Letter # 42

Letter # 42 Boulder, Colorado

June 25, 1918

My Dear Sweetheart,

It is rest time now, when I take my greatest recreation. I have had mess and have shaved, and now I am ready to talk to my lady love, if she will listen, which I think she will. I surely have been tired the last two nights. Our program for yesterday was posing for motion pictures. First they came with the machine to our building, then at 3:15, we were marched about two miles up the canyon. There we were taken pictures of again. I was marching in front of the army trucks, but then we returned and marched in a column again, so I had my picture taken twice marching.

Well, dear, it surely is getting hot here, as it is at home. Last night, after we came home from the canyon, our boys played baseball with a team from Boulder. The score was 4 to 0 in the sixth inning, in our favor. Then our luck changed and they made four runs which tied the game. So you see we are not so slow after all. After that, we had mess on the run, then we marched downtown, for we were on exhibition. Oh dear, to tell you the truth, it surely made me feel good. The people just clapped, shouted and blew their horns. I want to tell you, that is when the cold chills run down a man’s back. I surely am proud that I am not a slacker, and that I’m in the Army of Uncle Sam. Oh how I hate a slacker, who is not man enough to show his colors.

Dear, at times I think it is the hardest life any person can have, but taken as a whole it is a pleasure, if taken in the right spirit. It is only a dog’s life, but when I term it like that, there surely are a lot of dogs in America today, and many more to enter it. It surely makes me feel good by the reports in the paper, for it begins to look as if Hungary would soon give up, and the only thing left to do is to submit to the Germans.

Now dear, don’t think I am not thinking of you, for how could I help it, for you are my constant ideal. Nothing in the world would please me more than to return back to you, tomorrow, if possible. But there’s no such luck in that. But I am in love, love which I receive only in words, and hope and pray for the day when I will be permitted to return back to my dear sweetheart back home in Bountiful, the only town in Utah.

If you were to ask me what I had for breakfast, you would say he must not have eaten very many (It was brains and eggs). Oh how I dislike them, but I was so hungry, I could have eaten anything. Well thank God I have one dear little sweetheart-love at home who remembers my tastes and what I like. George and I are intending going right up and get some, but

you won’t let me go. Ha! Ha! We are intending to go to the picture show tonight, so I’m afraid, my dear girl, we’ll have to be satisfied with a short letter tonight.

Tomorrow night we go on a short hike to Boulder Lake, about 4 miles east of the camp, so you see we get plenty of walking. When I get back, I will be unable to control my steps, to those dances you and I were used to. I am still working hard in the new building. It surely is hard work. I received a letter from David and Jay today. I don’t know when I will be able to answer all the letters I have received. Give my love to all. Please excuse this short letter.

Boulder Lake

May God Bless You,

I am Your Loving Sweetheart Soldier.

Henry X X