[War Work Council
Army and Navy
Young Men’s Christian Association
“With the Colors”]
9/16/1917
Dear Mother:
This is a fine sunny morning in camp. We scarcely know how to employ our time on
Sunday. We are permitted to sleep one hour longer on Sunday—having to get up at 6:30. The
early hour at which we rise does not indicate that we do not have plenty of time for sleep. They
require us to put the lights out by 10:00. I am usually in bed an hour before that time. There is
nothing else to do. It comes handy to use my father’s style of going to bed.
It is a very lonesome job to hang around the camp when you have nothing to do. I came
down to the Y.M.C.A. building—they had short services and then I started this letter.
We have been having some very strenuous drill. They give the fellows all they can stand.
When the day is over I am so tired that it is not hard to go to sleep. The next morning I am so
stiff I can scarcely move, but it takes just about a half an hour to work that all out of your system.
The fellows who take this training ought to be good and stout.
I am expecting to be sent home in a few days. When I wrote to you during the week, I
thought they might put me in some line of work that would not require so much marching but I
guess that when you fail to measure up to their standard they do not want you at all. The reason
for my not having been sent, I think is on account of the red tape that is necessary to get the
discharge.
Camp life is slightly better than it seemed to me at first, but I am not entirely struck on it
yet. The monotony of the life is what gets me.
We have had fine weather here all week. It looks very clean around the camp this
morning. We were put out yesterday for a short time and again this morning to gather up every
little straw or shaving.
Your son
Guy
[Envelope addressed Private Guy B. Hoge, Supply Company, Camp Sherman, Ohio
Postmarked Chillicothe, Ohio]