Dear Folks,

Our last of freedom will soon be over. Next Friday all the upperclassmen will have returned and the plebes will be in a hurry-scurry. Today is gloomy and it spits rain a little every now and then. The weather plus the feeling of gloom that over hangs us makes this a dull day.

Yesterday the racquet cover came and thanks very much. Be sure and take good care of the other racquet.

All in all, the week has been rather quiet here, except we received the tail end of the big storm and the sea around here was very rough. One boat sunk that was lashed to its moorings, so you see we had quite enough wind to blow our hats off, which it did.

Yesterday was a real red-letter day in the life of all the plebes. We dressed up in our “blues” for the first time and appeared at noon meal formation. Privilege was granted to wear them on liberty in the afternoon and that we did. John and I went to a show and also ate at Carvel Hall. They fit just like a glove. We had some fun putting them on though, with the collar buttons, cuff buttons and links. That is the worst part of wearing them, they take so long to get into. More than once we will be late when we have only 3 minutes to get to formation.

Next Saturday we will be presented to the regiment on the front terrace, and then the familiar formation of good old plebe summer will end once and forever. We fall out of our customary places and take positions amongst the upper classmen in our respective companies. Then we march into mess hall and sit on three inches of chairs. Academic year will have officially begun.

I was glad to hear that Un has his job. I suppose he is working now and will soon be keeping house again, he and Ruth, by themselves.

Forget the grapes as we can’t keep any fruit around the room without calling flies. The apples we have left are all wrapped in paper to keep the flies from getting on them.

If you think the sermon was good the morning you heard it, you should have heard it this morning. The lesson was the five loaves of bread and two small fishes. The way it was worked in our lives and the opportunity offered to us was wonderful. The sermons are always short, interesting and very appropriate.

I find more and more everyday that I am going to have one big struggle to keep my marks up. One has to work every minute that is allotted him and then unless he is above average, his work will not all be done. My math comes above passing, but not where I am used to having it. In mechanical drawing the instructor told me I did average work, which satisfies me because it is practically new to me. In math, I know how to do all the problems, but I am not adept enough in the use of the slide rule to finish them in the required time. We had an exam the other day and I got a 2.7 on it. That is .2 above passing but on the same exam in high school I would have got 3.6. Maybe I can pull up and maybe I will continue on the “skin of my teeth”.

Well, it’s eating time, and as I just saw a 6-J license plate go up the street, I will close.

Love to all,

Reg.