World War One Letters: Watson

This is our first Sunday off
duty since I've been in the U.S. army
They gave us yesterday afternoon to
do our washing. A brush, board and
a pail is your laundry outfit. We
are lucky in that our company has
it handy to get water and so far
we have had plenty. Some are in
bad places as far as water supply.
We are still at the same little
village. The people are still good
humored with our presence. They
have a lot of patience trying to
talk to us. They are as crazy to talk
English as we are to talk French. It
tickles the kids to be able to speak
a few English words. It hasn't taken
them long to pick up the American

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salute. I wish I had some French
kid to stay right with me every day
until I could carry on ordinary con
-versation.
We are still waiting on the mail.
After we get our first bunch I don't
believe it will be so bad. I would give
5 francs for a copy of the "Signal" this
morning. I suppose Mutt +and Jeff are out
on the front every day in the "Blade."
I thought I would see some mighty
funny outfits for clothes, but they dress
about the same as Americans. Some of
them wear wooden shoes. Maybe when
we get into the war territory things
will look tougher.
We took a little hike out into the
country yesterday. I saw some fellows
out plowing. They hitch one horse
ahead of the other when they hitch
two on anything around here. I don't

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know whether that is the common
way all over France or not. Saw a
man threshing rye by beating
the heads over a log. In this way
they can save the straw unbroken.
Binders and mowers I have not seen
though I suppose they use them on
large farms. They use lots of those
little sickles that we used to think
were a curiosity. Saw a little patch
of buckwheat that I suppose a family
was counting on for winter stores. It
would make about three American
breakfasts. I would like to treat
some of these kids around here to
an American feed once. I think
a Frenchman must go through his
meal and then take some wine to
make him forget he is hungry.
For ourselves we are getting
along better on the eats than we

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did in England. There seems to be
more sugar here. Candy is scarce
so that if there is no sugar in the
eats I feel cheated. I saw some
sugar beets here and I hope I see a
lot of them. I am the most interested
in the spud crop. We are not
getting any new ones yet.
That diary I started to write and
send home each month I threw
away when I saw that it would
not pass the censor. Well this will
be all for this time, so "Good Bye"