Viewing page 26 of 171

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

February 18, 1973.

Dear Alice:

Our party of six new officers had two weeks of almost complete leisure in New York.  Twice we had to take a ferry to Hoboken, where we got our vaccinations.  From the ferry we could see, moored on the jersey side of the river, the Vaterland, the biggest passenger ship then afloat.  She had been interned there since 1914, and was about to be converted into an American troop carrier.  Three times we went by ferry to Governor's Island, where there was an army post including a big supply depot.  There we were able to collect reimbursement for our train trip from Nashville., and to purchase equipment.  I bought an overcoat, a foot locker, blankets and a bedding roll.  I also bought a pair of field glasses, a necessary item for every artillery officer.  Of all the things I took overseas, those binoculars are the only relic I have left.  I lent them to the navy in WW2, but they ultimately came back in a navy case.

For dinner in the evenings we went most often to Keen's Chop House a short walk from our hotel.  Across 36th from Keen's there was a Scandinavian restaurant called Henry's that we also liked.  When I revisited New York for the first time in 1934 Henry's had vanished but Keen's was still in business.  It was still there when I retired in 1967, though it's prices had gone up and it's service had gone down.  In 1917 you could get a mutton shop with fixings at Keen's for $1.25.

At the hotel we had a suite of three connecting rooms.  My roommate was Herbert Jones, and later at Saumur we again roomed together for three months.  Our three first lieutenants, Guthrie, Thompson and Adams, were all over 25.  The three shavetails, Price, Jones and I, were all younger.  In each rank we had a saint, a sinner and an in-between.  Guthrie, VMI graduate and former travelling salesman, had been in New York before and knew where to find bawdy houses.  He visited them nearly every evening.  He was always accompanied by Price, who shared his tastes and roomed with him.  On the other hand, Joe Thompson, who we had seen kissing his fiancee goodby at the station in Knoxville, remained chaste, as far as I know, until his return.  And Jones was the nearest approach to Sir Galhahad I have ever known in real life.  He did not drink, he did not smoke.  When he was killed the following July 7 I am sure he died a virgin. (Price