TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MOUNTAIN ECHO FEBRLUARY 21, 1919 PP. 1, 2
As Sunday evening finds me not very busy, I am writing you all a word. This is the last Sunday in the year of 1918. I don’t know how it seems to you all, but it doesn’t seem to me that is has been a year since I made up my mind that I would join Uncle Sam’s Navy and left home, but was turned down, and then went to Cotter. Time sure has passed, but I have been moving around so much in the last year that time has passed in a hurry. Now I have a great deal of moving to do in the year of 1919 if I return home, and I suppose I will do that sometime during the year.
I am feeling good and we are not having any winter yet, only rain. It rains some almost every day, just a slow rain, not like we have in Arkansas. We are still getting several Xmas packages and I suppose we will have several yet. We have 15 or 20 thousand troops here and have had only a few over 8,000 packages yet. If all the boys sent a card home I guess we will have quite a good deal of work to do yet.
I haven’t had a letter from you all for some time, failed to get one the last time we had mail, but we have not been getting the letters we should in the last three weeks on account of the Xmas rush, both here in and in the states. I suppose when we do get some more states letters, we will get lots of them.
Well, I have two little French children that have come in to see me and I have been trying to parley French some. We get along pretty well, but with some difficulty. They come in pretty often to see if I have a chew of gum or some chocolate for them. I gave them a paper with a lot of pictures in it and they are enjoying it now. The French children sure are foolish about the American chewing gum and candy.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Walden Russell Melton to his parents William T and Mary Elizabeth Melton. He was born on February 12, 1895 in Yellville, Arkansas and died on February 15, 1968. He is buried in the Jonesboro Memorial Park Cemetery in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He departed from Hoboken, NJ on July 26, 1918 onboard the Taormina. He was listed as a Private serving in the Postal Clerk Detachment. He departed Brest, France on June 5, 1919 onboard the Leviathan. He arrived in New York, NY on June 12, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co. F, P.E.S. Saint Aignan Casual Co. No 5415 Special Detachment.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON
As Sunday evening finds me not very busy, I am writing you all a word. This is the last Sunday in the year of 1918. I don’t know how it seems to you all, but it doesn’t seem to me that is has been a year since I made up my mind that I would join Uncle Sam’s Navy and left home, but was turned down, and then went to Cotter. Time sure has passed, but I have been moving around so much in the last year that time has passed in a hurry. Now I have a great deal of moving to do in the year of 1919 if I return home, and I suppose I will do that sometime during the year.
I am feeling good and we are not having any winter yet, only rain. It rains some almost every day, just a slow rain, not like we have in Arkansas. We are still getting several Xmas packages and I suppose we will have several yet. We have 15 or 20 thousand troops here and have had only a few over 8,000 packages yet. If all the boys sent a card home I guess we will have quite a good deal of work to do yet.
I haven’t had a letter from you all for some time, failed to get one the last time we had mail, but we have not been getting the letters we should in the last three weeks on account of the Xmas rush, both here in and in the states. I suppose when we do get some more states letters, we will get lots of them.
Well, I have two little French children that have come in to see me and I have been trying to parley French some. We get along pretty well, but with some difficulty. They come in pretty often to see if I have a chew of gum or some chocolate for them. I gave them a paper with a lot of pictures in it and they are enjoying it now. The French children sure are foolish about the American chewing gum and candy.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Walden Russell Melton to his parents William T and Mary Elizabeth Melton. He was born on February 12, 1895 in Yellville, Arkansas and died on February 15, 1968. He is buried in the Jonesboro Memorial Park Cemetery in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He departed from Hoboken, NJ on July 26, 1918 onboard the Taormina. He was listed as a Private serving in the Postal Clerk Detachment. He departed Brest, France on June 5, 1919 onboard the Leviathan. He arrived in New York, NY on June 12, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co. F, P.E.S. Saint Aignan Casual Co. No 5415 Special Detachment.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON