Received your letter of Nov. 1 yesterday so will
answer it now. I have just come from church. It
is held in one of our mess tents at 4:00 in the
afternoons. I guess the chaplain has to many
places to hold services that he can't get around
any earlier.
I had a letter from Freeman yesterday and one
from Cliff's today. Some Christmas packages are
beginning to come in now. I haven't received any
yet but hope to in a few days.
I suppose by this time winter is beginning to
set in at home now. It froze the ground here
last night. It reminds me of our Michigan
weather.
Well Halloween here was just another day. There
are no little houses to upset over here. We
have a deluxe model which is a twelve holer
out in the woods so if anyone did bother it they
would just be cutting there own throats. I don't
think I even thought of it being Halloween.
You mentioned about getting a picture of me. Well
maybe I haven't changed in looks any, but if this
war don't end soon I will look like an old man.
I feel like one anyway.
No, I don't know why Harley used two different
numbers. He must have made a mistake. Mine
have been comeing through from him as 583. I
haven't heard from him for sometime now.
Time seems to fly for me since arriving in
France, but in the evening it really drags. It
is almost dark by 5:30 and lights go out at
11:00 o'clock. It makes the evenings so long.
Maybe I am asking you to send to many
packages lately. But now I am in a place I can't
go out and buy much. Please send me some
wash clothes [sic] and also put anything esle in
it you want to. Peanuts, candy or anything you think
I would like.
Well this is all for now. Please write as
often as possible. Have your ever received the
cedar chest yet? I got the ring ok.
Love Ralph.
The next letter will be posted on November 19th.
Background Information (and comments):
- If you've been following the letters, you know that Ralph's family lives on a farm. I'm not sure if they were still using an outhouse in 1944, but it's likely that they were. Here are 2 explanations about the Halloween practice of "little houses to upset".
"Outhouse tipping is a prank consisting of overturning an outhouse or a portable toilet, usually onto the door. It allegedly used to be performed as revenge for not being given a treat at Halloween."
- Tipping Outhouses
Halloween to Indiana farm kids doesn’t mean going around from house to house yelling, “Trick or Treat !” cause the nearest neighbor may be a half mile away. If you’re a teenage kid, you’re bored cause there must be something a kid can do on Halloween other than staying home at night and listening to the radio. That’s why a bunch of us got together to tip over outhouses.
Now, if you’re a city kid or you were born after World War 2 then you should know that an “outhouse” means an outdoor toilet. First a big hole was dug real deep and then they’d build a little house right over the top of the hole. When you go inside of an outhouse be prepared to hold your breath for as long as you can cause it’s like smelling everybody’s poop piled up for the past two months. Inside, there’s usually one or two toilet seats…come to think of it I don’t know why anyone would want to go in and sit next to someone else when they’re doing their business, but the two seaters were real popular. Way back in the real old days everybody didn’t use toilet paper, they used pages from a catalog. You can imagine how scratchy that was ! Even back then people liked to sit and read, but I would have run out of holding my breath. To keep the place clean people would pour a white powder lime or lye down the holes once in a while. Sometimes, if the outhouse was used a lot where it started to fill up, the hole was filled in and the outhouse moved to a new location. - For those who have never seen (or used) an outhouse, here's a humorous look at one:
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