Paris, sent me two cartons of cigarettes November 15, and they haven't arrived yet.
The 312th field signal Bn., the company I came over with, sailed for good old U.S.A. today. It sure makes me sick every time I think about the dirty deal I got when they transferred me out of that company. I don't mean to say I don't like this place or my job, but I sure would like to be with them on their way home. I don't have any idea when I will get away from here, but everybody thinks it won't be very long. I sure hope they are right, because I have seen all of this country I care to and am more than ready to get back.
It is two a.m. now and there isn't very much doing in the telegraph office so I thought I would write now. I go to work every night at twelve and work until eight in the morning. I go to bed most every night about six or seven and sleep until twelve. When I get off from work in the morning and there's nothing doing down town, I go to bed and sleep until about noon and get up for dinner, so you see I spend a good deal of my time sleeping and eating. I really like a night job better than I do a day one.
I spent all this afternoon getting a bath and a shave. These people are so slow over here it takes you a century to get anything. Don't see how they ever got up enough energy to fight the Germans. There's just one good bath house in town and there's always so many soldiers there it takes you a month to get a bath. I bathe one a year whether I need it or not. It's a fact, when I first came over here it was five weeks before I got a bath of any kind, and then I had to go swimming in a creek. I thought for a while there wasn't such a thing as a bath tub over here. When I landed here at Tours I saw my first bath tub. I thought I remembered seeing one once in the States but I wasn't sure. My first real bath was some treat, and I know the fellows around me were glad such an accident happened, too, but they were in my fix, also.
I understand they are going to send some of us fellows home soon, and you bet I hope I am lucky enough to be one of the bunch.
No news dad. With love, your son,
JIM
NOTES: This letter was written by James McAlexander to his father J. T. McAlexander who was the owner of the Hotel Marianna in Marianna, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD